Parkin

Parkin is... well I'm not actually sure, which is exactly why I decided to make it. I came across the recipe, and there was no picture; I was intrigued. Some (admittedly lax) research found that this is a traditional northern England, especially Yorkshire, recipe, with the principal ingredients being treacle, oats and ginger. It is traditionally eaten on bonfire night but I didn't know that then, and as we don't really celebrate it over here in Ireland, I suppose I can be forgiven for making it a few weeks early.

I set out not really knowing what it was supposed to look/be like and to be honest when finished the appearance wasn't very encouraging:



Having popped it in the oven I started cleaning up, which was not mean feat. I used my wee trick of dipping the spoon in hot water so the treacle would slide off it easily, but unfortunately the recipe specified it as a weight and not a number of spoonfulls. This meant I managed to get treacle not only on my measuring scales (bowl and base) but the worktop, the book (thankfully the cover wipes clean), my elbow, the kettle (which I didn't use) and four spoons! By this time the parkin was ready... I think. Here's how it turned out:



Traditionally you leave parkin in a tin for at least a week before you eat it, but purely for the purposes of research (it smelt too good) I decided to try a bit. To be honest I was a bit disappointed, it was quite dry and not particularly ginger. The lumpy top was typical of a fruit cake with too little 'wet' mixture, but I wasn't sure if this was the cake here. However Delia Smith advises that this will solve itself by leaving it the requisite amount of time.

I'll have to update you all about it then!