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One of my most favourite things to have happened since starting Baking with Granny is people sharing what they used to bake with their own Granny. It was never the initial expectation behind sharing Granny’s recipes here but it came naturally with the concept. Some of the recipes people mention are already here ( Shortbread and Fly Cemetery), some are in the works and others I’m not always familiar with. Perkins biscuits was one that was requested on Facebook – one I hadn’t heard of before but of course, Granny had a recipe stashed away. Traditionally parkin is associated with the month of November with the first Sunday of the month known as “Parkin Sunday.” Specifically it is a key element of Bonfire Night, or Guy Fawkes Night, where the cake is eaten as part of the festivities. However, parkin is also commonly eaten throughout the winter months. Parkin cake is traditionally baked for the Halloween festivities, as well as Bonfire Night or Guy Fawkes Night on the 5th November, where it is traditional to eat a slice of Parkin along with a mug of milk in front of the bonfire. Although parkin is tasty at any time during the autumn and winter months, and if your a parkin fan then you can enjoy parkin at any time of the year! 📜 Origin of parkin Its best to use an oatmeal that is intended for baking, and this is sometimes called 'medium oatmeal' or 'Scottish oatmeal' which is ground to a finer consistency compared to steel-cut oatmeal. Although the medium oatmeal is ground it is not exactly flour-like in texture, it is just smaller and finer compared to steel-cut oatmeal.
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Using a pastry brush, coat a large baking sheet with the tablespoon of softened butter. Set aside. Treacle and golden syrup: Some recipes for parkin use all treacle, but I think that it is nicest made with a blend of treacle and golden syrup, all treacle is a bit too intensely flavoured for me.
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Brown sugar: Either dark brown soft or muscovado sugar will work. You can use light brown but dark is definitely better. The tharf cake is of ancient Teutonic origin, as tharf or theorf meant 'unleavened, un-fermented, solid tough or sodden' in Old English. John Wycliffe in his translation of the Bible in 1389 (Mark Ch.14.v. 1) calls unleavened bread a " tharf loove" [a] [6] History [ edit ] Add the ground oats to a large bowl along with plain flour, baking powder, ground ginger, mixed spice and a pinch of salt. Whisk it all together until well combined.
It's a time of year when comfort baking is in full swing. True Yorkshire Parkin contains Oatmeal and any cake without it is simply a Ginger Cake/Bread and nothing more. In fact, when you look at the list of ingredients, it is very similar to Lancashire Parkin. The original recipe did not contain baking powder or salt, but our egg-free adaption does include baking powder to give the biscuits a little lift during baking and a wee pinch of salt to aid the baking powder in doing its magic. Heat the oven to 140C. Weigh the treacle, syrup and butter in a medium pan and place over a medium heat until melted together, being careful not to let it boil. Take off the heat. Generously grease a 22cm square baking tin. Making a Parkin cake, couldn't be easier. Once you've switched on the oven, weighed out all the ingredients, greased and lined your baking tin, you are ready to start baking.
If you don't have baking powder but do have bicarb you can use 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) instead of the baking powder but be aware that the parkin is very likely to sink in the middle. It will still be delicious however! Other names for the tharf cake was Thor cake or Tharve cake and the name is said to translate from Old English to mean unleavened or plain as the cake resembles a flat biscuit. Lancashire uses golden syrup, resulting in both a lighter color and flavor. Lancashire parkin also tends to be sweeter with a higher sugar content. This recipe for parkin biscuits is prepared with vegan-friendly ingredients as they do not require dairy butter, milk, or eggs. A few everyday pantry ingredients are all that is required. If storing within a plastic type food container wrap in a layer of parchment paper and a layer of kitchen foil.
Recipe Ingredients: ½ lb plain flour; 4 oz butter; ½ lb oatmeal finely ground; 6 oz sugar; 2 tsp baking soda; 1 tsp ground cinnamon; 1 tsp ground ginger; ½ tsp mixed spice; 6 tbsp golden syrup. Baking powder: I tested versions of parkin with baking powder as the raising agent, and some with bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) as the raising agent instead. I much preferred the baking powder versions and they were far less likely to sink in the middle. You can skew the balance more towards either one of them if you prefer, as long as the total amount that you use remains the same (280g total syrup). In the North of England, oats was a cheaper grain to grow compared to wheat, and so when the oats were harvested at the beginning of November the Tharf cake or biscuit was baked. Turns out, Perkins are the biscuit of my dreams. Crunchy little biscuits, loaded with sweetness, hearty oats and warming spices. And best of all, they’re topped with a lovely little almond. I wasn’t sure what to expect at the initial request – how good could they be if I hadn’t even heard of them? But like a lot of recipes our Granny’s would have baked, they’ve just ended up being a little lost along the way.Parkin is a traditional ginger cake which originates from Yorkshire and Lancashire. It is baked throughout the winter months but it is traditional to eat it on bonfire night/Guy Fawkes night (the 5th November). Note that parkin is one of those cakes, like malt loaf, that carries on getting better for some weeks after making, so if you enjoy these, bookmark this article to make again in mid October 2018.) Gently knead together all the scrap dough until it’s used up, adding a large currant for each pig’s eye. I really recommend weighing out your golden syrup and treacle as being too heavy handed with them can cause the parkin to sink, and they are very difficult to measure accurately in cups. A recipe for Old Fashioned Yorkshire Parkin should not be confused with a Ginger Cake or Ginger Bread recipe. It is often associated with Yorkshire and eaten around Halloween, Bonfire Night (Wiki), and guy fawkes. (Wiki)
We are a vegan family recipe blog so all our ingredient recommendations are for plant-based and vegan-friendly ingredients - such as plant-based milk, butter, and margarine - however if you have different dietary requirements you can use your usual ingredients. Parkin and tharf cake were used interchangeably in Lancashire and South Yorkshire until 1900. Over the 500 years the recipe and taste of these cakes have changed considerably. It was the food of the poor. [ citation needed] Ovens were rare in the houses of the poor, and they generally had no access to public bakers before the 1820s, so the cakes were cooked on griddles or bakestones on an open fire. [11] The best parkin was made with fresh oatmeal, which fixes the date around the first week in November. If you aren't in the UK then mixed spice is a blend of sweet spices. You could use pumpkin spice instead or just add a bit of cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. Add the milk to the bowl then stir everything together until no dry lumps remain. The batter doesn't look very appetising but it will taste delicious once it is baked, trust me! Parkin biscuits originate from the classic British parkin cake which evolved from the old Thor or Tharf un-leavened biscuit-like cakes. Parkin is also a type of gingerbread cake, but with one major difference - parkin also contains oatmeal or rolled oats.To a saucepan add dark brown soft or muscovado sugar, golden syrup, treacle and vegan butter, heat gently until it is melted. You could probably also swap the butter for refined coconut oil, or do 50/50 butter and coconut oil. Some traditional recipes use half lard, half butter, so a mix of butter and coconut oil would be a good swap for this. There are various different recipes for parkin, it is difficult to say which is the most traditional and people have very strong opinions about how it should be made! Once the parkin has cooled it can be eaten right away, or stored in a tin for up to a couple of weeks.
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