The recipe is based on the one for Basic Pizza Dough in Julia Child’s The Way To Cook, with added instructions for making the dough by hand and for refrigerator rising.

The bread is best when it is warm and comes out of the oven with a crisp crust and a tender interior. It is easy to taste the buttermilk in the loaf, but it is very plain bread. I like it with soup, where it can sop up broth, or cut into slices (I often simply pull pieces off the loaf) and topped with butter or jam. Irish butter is usually salted and will taste better with the bread than unsalted butter.

These were thinnish in a 10×16 pan, but for some reason took longer than stated to bake. We added coffee and chocolate chips, and may try pecans and orange next time. They do need to be cut (or at least scored) before they cool, because the top crusts up and you’ll get a crumbly mess if you cut them afterward.