Pint Glass Bread

1 Pint glass coarse flour                        1 Pint glass white flour

¾ Pint glass buttermilk              1 tablespoon butter

Enough salt to coat the bottom of a pint glass

Enough soda to coat the bottom of a pint glass

Mix dry ingredients well.  Add wet ingredients.  Gently mix with your fingertips.  Shape with floured hands into a circle about two inches high.  Put a deep X on top of the bread.  Bake in the top right hand oven of the Aga for around 20 minutes (or in a hot oven about 30 minutes).  Check occasionally.  Tap on the bottom for a hollow sound to see if done.  Eat with loads of Irish butter, cheese or smoked salmon.

This recipe for Pint Glass Bread was included in the March 2006 issue of Saveur magazine as part of the Delicious Ireland feature.

When Peter Ward’s son Jeff went off to college, he missed something about home right away—the great bread.  Peter suggested that Jeff bake his own, but Jeff had no baking experience and few utensils in a student-housing kitchen.  Peter knew that every Irish student has a pint glass which he’s brought home from a pub, so he invented a recipe for the simplest bread in the world, one where the ingredients could be measured out with a pint glass.  Peter told his son he could even mix it in the wash basin if he didn’t have a bowl!