Parkin but not parky!
It was the hottest day so far today...it got to 34 degrees this afternoon. They had predicted up to 37 degrees!As soon as it gets to 30 degrees Dulcie shuts up the house, all the windows and doors, and switches on the aircon. We left her upstairs watching England get defeated for the fourth time and stayed under the house where it was a bit cooler than outside. We had the windows and doors shut and the blinds down to try and keep the heat out.We went for some shopping in the afternoon. It was very humid and it almost made it difficult to breathe. It felt like you were in a cross between a steam room and an oven.I made a parkin in the afternoon. We could not find oatmeal here so Will ground some oats up in a coffee grinder. Dulcie's weighing scales were not very accurate so I ended up guessing the amounts. The final mixture looked good though. I lined the bottom of the oven with baking paper just in case it overflowed the tin and I didn't want to mess up Dulcie's clean oven. It was a bad idea. I nearly started a fire. When I opened the door, to put the cake in, the paper was all blackened and charred and the kitchen filled with smoke. Luckily she was having a shower and has little sense of smell so by the time she came back the smoke had pretty much dispersed.After such a hot and humid day it was pretty inevitable that the storms would roll in later in the afternoon. There was a brilliant lightning display and lots of thunder and a short sharp downpour but not very much rain all in all.[gallery ids="1201,1200,1202,1203"]Here is the recipe for the Yorkshire Parkin that I make. I do recommend it.Ingredients:
- 8 oz/220g soft butter
- 4 oz/110g soft, dark brown sugar
- 2oz / 55g black treacle/molasses
- 7oz / 200g golden syrup/ corn syrup
- 5oz/ 120g medium oatmeal
- 7 oz/ 200g self raising flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 4 tsp ground ginger
- 2 tsp nutmeg
- 1 tsp mixed spice
- 2 large eggs, beaten
- 2 tbsp milk
Preparation:Heat the oven to 275°F/140°C/gas 1
- Grease an 8" x 8"/ 20cm x 20cm square cake tin.
- In a large heavy-based saucepan melt together the butter, sugar, treacle, golden syrup over a gentle heat. Do not allow the mixture to boil, you simply need to melt these together.
- In a large, spacious, baking bowl stir together all the dry ingredients. Gradually add the melted butter mixture stirring to coat all the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.
- Gradually, beat in the eggs a few tablespoons at a time. Finally add the milk and again stir well.
- Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and cook for 1½ hours until firm and set and a dark golden brown.
- Remove the parkin from the oven and leave to cool in the tin. Once cool store the Parkin in an airtight tin for a minimum of 3 days if you can resist eating it, you can even leave it up to a week before eating and the flavors really develop and the mixture softens even further and becomes moist and sticky. The Parkin will keep up to two weeks in an airtight container.