Pint Glass Loaf

Pint Glass Loaf recipe

I love making my own bread. It’s satisfying, delicious and a great skill to have if you have a house full of hungry people who seem to go through a loaf of bread a day. As long as you have flour and yeast in your cupboard you are only a few hours away from a warm loaf. This fantastic Pint Glass Loaf recipe is a joy, and there’s no need to dig out the scales.

I have been spending a lot of time looking at recipes for the new year and I’ve been loving Jack Monroe’s site. She has some inspirational ideas, and they are all incredibly frugal. Which, lets face it, suit January down to the ground. Her Pint Glass Loaf recipe is a simple white, crusty bread, made using a pint glass for measuring purposes. It uses lager which gives the bread a wonderful yeasty flavour and other than that, there’s just flour, yeast, salt and sugar needed to create this masterpiece.

According to Jack this loaf costs less than £1 to make and thank God for that. The state of my bank balance is horrifying this month and with Ben still not back to uni yet, he is at home eating everything in sight.

I managed to wrestle these cans of beer out of a Ben’s hands just in time to make this bread. You need a pint for this recipe, but cans tend not to be a pint, so I used about one and a half. Strong bread flour is good, but plain white flour is also fine.

Make a start with a big bowl and your pint glass. Measure in 2 full pint glasses worth of flour then use the bottom of the glass to make a well in the middle.

Now taking your pint glass again, pour in half a pint of lager and heat this for a minute or so in the microwave to warm it up. You don’t want it to be hot, just so you can put your finger in it without burning it. Top the glass up with the rest of the lager to make a full pint.

Measure the yeast, sugar and salt into the flour.

Pour in the warm lager and the oil then mix with a spatula to form a rough ball of dough. It will be quite soft.

Turn the dough onto a super well floured work surface. The dough is soft, so you may well need quite a bit more flour to stop it sticking and so you can knead it well.

Aggghh ugly hand alert.

Knead the dough for around 10 minutes. The dough will be ready when it’s smoother, more elastic and soft but not too sticky.

Add a splash of oil to your bowl then roll the dough around to stop it sticking. Cover the bowl with a tea towel and pop in a warm place for around an hour and a half or until the dough has doubled in size and when you poke your finger in it, the indent stays. The dough can be left to rise overnight for a more yeasty flavour if that suits your timings better.

Pre heat your oven to around 170 degrees fan assisted and dust a baking sheet with flour. Tip the dough back out onto your floured work surface and knock it back by giving it another quick knead.

Shape your dough into your shape of choice. I went for a sort of rough oblong, nothing too challenging. You can go for a round loaf, or put it in an oiled loaf tin if you like.

Dust the top of the loaf with flour then make three slashes in the top with a sharp knife.

Put the bread in the oven for around an hour. It will be golden, smelling amazing and will sound hollow when it’s tapped on the bottom.

Try to restrain yourself from eating it whilst it’s burning hot; wait for the Pint Glass Loaf to cool before before slicing it and slathering it with butter and my top choice, lemon curd.

We are need a bit of help in the purse department in January and this loaf is both frugal and delicious. It’s a two for one; spirits and bank balance lifted in one go.

Lucy x

Pint Glass Loaf recipe

Makes a good sized loaf

You will need a pint (584ml) glass and a baking sheet

2 pint glasses plain or strong bread flour, plus about another half a pint for kneading and dusting

1 pint lager

1 teaspoon active dried yeast

1 heaped teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon caster sugar

1 tablespoon oil, plus more for oiling the bowl

Take a large bowl and measure in 2 pint glasses full of flour. Use the bottom of the glass to make a well in the middle of the flour. Measure the yeast, salt and sugar into the bowl, around the edge of the well.

Measure out half a pint of lager and heat for 30 seconds to a minute in the microwave. You don’t want it to be boiling, just warm enough to put your finger in it. Pour in the rest of the lager then add this to the flour and yeast mixture along with the tablespoon of oil.

Mix well with a spatula to bring the dough together. Very generously flour your work surface or board then turn the dough out. Knead the bread dough for around 10 minutes. The dough is quite soft, so add more flour to stop it sticking to your board, but no so much that it makes the dough stiff. The well kneaded dough should be smooth and more elastic. Oil your bowl and add the dough. Cover with a tea towel and leave in a warm place for around an hour to an hour and a half. The dough can be left overnight to prove, if you that helps.

When the time is nearly up, pre heat your oven to 170 degrees fan assisted and dust your baking sheet with some flour. Turn the dough out, once it has almost doubled in size, and give it another quick knead.

Shape your loaf in whatever shape you fancy, or put it into an oiled loaf tin if you like. I went for a sort of oblong. Dust the top with flour then make three slashes in the top. Pop the loaf into the hot oven for around an hour. The bread is cooked when it’s golden, smelling amazing and when it sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.

Serve warm, slathered with something delicious. This bread is best on the day or great toasted in the following days.