Recipe 8: Barm Cakes

Has anyone ever heard of Barm Cakes before? I haven't! I think it's what we would call a soft roll but for anyone still confused this is a brief history taken from Wikipedia: “The original barm cake is found in areas of Lancashire, North West England. In wider northern England, a similar bread roll would be known instead as a "breadbun", "breadcake", "bap", "cob" (an East Midland term), "teacake" (West Yorkshire/some parts of Cumbria; without currants or currant teacake with currants) or even (in the enlarged form of Tyneside) a "stotty".

Chips are a popular filling, sold in most fish and chip shops in the North West of England often called simply a 'chip barm'. Another popular filling in the North West, particularly Bolton, is the pasty barm. Likewise in Wigan pies are a popular filling.”

So, a bread roll mainly used for chip butty, yum! If I realised this before hand, I would so had one of these! Apparently you can have a Barm Cake with black pudding as the filing too, doesn't sound as tasty! :/


So, making Barm Cakes! Pretty much the same as usual bread, except there is also a bit of sugar involved and a lot more water than usual! I liked this mixture, when it came to the kneading it felt so much lighter and easier to handle! I like it a lot, it made it a bit more easy on my non-existence arm muscles! Then once kneaded, leave in a covered bowl for an hour or more.

Time to knock out the dough, it always feels like such a shame to do this! It's risen up all lovely for you to knock it back down! Another thing with this part, is I'm never sure when the air is knocked out enough, in the book it says till it feels smooth but it felt smoothish to begin with!

Then time to divide the mixture and roll into a ball. You then leave this on a floured surface for only 30 minutes and this isn't even the proving part!

Once these have rested, you have to roll them out till their twice the original diameter and placed on a baking tray. After this, it is then time to leave them to prove for an hour!

After all this mixing, kneading, resting & proving it is then finally time to pop them in the oven for 10 minutes!

Reviews? My Grandad had 7 in total, 4 for his tea and the next day he had 3 with his soup, I think it's safe to say he was a fan!