Sugar Free Parkin

The Smiths once sang that "rain falls down on a humdrum town". The days before Remembrance Weekend 2019 neatly fitted that particular bill as I piloted the freshly MOT'd and serviced Panda through storms and floods and along roads linking several forgotten ex-mining villages. 

On the evening of Remembrance Friday a trip to a local venue to see a first rate Rush tribute band with equally first rate company was equally dark and damp, but certainly much more enjoyable than the drives through floods the previous day.

By the time the weekend proper had rolled round and the parents had dropped the Dogg off at mine thoughts turned towards making some seasonal comfort food. My mind turned back to my childhood and dark November Nights after tricky days at school where I would often binge on bonfire toffee while watching Champions' League Football on the TV. It's funny how certain flavours and tastes stick in your mind from days gone by. The burnt and earthy taste, punctuated with shards of sweetness, of that bonfire toffee was something I wished to replicate. 

This said I decided to make a type of Parkin that would resurrect this taste of the past. On the player while making this recipe was Kiss' 1975 breakthrough live album "Alive!". Kiss' first three albums are a marvellous mix of catchy, hard rocking numbers that cover a surprising amount of different territories. However at the time of their release they barely sold enough to recoup their advertising costs. "Alive!" changed all that, sold millions and set them on the road to stardom. The performances, which take the pick of the tracks from the first three albums, sound fresh, energetic and have lots of warmth. 

So to the recipe. When I do baking I tend to divide the ingredients up into "dry" and "damp" ingredients:

Damp Ingredients:

200 grams of Golden Syrup.
85 grams of Treacle. 
200 grams of Unsalted Butter, melted in a saucepan. 
1/8 of a pint of Whisky. The whisky used was a supermarket own brand blend. My followers from the Highlands will be pleased to know I didn’t waste a genuine single malt on this recipe.
1 beaten Egg. 

Dry Ingredients

200 grams of Self-Raising Flour. 
100 grams of Ground Almonds.
1 tablespoon of Ground Ginger.
100 grams of Oats. 

Method

1. Stir together all the Dry Ingredients in a mixing bowl until they are combined. 

2. Add the Melted Unsalted Butter, Whisky and Egg and stir into the Dry Ingredients until you have a thick paste. 

3. Stir in the Treacle and Syrup. 

4. Place the mixture into a greased baking tin that is too high sided. 

5. Bake for one hour in the oven on Gas Mark 3 (170 degrees) for one hour. Then bake for a further half an hour on Gas Mark 5 (190 degrees). Pierce with a skewer to ensure it is cooked and not runny in the middle. 

6. Remove from the tin, leave to cool then cut into cubes prior to serving. 

The combination of the Treacle and Whisky in this recipe gave it the tar-like and fiery taste I was looking for and the Syrup and Ground Almonds made it sweet and almost taste like freshly produced fudge. A baking project to bring back long lost memories.