Yorkshire parkin recipe by Regula Ysewijn

Modern recipes for parkin often don’t contain oats, only wheat flour, resulting in cakes with a finer texture that are more like gingerbread. The recipe I give you here is made with oats, and is an acquired taste to the modern palate. The cake is best made in advance and left to rest for a few days to a couple of weeks.

Makes 9 squares
rolled oats 100g
golden syrup or maple syrup 200g
black treacle or molasses 45g
butter 200g
oat flour 200g
bicarbonate of soda 2 tsp
ground ginger 2 tsp
ground nutmeg ½ tsp
egg 1
whisky 2 tbsp, or milk
sea salt a pinch

You will need a 20cm square cake tin. Preheat your oven to 140C fan/gas mark 3 and grease the tin.

Briefly pulse the oats in a food processor fitted with the blade attachment.

Heat the golden syrup, black treacle and butter in a saucepan until melted and combined. Set aside to cool for a few minutes, then add the chopped oats and the remaining ingredients. Combine well with a wooden spoon or spatula. Spread the mixture into the cake tin.

Bake for 50-60 minutes, then cool in the tin. When the cake is cold, cut it into squares and pack it in an airtight container to rest for at least a day before serving.

The cake gets stickier and more moist every day and can last for 2 weeks if you can hide it for that long.

From Oats in the North, Wheat from the South by Regula Ysewijn (Murdoch Books, £25)