Home Made Grandma's Parkin

How to make Grandma’s Parkin

Every year we had some of Grandma’s parkin around Halloween, so I’ve made some to share with you! Read on, for a home-made recipe.

When I was a little girl I often baked with my grandma. She lived only a stone’s throw away from us so I’d often skip to her house for a spot of mess-making in the kitchen. She was a messy baker!

I made some parkin for the Visit Fylde Coast team to enjoy this year, so I thought I’d share it with you!

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Tip: Got a food processor? Make your own oatmeal by whizzing ordinary porridge oats until they’re fine. It’s also a LOT easier to use the food processor to make the mixture too it. It makes a stiff paste which is hard work to stir by hand!

Grandma’s Parkin

Get yourself organised first (not that grandma ever was).

My grandma always used the meat roasting dish to make parkin, so that’s what I’ve done. She always lined it with tin-foil, so I’ve done that too. Otherwise you’ll have the devil’s own job getting it out. I did grease the tin lightly first, and it came away easily enough.

Then in a large bowl, put:

1lb of fine oatmeal
8oz of self raising flour
1 teaspoon of ground ginger

Dry ingredients to make Grandma's Parkin
Dry ingredients to make Grandma’s Parkin

And in a pan, put:

8oz of sugar
4oz of baking margarine
1 small tin of golden syrup
– or a mixture of syrup/treacle to the same volume. Treacle will give it a stronger taste, if that makes sense.

Wet ingredients to make Grandma's Parkin
Wet ingredients to make Grandma’s Parkin

Warm the contents of the pan over a medium heat, taking care not to burn it. You might find that margarine melts but doesn’t dissolve in the sugar mix. If it looks like that it’s ready 🙂

Be careful as you warm this mixture through. Don’t walk away and leave it – it will boil over and wreck your oven and everything it touches. And you aren’t making toffee so don’t boil it up too much. I got mine quite hot and I think that was what made the parkin extra sticky… (which was nice!)

Mix the ingredients

When you’ve melted the goo, pour it into the flour mix in the bowl. Stir well to disperse any lumps and make a smooth batter. Pour the batter into the tin and that’s it! Easy!

Parkin batter in the tin ready to be cooked
Parkin batter in the tin ready to be cooked

Cook at about 150C for an hour. Adjust this depending on whether you’ve got a hot/cool oven. I did mine on 180C while I was cooking pork chops. The centre was slightly sticky so I turned the oven off and left it in the heat for a while.

The mixture rises as it cooks like a cake, and you need to test it with a skewer when you think it’s done. The skewer should come out quite clean and just a little greasy, not with lumps of wet mix stuck to it. When you take it out of the oven it might sink in the middle.

Cut and enjoy! If you’re an infrequent baker like me you’ll get a different result every time. This was my first try at my own parkin and it had a crust on top and was chewy underneath, which was delicious. A witches costume and trick or treat evening is optional!

Home Made Grandma's Parkin

Other sweet and cheap recipes to try:

Out-Takes

Like I said, I’m no Delia Smith, so some things don’t turn out quite as they’re intended… I’m quite happy to share my disasters with you too!

Burnt parkin!
Burnt parkin!

Have a look at this for a burnt-black brick that I made another year. Well I publish websites, I’m not a chef!

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Bonfire Night on the Fylde Coast

Parkin is perfect to enjoy in autumn. There are big organised fireworks and bonfire events in most of the Fylde Coast towns.

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