Yorkshire Parkin

In the Motherland we just call this parkin but for people who don’t come from Yorkshire (poor souls) we have to tell them where it’s from.

It’s a simple recipe (we Yorkshire folk don’t like to waste time) and smells wonderful as it looks. If you can stir stuff then you can make parkin.

First of all turn your oven on to 140 C (fan oven) or 160 C if you don’t have a fan oven. This ensures that the oven is at the right temperature so that you can put it straight in the oven.

Line a 9″ square tin with baking paper or grease, flour and baseline with grease proof paper.

Weigh out 250 grams of self raising flour and sieve it together with a tablespoon of ground ginger and put this to one side. Weigh 100 grams of oatmeal (porridge) and put this to one side also. Beat a large egg with 4 tablespoons of milk and also put this to one side. It’s a lot of putting to one side but this is what we mean my preparation and makes it much easier for people who are novice cooks.

Measure into a sauce pan 200 grams of butter chopped into pieces, 200 grams of golden syrup85 grams of treacle and 85 grams of soft, light brown sugar.

Melt the butter, sugar, treacle and golden syrup together until dissolved then take the pan off the heat. Add the egg and milk mixture and stir well. Add the sieved flour and ginger and stir with a metal spoon – this makes the mixing easier and when it is well mixed stirred then stir in the oatmeal.

Pour the mixture into the lined tin and bake for about 50 minutes. When is done a skewer will come out clean and the parkin will feel springy to the touch.

Leave it in the tin for 5 minutes then transfer it to a cake rack to cool for a few minutes more before removing lining paper. Once it is cooled completely transfer the whole parkin to a cake tin or similar without cutting it and leave it for a few days. This brings out the stickiness of the it and makes it even more enjoyable to eat.

Cut into squares to eat or freeze – parkin freezes well.