Pan de Campo
“Pan de campo is an excellent side bread for soups and stews, but we eat it as a dessert or at breakfast. The leftovers will keep for a few days in an airtight container and will even fit into the toaster for a little added crunch. Eating this delicious treat with loads of butter and honey is my preference but also my downfall. I eat too much!!”
Ingredients
- 4 cups (500 g) all-purpose flour
- 4 tablespoons (50 g) sugar
- 2 teaspoons (8 g) baking powder
- 1 tablespoon (12 g) salt
- ¼ cup (50 g) vegetable shortening
- ¼ cup (60 ml) vegetable oil
- About 2 cups (500 ml) milk
Instructions
To bake in a home oven:
- Preheat the oven to 450° F.
- Sift together the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl. Stir in the shortening and vegetable oil and work the dough with your hands until it resembles coarse meal.
- Add 1½ cups (375 ml) of the milk and stir. The dough should be sticky but workable. If the dough is too stiff, add more milk; if the dough is too thin, add more flour.
- Turn the dough onto a counter dusted with flour and knead for about 1 minute, but don’t overwork it. Pat out gently or roll into a 9-inch circle that is ½-inch thick. Using a fork, prick the dough all over.
To bake over a fire:
- Prepare the recipe as directed above but use a 14- inch cast iron Dutch oven with a heavy lid. The Dutch oven needs to have feet to sit above the live embers.
- The mesquite wood that we use in Texas for all our outdoor cooking burns hotter and smokier than almost any other wood and gives the bread extra crispiness with just a hint of mesquite flavor.
- Build a mesquite fire, and once your fire has burned for about 30 minutes, so it has a steady calm heat, you’re ready to bake.
- Using a shovel, transfer some of the coals to a separate spot a few feet from your fire. Arrange the coals in a small bed about 2 square feet (60 sq cm) in size.
- Remove the lid and grease the interior of your Dutch oven generously with vegetable shortening. Replace the lid and put your Dutch oven in the center of the coals to heat for about 10 minutes.
- Once heated, remove the lid and unfold the pan de campo dough in the Dutch oven. Adjust the dough so it is centered in the pan.
- Replace the lid, and using your shovel, pile of small amount of live coals on top of the lid so that the Dutch oven is entirely surrounded by gentle heat. After 10 minutes, open the Dutch oven, and flip over the pan de campo for even baking.
Notes
The skill in making pan de campo over live coals is in controlling the temperature of the Dutch oven. If it is too hot, the bread will burn. If it is too cold, it will not cook properly. Remember that you need a 450° F oven to bake pan de campo successfully in your home oven, so your Dutch oven needs to be maintained at the same temperature. Using a thermometer with a live fire is a bit difficult, so judgment and experience will eventually become the tools on which you rely for perfect pan de campo.