Apple Parkin Slice

 Apple Parkin slice is an old Yorkshire/Lancashire recipe by way of Australia. Growing up in the north of England every bonfire night we partake of parkin - a chewy, oaty, dense, treacle-ey

slice ( a 'slice' is halfway between a cake and a scone I'd say) - recently I espied this recipe in British Country Living for a similar 'slice' but with no molasses, lighter in texture and with the addition of apples through the middle (something I am not unhappy about as I am not a big fan of molasses or as we call it in the UK treacle- a nice onomatopoaeic word that sounds like the treacle being spooned from the jar!)

THE RECIPE - as usual in weights which nowadays I am translating from metric to imperial as I only have a weighing scale with ozs so the amounts may seem odd!!

INGREDIENTS:

7oz butter

9oz sugar plus extra for sprinkling

2 large eggs whisked together

12.5 oz white flour

3.5 oz rolled oats

1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

3-4 apples of your choice peeled and chopped

A little milk for making the batter a little softer.

METHOD:

1. Heat the oven to 350F/180C

2. Butter a square baking dish - about 8"

3. Beat butter and sugar together until light and pale.

4. Gradually beat in the eggs - I do this in about 4 goes with goodly beating in between so I don't go down the road of curdling.

5. Fold in the sifted flour, nutmeg and oatmeal and blend nicely.

6. The mixture will be quite stiff at this point - put half of it into the greased dish and press evenly.

7. Strew apples atop this evenly.

8. To the remaining mixture add a couple of tablespoons of milk or more to make the dough come to a dropping consistency - so spoonfuls plop onto the apples as below -

 9. Smooth out the plopped spoonfuls to look like the pic below - and sprinkle with some extra sugar before popping into your pre-heated oven.

 10. Bake for about 30 - 40 minutes until the 'slice' is golden and firm to the touch - again as below.

This is a hearty sweet - another good keeper which tastes better the day after baking - but who can keep desserts around that long I ask you? You can serve this hot, warm or cold - with or without ice cream, lashings of cream or custard or on it's own with a good hot cuppa!

HAPPY BAKING!!! and do enjoy Great Maine Apple Day tomorrow October 23rd.

This post is part of the wonderful bloghop of Tea Time Treats over at lovely Lavender and Lovage