This year for Guy Fawkes’ Night I wanted to try making Parkin, a traditional Bonfire Night Treat.
I found a recipe a few nights ahead here. Usually when making new dishes I like to find a number of recipes and kind of cobble one together, but I was rather limited in my selectionthis time as this was the only volumetric recipe I could find. (I desperately need to get a kitchen scale)
Irregardless, the recipe called for oats and treacle (molasses), which was what I cared about.
Further reading brought up another issue. Apparently Parkin is meant to mature for 3 days to a week before consumption like fruit cake. I’m making it the day before Guy Fawkes so it seems my Parkin won’t be all it could be. (I’ll make sure to save a portion and age it so I can see how well it ends up.)
Disclaimers aside, let’s bake!
Ingredients:
2 c flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ginger
1 cup oats
1 cup milk
1/3 cup margarine
1/3 cup honey
2/3Â molasses
The original recipe included an optional 1/2 cup sugar, but I mixed the batter without it and it tasted good, also it was vague on the honey-molasses ration (calling for 1 cup mixed honey and molasses) so I went with 2/3 molasses to hopefully get a more authentic flavor (Although this is my first time trying Parkin, so who knows?)
The Method:
I soaked the oats in the milk for a half-hour.
In the meantime I combined the dry ingredients (I omitted the ginger here, as I was mincing fresh, opting to add it in with the wet ingredients.)
Peeled and minced the ginger
I melted the butter, added the honey and molasses, mixed it in with the ginger and milk/oat mixture.
Poured on top of the dry ingredients and poured into a cake pan.
I baked it at 350 degrees for 45 minutes (The original recipe says to look for the batter to come away from the sides of the pan.
I’m looking forward to tomorrow night to try it.
Added Bonus:
I had plenty of extra ginger, and wanted to use it up, so I made a simple syrup (2 cups sugar & 1 cup water, boil until clear), steeped the extra ginger for about an hour and strained.
Add soda water for homemade ginger ale!