Place the medium oatmeal (see blog post and recipe box for a description of what that is and how to make it) in a large bowl along with the flour, spices, salt and baking powder. Brown sugar: Either dark brown soft or muscovado sugar will work. You can use light brown but dark is definitely better. Yes. Once the parkin is cooled it can be wrapped and frozen; either whole or in individual slices. More Vegan Ginger Recipes:

Glace Ginger, Oat and White Chocolate Cookie bars - A lovely shortbread texture with a Ginger bite. For the best results make sure that you follow the recipe closely. As always, I highly recommend using the gram measurements (with a digital scale), rather than the cup conversions. Cup measurements are simply not accurate enough for baking and I cannot guarantee the best results if you use them. 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.

Contributors

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.

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. If storing within a plastic type food container wrap in a layer of parchment paper and a layer of kitchen foil. Nutritional information is provided for guidance only and is not an exact calculation as ingredients vary. Additionally the original recipe states to rub the margarine into the dried ingredients to create a breadcrumb like texture, however we melted the margarine and simply mixed it into the dry ingredients along with the treacle and milk, and this different method worked well for our parkin biscuits. 🥣 How to prepareI 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. Finally, a very important key to making parkin is to LET IT SIT IN A SEALED CONTAINER FOR AT LEAST 3 DAYS BEFORE EATING. The resting time is what develops both the texture and the flavor of the cake and is essential. The oats will soften, the treacle and golden syrup will fully penetrate and soak through the grains, and the flavor of the spices will fully develop. So don’t be impatient, let time do its intended job! True story. And that was one of the first ever published references to Yorkshire parkin, the crime of theft, of culinary passion, all in the name of this centuries-old cake. Gently knead together all the scrap dough until it’s used up, adding a large currant for each pig’s eye. 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!

If you’re not a fan of ginger or nutmeg, you can substitute them for other warm spices: cinnamon, allspice, ground cloves, cardamom or mixed spice will all be good here (add them to taste), as would grated citrus zest or chopped stem ginger. You could also fold chopped nuts, seeds or dried fruit into the mixture to make it more substantial. 8 To ice or not to ice Oats: You could use fine or medium oatmeal, but I don't bother buying different oats just to make parkin. I simply pulse porridge oats in the food processor/blender until they are mostly ground up, but still retain some chunky texture; you don't want to blend them too far and end up making oat flour. 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. In Scotland Perkins (also known as Parkins) are oat biscuits, with very close roots and ingredients to the ginger, treacle and oat cake of Northern England, and in particular Yorkshire, where it is commonly referred to as ‘Parkin’, (Yorkshire Parkin Recipe). Although there are many similarities, not least the name, the major difference is that Scottish Perkins (or Parkins) are crisp oat biscuits, and not like the more famous softer ginger, oat and treacle Parkin cake of Northern England. Perkins Recipe For the ground oats, simply pulse rolled porridge oats in a food processor or blender until they are mostly ground up but still retain some chunky texture; you don't want to blend them too far and make oat flour. See photo above for what the texture should look like.

Yorkshire Parkin is a kind of Gingerbread. The difference between the two recipes is Parkin contains a form of Oats or Oatmeal, but Gingerbread does not. The taste and texture are also quite different. Parkin often contains dark Treacle as well as golden syrup, giving it that rich dark colour and flavour. Gingerbread, such as Gingerbread Biscuits, contains Golden Syrup with no dark treacle, which gives the Gingerbread Men and Gingerbread Houses, a light golden colour. Other Ginger Flavoured Cakes that you may Like to Try Ground ginger and mixed spice: You want to go fairly heavy on the ground ginger for parkin, it should be spicy! I also add a bit of mixed spice for extra flavour. The flour used in parkin in England is self-raising, containing a small amount of chemical leavening agent. If this is not available, or if the proportion of oatmeal is high, it is essential to add a leavening agent, e.g. baking powder or a mixture of sodium bicarbonate and cream of tartar. The best thing about parkin biscuits is that their flavour and texture deliciously develop as they sit in the biscuit tin just like a Parkin cake, so they are the ideal bake for filling up the cookie jar. 🍪 Be-Ro parkin biscuits

I’ve allowed the cakes to cool completely in their tins and have only just turned them upside down on parchment paper, leaving them in the tins. I use masterclass so cakes are easier to get out.The parkin pig, this an elusive character, often found hiding in the hedgerows of toffee, rolling in the golden syrup or snuffing its snout in the forests of ginger and perhaps no match for the gingerbread man.