Far Breton

When a flowing batter of milk, eggs, and flour is baked thick, the surface browns and the center sets dense and soft. Brittany’s far breton is typically made with prunes. Yet the name “far” is also used for flour dishes boiled in a cloth bag and for dishes cooked in a frying pan. The same word has been used for everything from dishes made in a pot on farms to desserts baked in an oven for celebrations.

A Crêpe-Like Pourable Batter Baked Thick

Eggs are added to flour, sugar, and salt, and milk is poured in little by little to make a smooth liquid close to the batter used for thick crêpes. It shares ingredients with crêpes, which are spread thin and cooked one at a time, but when the batter is poured all at once into a dish, it cooks slowly from the outside toward the center. The eggs and flour set with heat and hold in the moisture of the milk.

In one method, prunes are placed in the bottom of a buttered dish before the batter is poured in. Using whole milk adds the richness of milk, and the dried fruit remains within as sweet, dense morsels. Formulas and steps also vary in whether the pits are removed and whether the fruit is rehydrated first. Some versions contain no fruit, letting the milk-and-egg batter itself be enjoyed, and some add raisins or rum. Prunes do not go into every far, but they are a typical ingredient that adds a deep sweetness to the milk-based batter.

Salted Butter for the Dish and the Choice of Flour

The butter spread in the dish helps the far release from the dish and also gives aroma to the browned parts. Demi-sel butter is commonly used. Some versions add melted butter to the batter itself, while others use fat only on the dish and do not mix any into the batter.

Some far are made with buckwheat flour rather than only wheat flour. The recette (the proportions of ingredients and the method) published by the Morbihan tourism office uses buckwheat flour, milk, eggs, sugar, and melted butter. It can also be combined with wheat flour, and even with the same pourable batter, changing the flour changes the flavor of the grain.

Some versions are baked in small individual molds. Tomizawa Shoten’s method for home bakers simmers the prunes in a vanilla-flavored syrup, adds rum after the heat is turned off, and lets them cool before use. The formula introduced by Rui on cotta coats the muffin pan not only with butter but also with sugar, and fills the molds only 60% full with batter. Using a batter with cream and milk, and whole eggs plus egg yolks, it adds the crisp bite of sugar on the outside to contrast with the soft interior.

Softness Fresh from the Oven, and Slicing Once Cooled

It is baked until the top is browned and a slight wobble remains in the center. The batter firms as it cools, so it is soft while hot and holds its shape for slicing once it has cooled. The depth of browning and the baking time also vary with the depth of the dish and the formula.

How It Differs from Clafoutis and Gâteau Breton

Clafoutis is also a closely related dessert in which a batter of eggs, milk, and flour is baked with fruit. Traditional Limousin clafoutis uses fresh cherries, while the typical far uses dried prunes. The juice of fresh fruit and the dense sweetness of dried fruit create different textures within each batter. Gâteau breton, also from Brittany, is a sablé-like cake with a large amount of butter worked into the dough, which differs from the milk-rich batter of far.

The Name Far Across Bags, Pots, and Ovens

Breton means “of Brittany.” As for far, the historical dictionary TLFi gives a theory linking it to the Late Latin farsus, “stuffed,” and to regional words referring to stuffings of meat or buckwheat flour, and it also considers the influence of the Latin far, meaning wheat or spelt. It is a name in which grain flour and stuffing may overlap, and it did not refer only to a sweet, milk-based baked dessert from the start.

For “far in a bag,” buckwheat batter is put into an old cloth bag and boiled in water or in a pot of meat. It was a practical way for farms without ovens to eat buckwheat flour, which is unsuited to bread that rises. In the 19th century, as farmland expanded and more people were hired for farm work, baked far spread as a way of hosting the workers. In the warm season, when there was much work, milk and eggs were available, and the residual heat of the oven, once the bread had been taken out, could be used for baking. Kig ha farz, in which meat and vegetables are simmered with a flour batter in a bag, and farz forn, in which milk, eggs, and wheat flour are baked, are different dishes that grew out of the pots and ovens of the same land.

For farz pitilig, also called farz buan, made when time is short, the liquid batter is poured onto a crêpe griddle and cooked into coarse, sand-like crumbs while being stirred with a wooden spoon. Whereas baked far sets as a single piece in the dish, farz pitilig is cooked while being broken up finely. Under the same name of far, there are three methods of cooking: boiling in a bag, pouring into a dish and baking, and stirring on a griddle.

Prunes That Reached Celebration Tables via the Ports

Prunes were not plums from Breton gardens used as they were, but dried fruit that came mainly from southwestern France. Easy to store and transport, they spread inland by way of ports on the Atlantic coast. For a long time they were also an expensive ingredient that enriched everyday cooking.

According to the food history presented by a Breton cultural organization, they are listed in an account from 1795 as an ingredient for decorating wedding cakes, and a dictionary from 1850 records their association with far. The fruit took root in the region’s desserts not only through ties to seafaring but through multiple settings: port trade, celebratory meals, and meals for workers.

Glossary