Irish Soda Bread Farl

In Ireland, soda bread are usually eaten as an accompaniment for main course or else for breakfast, obviously Irish soda bread goes for two colors, brown and white and they are called cake and farl. When making farls, the soda bread dough is rolled out into a rough circle and cut all the way through and in crosswise, into four pieces or farls as "farl" is a generic term for any triangular piece of baking or 4 parts, and usually baked in a heavy frying pan or on a griddle, on top of the stove rather than in the oven. It's a flatter bread than cake, and moister after the baking's finished. Each farl is split in half "the wide way" before eating. Its best when eaten hot once gets cooked in the griddle, but sometimes its allowed to cool and then grilled or fried to have along with other dishes.

Buttermilk is usually used for mixing the flour, the acidity of buttermilk activated the baking soda and helps a lot to make the bread rise while cooking.But still you can make this Farl without buttermilk eventhough the flavour will be slightly different when compared to the Farl prepared with buttermilk. If you are using milk instead of buttermilk, dont forget to add half a teaspoon of baking powder. These farls are easy to make, and suits prefectly for a breakfast or else for a lazy sunday brunch.This Farls are my third post for this week's blogging marathon as i picked International flatbreads as theme.Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#50.

3 +1/2 cups All purpose flour
1tsp Sugar
1tsp Salt
1tsp Baking soda
200ml Buttermilk

Preheat the griddle or skillet in simmer.

Place flour and salt in a bowl and sift in baking soda and pour in the buttermilk.

Mix into dough and knead very lightly on a well floured surface.  Shape into a flattened circle, about 1/2 inch thick and cut into 4 parts with a knife.

Cook the farls for 6 to 8 minutes on each side or until golden brown.

Serve immediately with butter and jam.