Mum was a pretty neat person and had a talent with food that I lack. My brother has it but the knack has largely evaded me. I mean, I can generally tell when things are cooked by smell or timing but there is something, a je ne sais quoi, that happens at the end. The presentation perhaps or an acknowledgment that food continues cooking after it leaves the heat? I do not know.

However, that is not the point of this. The point of this is that she made a very nice loaf of camp oven (some people call it a dutch oven) bread. It's healthy, you don't need to knead it and the hardest part is trying not to eat it all while it is hot. It's seen me through many a day and deserves to be spread around.

You don't have to use a camp oven. It's actually quite handy to split it into two smaller containers. I normally do though.

Mum's Camp Oven Bread

Equipment

A large bowl for mixing

1.5L water container 

Camp oven

Tablespoon

Ingredients

3 cups of wholemeal flour

2 cups of white flour

1/2 a cup of oats

1/2 a cup of mixed seeds (pumpkin, sesame, etc...)

1 liter of tepid water

Olive oil

Tablespoon of honey

Tablespoon of salt

Tablespoon of bread yeast

Method

Step 1 - Yeast water

Take your liter of tepid water and mix your honey onto it. I generally start with water warmer than tepid which makes it easier and it cools down as you dissolve the honey anyway. Then, sprinkle your yeast over the warm water. It's going to take a little while to foam up so put it to the side for the moment.

Step 2 - Lubrication

Oil your camp oven. You don't need a huge amount but you need oil on all the sides and I like to oil the inside of the lid as well because if it all goes wrong and the bread sticks to the lids it is pretty bloody hard to get off.

Step 3 - Dry ingredients

Add all the dry ingredients into the bowl and mix well. Make sure you mix the salt around especially well. Bread without salt doesn't taste that good and neither does a mouthful with a lot of it.

If you mix with one hand and hold the bowl with the other it makes less mess. 

Step 4 - Wet mix

By now your yeast water should have foamed up. Pour it in.

Maybe be a little careful at the start because depending on the size of the cup you used a litter may be too much or too little. You can always add more water but it can get out of control if you are having to add flour to try and soak up the liquid. I like it about the consistency of porridge but as long as it is all wet it should be good.

Also, if you pour the liquid in from the edge of the bowl you won't end up with difficult dry bits.

Step 5 - Let it rise

Put it in the camp over, cover with the lid and place in a warm place for the dough to rise. It's probably going to take about 20-30 minutes and you want to let it rise until it is about 2/3 to 3/4 up the side of the pot. 

Step 6 - Cooking

Your oven wants to be around 180°C. Put the camp oven in the oven with the lid on and cook for 45min. Then remove the lid to brown the top and harden up the crust. I just keep going back to it every 10mins or so with check it.

When it looks cooked you need to check by stabbing the center with a long knife, something metal anyway. If it comes back out not clean then the bread isn't cooked and needs to go back in.

Step 7 - Separation anxiety

As I said this is the hardest step. After the bread is cooked and you have removed it from the oven let it rest for a little bit with the lid on, both to cool down and to make removing it easier.

In a perfect world, you should be able to flip the camp oven upside down and the bread with fall gently to the bench...but, it is a good idea to run a knife around the side first. If it still doesn't come out then don't force it, put the lid back on and let it sweat for a while. After about 10mins it will come out, if not leave it longer.

The hardest part is now. Do not eat, do not slice it open and have a delicious sandwich of fresh bread with butter. Let it rest and cool with a tea towel over it to keep it from drying out.