About this bread:
This delicious English Farl is round loaf with slashes giving it a striped look on the outside. Insides is a tender, buttery white crumb. It is a traditional English bread and quite different from the Scottish Farl, which is a small, thin, triangular biscuit. I remember the grocery stores selling a loaf called “Sheepherder’s Bread” and that’s very similar to what this delicious English Farl tastes like.
This delicious English Farl is bread #16 in Paul Hollywood’s 100 Great Breads cookbook–but with a lot of changes. My recipe uses:
- Regular white flour (because I buy in bulk and it was less expensive).
- Less salt (Hollywood’s loaf tasted too salty, in my opinion, and I didn’t even use the full tablespoon that his recipe required).
- A tablespoon of sugar
- Instant yeast (once again, because I bought in bulk to save money)
This bread is similar to a Crusty Cob but has less butter so it isn’t quite as rich tasting. It costs about 75¢ to bake, and would be a lovely loaf to take to a friend, to serve with soup, for toast, or for fancy sandwiches. It’s a great first loaf for beginners, and I think it would taste wonderful with sesame, poppyseed, or Za’atar topping.
Delicious English Farl
Equipment
- Stand mixer with dough hook, if you have it.
Ingredients
- 4 cups white flour Bread flour, if you have it.
- 1½ teaspoons salt
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 3 teaspoons instant yeast
- 6 tablespoons butter, softened
- 1⅓ cup water Water can be room temperature
Instructions
- Put flour, salt, yeast, sugar, and butter into a mixer bowl. Use your fingers to mix butter into the flour until it is completely combined.
- Add water and mix well. If you have a stand mixer, use the dough hook to mix the dough for 5 minutes. The dough shouldn't be too sticky, but there shouldn't be any flour left on the bottom or sides of bowl.
- Remove the dough from bowl and knead until it is stretchy. This means you can pull on it and won't immediately break apart.
- Let rise for at least an hour, or until doubled.
- Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Tip dough onto counter and form into a ball, then flatten to about 2" thick.
- Let rise an hour or until doubled.
- Preheat oven to 425° F. Cover the top with flour. Make vertical slashes from center to bottom.
- Bake 30 minutes, or until an instant-read thermometer registers 190°F. when inserted in the middle.
- Cool on wire rack.
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