Cooking with Coronation Street: Deirdre's Parkin and treacle toffee

These two recipes originate from Deirdre's kitchen. They're traditional treats that are often found at Bonfire night parties in November. Parkin is a ginger cake that's popular in the north of England and contain ginger and both treacle and oatmeal. Since you'll have the treacle out anyway, why not whip up a batch of sticky treacle toffee?

Deirdre tells us "I've always loved Bonfire Night. I think everybody does. We all claim it's for the kids but really it's for us as well. When I was a kid, we used to make rival bonfires in every street and steal each other's wood. These days it's a lot more sedate but it's still fun. The food is always one of the best things."

Parkin
(To Serve 6-8)

8 oz medium oatmeal
4 oz plain flour
2 tsp ground ginger
4 oz margarine
6 oz sugar
8 oz treacle
1 egg
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda mixed with a little milk

Preheat the oven to 300F. Mix together the oatmeal, flour and ground ginger. Melt the margarine, sugar and treacle in a saucepan and add to the dry ingredients. Add the egg, bicarbonate of soda and milk to the mixture. Blend thoroughly. Spoon the mixture into a well greased baking tin about 8 inches square and bake for 90 minutes or until the centre feels springy to touch. Cut into squares when cold.

Treacle Toffee
(To Serve 6-8)

1 lb demerara sugar
8 oz black treacle
4 oz butter
1 tbsp malt vinegar
1 tbsp water
Put the sugar, black treacle, butter, vinegar and water into a pan. Stir over a low heat until the sugar is dissolved. Bring to the boil and boil rapidly with out stirring for 10-15 minutes. If you've got a sugar thermometer the temperature should reach 280F. If you haven't drop a little toffee into a saucer of cold water. If it hardens, the toffee is ready. Pour the toffee into a greased tin and just before it sets, mark
into squares.

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