THE ORIGINAL ‘RECEIPT’

OATMEAL PARKINS.  – 1 cup oatmeal, 1 ½ cups flour, 1 teaspoon soda, ½ cup butter, ½ cup sugar, ⅔ cup molasses, ½ teaspoon each of cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg, 1 teaspoon vanilla.  Just before final mixing break 1 egg in the mixture and stir whole together and drop in buttered tins.  –  C. FRED FAWCETT, Upper Sackville, N.B.

~Compiled by The Woman’s Department Canadian Farm.  Canadian Farm Cook Book.  Toronto: Canadian Farm, 1911.

What is a ‘parkin’, you ask? It’s a gingerbread cake of sorts, but contains oatmeal, and it originated in Northern England.

THE UPDATED RECIPE

• 1 ½ c. sifted all-purpose flour
• 1 c. fine oatmeal
• ½ c. granulated sugar
• ½ tsp. cinnamon
• ½ tsp. allspice
• ½ tsp. grated nutmeg
• ¼ tsp. salt
• ½ c. butter
• ⅔ c. molasses
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 egg.

Preheat oven to 400F.

Grease muffin tins with butter (sufficient to hold 16 medium-sized muffins).

Sift the flour and measure it.

In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, oatmeal, sugar, spices and salt;  mix until evenly blended.

Using a knife, cut the butter into the dry ingredients, and then, using the fingers, work the butter into the dry ingredients, until the whole mixture has an even texture of fine crumbs.

Add the soda to the molasses, and stir to mix thoroughly.

Add the molasses (with soda) and the vanilla to the crumbed mixture, and beat with a wooden spoon until smooth.

Beat the egg with a whisk until lemon-coloured, and then add it to the batter;  beat in thoroughly with a wooden spoon.

Spoon the batter into the buttered muffin tins, filling them about ⅞ full.

Bake in a preheated oven, at 400F for approximately 20 to 25 minutes, or until cake tester, when inserted in the centre, comes out clean.

Remove from the oven, and allow to cool on a rack for a few minutes before removing the Parkins from the tins.

Serve warm or cold, either plain, or with butter, jelly, or jam.

Yield:  16 individual Parkins.

These are good for breakfast or a snack.

A note from Patricia: I absolutely loved these muffins! They were full of warm spices and molasses, so they were right up my alley, and it was difficult for me to eat just one. I used 1:1 gluten-free flour, and gluten-free oatmeal, but for some reason, even though they were fully cooked, the centres of my ‘parkins’ sank a bit. I did some investigating on the internet to determine where I could have gone wrong – perhaps it was because I used cold butter, or overmixed, or my baking soda was no longer fresh enough, or because I opened the oven door one too many times while baking (I got excited!). Regardless, they were fantastic, and I’ll defintely be making these again as they’ll make a great “breakfast-on-the-go”.

The quantity of butter these good folks consume is no less liberal. On the table of a poor log-house they never think of putting down a lump weighing less than a pound, at which every one hacks as he likes with his own knife.

~Stanley, George. George Stanley: or, Life in The Woods. London: Routledge, Warne, and Routledge, 1864.