Pint-Glass Bread

One of the editions of Saveur that we took from our stay at the Wayside Inn on the Cape had a cute story about a young man who went off to the University in Dublin, Ireland, and complained to his folks that the bread at school was bad and that he "would starve."
Dad suggested he bake his own bread and said, "I knew that every Irish student had a pint glass, which he's brought home from the pub, so I invented a recipe for the simplest bread in the world, one whose ingredients he could measure out with a pint glass. And I told him he could mix it in the wash basin if he didn't have a bowl. He didn't starve after all."

Pint-Glass Bread

1 pint glass (2 ½ cups) all-purpose flour
1 pint glass (2 ½ cups) whole wheat flour
Enough baking soda to coat the bottom of the glass (3/4 tsp)
Enough salt to coat the bottom of the glass (3/4 tsp)
Enough butter to coat the bottom of the glass (1 Tbsp)
¾ pint glass (1 ¾ cups) buttermilk

Preheat oven to 375.
Sprinkle 1tsp all-purpose flour on a baking sheet and set aside.
Combine flours, soda and salt in a large bowl and mix well with your hands to combine.
Add butter, breaking it up into small pieces with your fingers, and mix it into the flour mixture. Make a well in the flour-butter mixture and add the buttermilk. Slowly incorporate with your hands until a ball forms, then turn out onto a lightly floured surface and form into a neat ball (without kneading)
Transfer dough to the baking sheet and press gently to form a 7 1/2" wide round. Slash a cross 1/2" deep across the entire top of the loaf with a knife and dust top of loaf with 2 tsp flour.
Bake until bread is light golden and a tap on the bottom of the loaf sounds hollow, about 70 minutes. Wrap bread in a kitchen towel and prop against a window-sill and allow to cool for about 2 hours. Slice and serve at room temperature or toasted, with a slathering of Irish butter, if you like.


The dough did not come together like I thought it would... it was quite sticky, yet adding additional flour just caused it to separate which made it difficult to form into one cohesive ball without some kneading (which he warned me not to do). It baked in less than 70 minutes. It produced a dense, but not too-dense bread, which was great toasted with a little butter or peanut butter. While definitely different than a yeast bread, I would consider making this again (and see if I can get it to come together better)