I've Decided

So a couple days I posted about Irish Lace Biscuits for St. Patrick’s Day because I had misread some directions about St. Brigid's Oatcakes (farls). Well I finally got around to making it after letting the oats sit in a bowl of buttermilk over night. The thing is, this was a really weird recipe.

There is no binder (unless you call buttermilk a binder) so the dough wasn’t really forming into a ball shape, so I added more butter milk, which made about a 2% difference so I just said “What the hay” and put in an egg white, this seemed to help a little more. So when it came time to forming the dough into a big round circle, it just couldn’t be done, so I made it into 6 softball-sized balls. Once I put the dough balls into the oven, I was skeptical of the 30-35 minute baking time so I kept setting the timer for 10 minute intervals and it turns out that 22 minutes is a pretty decent baking time.

These…things (I honestly don’t know what to call them) did fall apart in the oven a little bit, but I guess that’s ok. Despite the rustic look of these things, they taste…pretty ok. They have a nice oaty/bread taste and they taste even better with jelly.

I take back everything I said, I figured out what the taste was, it's basically pizza dough as my dad calls it. And I've changed my mind these things are definitely not worth eating in my book haha. My sister tried them and she just had this look and said "I'm sorry, I don't want to be rude and not swallow, so I'm going to swallow anyways". So me, Emily and my dad had a good laugh about how awful these things are. My mom tried defending them, but the things wound up in the trash. I'm not going to delete this post because for one, it's funny and for two, I don't want to share just the good things, I want to share the bad things on this blog too.

I know these aren't the prettiest things...

but with some jelly, they look very pretty, and taste okish

St. Brigid's Oatcakes
adapted from Irish Culture and Customs
makes 4 farls (6 dough balls)

Ingredients
2 cups old fashioned (not instant) rolled oats
1 1/4 cups buttermilk (1 1/2 cups)
2 1/2 cups bread flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 egg white

Directions

1. A day ahead combine the oats and buttermilk into a medium-sized bowl,combine thoroughly, cover, and refrigerate for 8 hours.
2. Nest day, preheat oven to 350 degrees F and spray a baking sheet with cooking spray 
3. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda and powder, and salt. Slowly add the oat mixture and the egg white and stir with a wooden spoon until combined. (The dough will be loose and you will have to compacted it together)
4. Form dough into 6 large balls and place onto baking sheet. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Take out of the oven and place bread balls onto a wire cooling wrack.
5. Serve warm with butter and jelly or preserves.

Nutrition Facts
serving size: 1 giant bread ball

Calories 316.4 Total Fat 2.6 g Saturated Fat 0.7 g Polyunsaturated Fat 0.7 g Monounsaturated Fat 0.7 g Cholesterol 3.8 mg Sodium 717.1 mg Potassium 9.2 mg Total Carbohydrate 58.6 g Dietary Fiber 4.3 g Sugars 3.9 g Protein 13.3 g