Sparklin’ Parkin for Bonfire Night
This is a re-edit of an old post and can now be found on my monthly blog over at Rangemaster
Mr Bland, who is a Yorkshire-man by birth, first introduced me to Parkin. In Yorkshire Parkin is a Bonfire Night tradition and I can see why. The best way to describe it to those of us more southerly born is that it’s a really dense ginger cake. It is warming and sweet but the addition of oats and treacle create a depth of flavour and density of texture that is perfect for keeping the cold at bay on a cold November night. It’s also sturdy enough to be wrapped up and shoved in a coat pocket for the walk home!
Ideally Parkin is made a few days (or even a week) before you want to eat it, as it matures excellently. However, it is still very good eaten fresh out of the oven, especially if drenched in custard. I am told that is also good eaten with a nice sharp cheese such as Wensleydale so I suppose I’ll just have to try that out and report back.
I have given the option to sub-in oat granola for some of the porridgr oats as I like the extra texture it gives. If you do that you need to bring the sugar down a little as noted in the recipe below.
Ingredients
- 225g porridge oats OR 175g porridge oats & 50g oat granola
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 3 tsp ground ginger (Some people like to ½ tsp cinnamon or if you like it fiery you could also add chopped stem ginger)
- 225g plain flour
- 225g soft dark brown sugar OR 200g if using granola
- 170g black treacle
- 60g golden syrup
- 120g butter
- 1 large free range egg
- 250ml milk
