Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Eating and Drinking => Cooking, Storing and Preserving => Topic started by: DanielCoffey on October 22, 2018, 14:45
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It is that time of year again... leaves are flying around and everything is cold and damp. Time to get out the ginger cake and Parkin recipes!
I will be the first to admit as a Southerner that I know nothing about real Parkin. My mother made some once to a borrowed recipe when I was a small kid and I do recall it but since then I have always drifted to ginger cakes. Well no more... I have had a go at Parkin.
There is a catch though... while the cake itself is fine, the finished cake has slumped somewhat in the middle so I need to pick the brains of our resident Northerners... what should a Parkin look like and am I too far off the mark with my recipe? I Googled for recipes and after some browsing settled on this one. I cannot fault the taste but the presentation leaves a little to be desired.
RECIPE : PARKIN
Butter a 10" round Springform tin (or similar size, lined if the sides are not removable)
Preheat oven to 140C conventional
In a large bowl...
200g wholemeal flour
200g medium oatmeal
175g dark muscovado sugar
1 1/2tsp bicarbonate of soda
Pinch salt
3tsp ground ginger
1/2tsp grated nutmeg
Rub together in the bowl to remove lumps from the muscovado sugar.
In a small pan...
170g butter
80g Golden Syrup
120g molasses (or treacle)
Melt gently just until the butter is melted. Do not allow to boil. Add the warm molasses mixture to the dry ingredients and combine well.
1 large egg
45ml milk
Add to the large bowl and combine well. Transfer to the prepared 10" springform tin and bake at 140C (conventional) for 1h30 to 1h40. Rest for 30 minutes before removing from the tin.
I have now tried this recipe twice. First time I used an 8" tin and it was too small. The mixture rose astronomically and cascaded over the side before subsiding. The overflow bits were delicious and would make an interesting flat chewy biscuit if done deliberately. The second time (shown in pictures) I used a 10" tin and it was fine for this quantity. It still rose strongly but then fell back in the centre giving the shape in the slice.
I am not totally unhappy with it but I wondered if I have got the quantities correct. Is this a suitable behaviour? Is the finished shape expected?
What do you think?
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My recipe uses
200 g golden syrup
115 g butter
115 g molasses (or black treacle)
115 g light brown sugar
200 g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
100 g oats
1 egg
enough milk to make a dropping consistency.
Same method as yours and baking time is 60-75mins in an 8in square tin.
The only real difference between yours and mine is the wholemeal versus plain flour and twice the weight of oats in yours, oh and the shape of the tin. Mine doesn't sink
Silly question maybe, but you say it 'rose astronomically ' - you didn't add table spoons of bicarb instead of teaspoons did you? because I can't see why you got a huge rise with the listed ingredients :wacko:
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I did measure the tsp, yes. I understand that the bicarb loves the acidity in the molasses so maybe it was that.
I would say I got an initial rise to between one and a half to one and three quarters initial volume but it then fell back in the centre as cooking progressed. Got to admit it is damned tasty! Keeps well too, which is part of the point with Parkin.
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Square tin here as well, will try & find the recipe I use it was from the radio times many years ago, it was
Lennard Parkins Parkin recipe. Not sure what recipe my mother made, thinking about it I don’t think I came across recipes when we cleared her bungalow out. P.s I’m from ooop north 😊
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Much less Bicarb in this recipe
Traditional Yorkshire Parkin - Traditional Yorkshire Recipes (http://traditional-yorkshire-recipes.info/2018/08/29/traditional-yorkshire-parkin/)