Camp Oven No-Knead Sandwich Bread
Overnight dough, two loaf pans clipped together, and a fold-flat camp oven.
- calories
- 190
- weight
- 2.6 oz
- cal / oz
- 73
- protein
- 6 g
- serves
- 10, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 55 min
- total time
- 70 min
- water
- 415 ml cold
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Breakfast
- Lunch
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Vegetarian
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- Real dishes
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Bread flour | 3 1/2 cups | plus a small handful for shaping |
|---|---|---|
| Cool water | 14 oz | about 415 ml |
| Salt | 1 1/2 tsp | |
| Instant yeast | 1/4 tsp | instant only, active dry needs proofing |
| Cooking spray or oil | as needed |
Method
- The night before, whisk the water, salt, and yeast together in a bowl. Add the flour and stir it with the handle of a wooden spoon until no dry flour is left. It will look like paste, not dough.
- Cover the bowl and leave it out overnight. It should roughly double.
- In the morning, oil one loaf pan on the bottom and sides. Oil a second pan on its sides only, not its bottom face.
- Sprinkle a half handful of flour over the dough and stir, pull, and stretch it until the outside is no longer sticky. Drop it into the oiled pan.
- Invert the second pan over the first and clamp the ends with two metal binder clips. Rest 30 minutes.
- Set a baking tile or a clean brick on the floor of the camp oven, put the rack on its lowest setting, and preheat to 350F over the camp stove. Give it 15 minutes.
- Bake 40 minutes. The dial will likely sag toward 300F and drift; ignore it and go by time. Unclip, lift the top pan, and turn the loaf out to cool.
No-knead dough exists because time replaces effort. A quarter teaspoon of yeast working overnight develops the same gluten structure a mixer would beat in, so the only tool required is the handle of a wooden spoon. That matters at a picnic table, where you have no mixer and no counter.
The two loaf pans clipped together are the real trick. They trap the dough’s own steam for the first part of the bake, which is what gives you a crust instead of a dry brick, and it works in a thin-walled camp oven that leaks heat badly. Only the bottom pan gets fully greased; grease on the top pan’s inner face would just drip onto the rising loaf. Expect the temperature dial to read low and wander. Bake by the clock.
Packing
Measure the flour, salt, and yeast into one zip bag at home and label it with the water amount. At camp you add water and stir. Binder clips and the baking tile live in the oven itself so you do not forget them.
Variations
- Half whole wheat flour works, but add another 2 tbsp of water; it drinks more.
- Stir a tablespoon of rosemary or a spoon of sugar into the dry mix before packing.
- No camp oven: bake the clipped pans in a Dutch oven over coals, roughly 12 coals under and 16 on the lid.
https://thesurvivalmom.com/bake-bread-coleman-ovens