Irish Soda Bread Farls Recipes

Farls Recipes

All recipes for traditional soda bread contain flour, baking soda, sour milk (buttermilk) and salt.

Here is a recipe for Farls, which is popular in Ulster, shared by permission by a visitor to the site:
Once in awhile my grandmother would make Farls back in the 1950s in Nenagh.

Thanks to Margaret for sharing this recipe with us.

Here is the recipe that makes soda bread- as my grandmother and great-grandmother made it - and as my children and grand-children (as well as myself) make it today. It hasn't changed at all - except we use a stove instead of an open hearth for cooking. My family is from Crossgar and Hillsborough in County Down.

Heat a 9 inch iron skillet over low flame on the stove. Lightly dust with flour.

Measure 2 cups sifted flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda and 1 teaspoon salt.

Make a well in the above and add 1 cup of buttermilk. Thoroughly mix until dough leaves side of bowl.

Flour a bread board - put dough on board (sprinkle with a little extra flour - and gently knead 3 or 4 times.

Pat dough into a circle the size of the skillet. Cut into farls (fourths) and place on skillet. Cook about 10 minutes on each side.

Wrap bread in a tea towel when it is done. This absorbs the baking soda taste and keeps the bread fresh. Eat that day or fry in bacon fat the next morning as part of an Ulster fry.

You can also use 1/2 whole wheat flour and 1/2 white flour.

Notice: no whiskey - no eggs - no cream - nor currants or raisins. This is a basic bread to be served daily, not a dessert.

Dessert breads are like scones or bannocks.

Love the site!

Margaret
Evanston, IL

Another visitor, Stan Russell from County Down who has been making Farls for many years (He's 75) added a note that Farls also need the step known as "Harning" which is setting them up on edge on the griddle leaning against each other for about 10 minutes so that the edges get finished off.

Stan says he uses an electric griddle these days and it works ok for him. He also adds "When I make wheaten today, due to the poor whole wheat flour here, I usually throw in a bit of wheat bran, and I find this makes it taste a wee bit more like it should."

Stan Russell, now living in Canada

Theodora Fitzgibbon was a cooking expert from the 1950s and published a number of cook books in her time. Here is a recipe from her for "griddle bread". Cut it into quarters and you have "Farls." I remember my grandmother making this griddle bread in the late 1950s.

Mix together 225 grams (8 oz) of whole meal flour, 50 g (2 oz) of white flour, a table spoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of baking soda. Add the buttermilk, as much as needed to obtain a fairly soft consistency. Roll onto a floured surface and shape into a round. Heat the griddle (or flat-bottomed pan) until a sprinkling of flour turns light golden; then put the cake on and cook for ten minutes each side over medium heat. Serve straight from the pan.