Irish Potato Farls
Have you heard of Irish Potato Farls? No? Well, if you love potato pancakes, you’ll love potato farls. They’re easy to make with fresh or left over potatoes.
When I was working on this recipe I once again consulted my Irish mom. I asked if she’d heard of potato farls and she said she hadn’t. But that’s not surprising since “farl” is more of an Ulster term and my mom is from Limerick.
But as soon as I described the recipe she said, “Oh, my mother used to make something like that”. She went on to describe all the different potato pancakes and potato breads her mother made, almost always starting with leftover potatoes.
Potato Farl Ingredients
- Russet potatoes
- Salt
- Irish Butter
- All purpose flour
- Baking powder
- Black pepper
- Scallions
How to make Irish Potato Farls:
- Boil the potatoes in salted water until tender.
- Assemble the ingredients and mix the dough while the potatoes are warm.
- Rice or mash the potatoes and add the butter.
- Stir the flour into the mashed potatoes.
- Dump the dough out onto a floured surface and knead in the scallions.
- Knead the dough into a ball and divide in half.
- Pat each piece of dough to an 8″ round and cut into fourths (farls).
- Fry the farls in butter.
- Flip the farls and continue cooking until they’re golden brown and the center springs back when pressed.
FAQs Irish Potato Farls aka Irish Potato Pancakes
Russets are a high starch potato. You want to use the same sort of potato you’d use for making fluffy mashed potatoes. Yukon Golds would also work well.
Yes, you’ll just need to make adjustments for any added butter, milk and salt in the left overs.
Yes. Be sure to melt the butter before adding it to the cold potatoes.
Yes, just scoop the potato out of the skin and add melted butter.
Yes, you can hold the uncooked farls in the refrigerator for several hours before frying. Uncooked farls can be frozen for several weeks. Defrost before frying. They are best eaten hot from the pan.
I doubt they’ll be any leftovers! But you can refrigerate left over farls for a day or two. Then reheat in the microwave briefly, or even better, reheat them in a little butter over low heat in a skillet.
Farls are traditionally served with an Irish breakfast of bacon and eggs. But they’d also be nice along side Corned Beef on St. Patrick’s day or all by themselves for a hearty snack.
Looking for more Irish inspired recipes?
- Irish Soda Bread
- Irish Brown Bread
- Baileys Pot de Creme
- Baileys Bundt Cakes
- Baileys Cheesecake
- Baileys Chocolate Macarons
- Guinness Fudge Cake
- Triple Guinness Cake
- Irish Tea Brack
- Irish Apple Cake
- Irish Coffee Trifle
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Irish Potato Farls Recipe
Ingredients
- 24 oz russet potatoes (peeled and cut into 1" cubes.)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons table salt (divided)
- 2 oz Irish Butter (room temperature, divided)
- 3.75 oz all purpose flour (3/4 cup, see note)
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 2 scallions (chopped fine)
Instructions
- Place the potatoes in a pot of water with 1/2 teaspoon of the salt. Boil until the potatoes are tender. Drain.24 oz russet potatoes, 1 1/2 teaspoons table salt
- Pass the potatoes through a ricer back into the pot, or use a potato masher. Add 1 oz (2 tablespoons) of the butter and the remaining salt mix until the butter is melted. Add the flour, baking powder and pepper and stir until most of the flour is mixed in.1 1/2 teaspoons table salt, 2 oz Irish Butter, 3.75 oz all purpose flour, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead in the chopped scallions then form the dough into a ball. Divide the dough in half.2 scallions
- Preheat a large skillet over medium heat. While the pan is heating, pat each half of the dough to an 8" round, 1/4”thick. Use flour as needed to prevent sticking. Cut the rounds into quarters. You'll have a total of 8 farls. (See Note)
- Melt 1 tablespoon of the remaining butter in the pan. Fry half the farls in the butter until golden brown, then flip and fry the other side. Cook until both sides are golden brown and the farl springs back when pressed in the center. About 4 minutes per side.2 oz Irish Butter
- Repeat with the remaining butter and farls. Serve immediately.2 oz Irish Butter
Equipment
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My Irish mum used to make these. She was from Belfast. She used self raising flour for everything – so no extra raising agents. She used cold potato and mixed in enough flour till it felt ‘right’ nothing else. Then dry fried in a frying pan, till there was a lovely skin with dark spots. Left to cool and either eaten cold with lots of Irish butter or then fried as part of an Irish breakfast. Delicious either way. Worth making extra mash just for this lovely left over dish. It was usually a round. Not cut they were called potato bread. Falrls were alway soda bread – not made in the oven but dry fried again. Eaten cold sliced open with butter or fried with
breakfast. Sometimes made with raisins like scones.
These are so delicious, I’m going to try some pizza toppings on them next time.
Theses in Scotland are called Tattie scones(potato scones) minus the onion
Lovely fried with bacon & Egg for breakfast
Well, truth be told, the recipes I came across in my research didn’t have scallions in them. I added them because the only thing better than a potato is a potato with some onion!
Excellent!
I am German and I remember my mother making something like this when we had leftover potatoes as well. I thought she added an egg, which led me to the usual search. We called them Kartoffelkuechle. Looks like there are a variety of versions out there with more or less things added. Definetely comfort food.
Do you wait a while to let the potatoes cool before adding the flour?
Yes, I’m sure every culture has a version of this using left over potatoes. My mother recalled several versions her own mother made. I don’t wait for the potatoes to cool. By the time I run them through the ricer and melt the butter into them, the potatoes are cool enough to handle.