Chef Thomas
A Bloomer
A proper British bloomer, slashed deep and baked until the cuts open wide and the crust turns deep, glossy gold. The kind of loaf that makes the rest of the day feel deliberate.
Culinary Explorer
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Soda Farls
Created by Chef Thomas
Four floury quarters of soft soda bread cooked on a dry griddle until the crust goes the colour of a brown paper bag, torn open while still warm and spread thickly with cold butter.
Breads
British
Weeknight
Quick Meal
10 min
Active Time
15 min cook•25 min total
Yield4 farls
There's a particular kind of cold morning where nothing else will do. The light is grey, the kettle is on, and somebody in the house is going to want feeding before they're properly awake. This is when a soda farl earns its keep.
I didn't grow up with these. They belong to Ulster, properly speaking, and I learned them late, from a friend who made them on a flat griddle she'd had since she was married. She didn't measure anything. She just tipped the flour into a bowl, pressed a hollow into it with her knuckles, poured in the buttermilk, and brought it together with her fingers. Five minutes from bowl to pan. I stood at her elbow and tried to write it down afterwards, and the note in the notebook is brief: flour, buttermilk, a hot dry pan, don't overwork. That's most of it.
The shape matters. A round of dough cut into four, so each farl has two soft cut sides and one curved floury edge. They cook flat on the griddle, not in the oven, which is what makes them what they are. Soft and pillowy in the middle. A proper crust on top and bottom. The edges chewy and slightly raw-looking, in the best way.
A good soda farl wants very little. Cold butter, melting into the torn middle. A fried egg if you're going the whole way. Bacon if there's bacon. We're only making breakfast. But it's the kind of breakfast that makes you sit down at the table instead of eating standing up at the counter, and that's worth the fifteen minutes it takes.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
plain flour
Quantity
450g
plus extra for dusting
bicarbonate of soda
Quantity
1 teaspoon
fine sea salt
Quantity
1 teaspoon
buttermilk
Quantity
400ml
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| plain flourplus extra for dusting | 450g |
| bicarbonate of soda | 1 teaspoon |
| fine sea salt | 1 teaspoon |
| buttermilk | 400ml |
Equipment Needed
- •Heavy flat griddle or large dry frying pan
- •Wide mixing bowl
- •Sharp knife
- •Clean tea towel
Instructions
- 1
Heat the griddle
Put a heavy, dry frying pan or a flat griddle over a medium heat and let it warm through properly while you mix the dough. It needs to be hot before the farls go on, not hot in the way you sear a steak, but evenly hot, the kind of heat that toasts a slice of bread in about a minute. Test it with a pinch of flour. If it browns slowly and steadily without scorching, you're there.
No oil. No butter. The pan goes on dry. Soda farls cook by direct contact with the metal, and any fat in the pan will fry the outside before the inside has a chance to set. - 2
Mix the dough
Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a wide bowl. Make a well in the middle and pour in most of the buttermilk, holding back a splash. Bring it together quickly with one hand, fingers spread, moving in circles from the centre outwards. You're not kneading. You're coaxing. Add the rest of the buttermilk if it feels dry. The dough should be soft, slightly sticky, and just hold its shape. Stop the moment it comes together. The longer you handle it, the tougher it gets.
- 3
Shape and cut
Tip the dough onto a well-floured surface. Pat it gently into a round about 2cm thick. Don't roll it. Hands only. Flour the top, then cut the round into quarters with a sharp knife, straight down through the dough, one cut and then the other at right angles. Those are your farls. Four of them.
- 4
Cook on the griddle
Lift the farls onto the hot dry pan, leaving a little space between them. Let them cook for six or seven minutes on the first side. Don't fuss with them. You're listening for a faint hiss and watching for a deep golden crust to form on the underside. When you turn one and see it's gone the colour of a brown paper bag, with a few darker spots where the pan was hottest, flip the lot and cook the other side for another six or seven minutes.
If your pan runs hot in patches, move the farls around once or twice so they all get a fair share. A scorched corner is fine, but four scorched corners is just careless. - 5
Test and rest
Stand a farl on its cut edge and cook those edges too, a minute or so each, rolling them along the pan. This is what gives a proper farl its floury, slightly chewy sides. To test, tap the bottom of one. It should sound hollow, the way a good loaf does. Wrap them in a clean tea towel and let them sit for five minutes before you tear one open. The steam inside finishes the job.
Chef Tips
- •Buttermilk is not optional. The acidity is what makes the bicarbonate of soda do its work, and it's where the soft, slightly tangy crumb comes from. If you genuinely can't get hold of any, sour 400ml of whole milk with a tablespoon of lemon juice and let it sit for ten minutes. It isn't quite the same, but it'll do.
- •Speed is the whole secret. From the moment the buttermilk meets the flour, the bicarbonate is reacting and the clock is running. Mix fast, shape fast, get them on the pan. A soda farl that has been thought about too long is a tough soda farl.
- •Eat them the day they're made. They go stale by tomorrow morning, properly stale, the way only soda bread can. Day-old farls aren't a tragedy though. Split them, toast them on the same dry pan until the cut sides go crisp and golden, and they become something else entirely. Some people prefer them that way.
Advance Preparation
- •Soda farls don't keep, and they don't make ahead. The whole pleasure of them is the speed of the making and the warmth of the eating. Mix when you're ready to cook.
- •Leftover farls split and toasted on a dry pan the next morning are a small consolation. Beyond that, they're best turned into breadcrumbs for something else.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 215g)
Calories
450 calories
Total Fat
2 g
Saturated Fat
1 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
1 g
Cholesterol
4 mg
Sodium
1000 mg
Total Carbohydrates
91 g
Dietary Fiber
3 g
Sugars
5 g
Protein
15 g
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