Skillet Focaccia
Yeast dough, a covered pan, and a slow fire. Bread at camp with five dry ingredients.
- calories
- 390
- weight
- 3.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 111
- protein
- 8 g
- serves
- 6, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 25 min
- total time
- 40 min
- water
- 300 ml boiled
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Lunch
- Campfire coals
- Dutch oven
- Canister stove
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| All-purpose or bread flour | 3 1/4 cups | |
|---|---|---|
| Active dry yeast | 2 1/4 tsp | one packet |
| Sugar | 1 tsp | feeds the yeast so you skip the long rise |
| Kosher salt | 1 1/2 tsp | |
| Olive oil | 1/4 cup | half in the dough, half in the pan |
| Water | 1 1/2 cups | warm, not hot |
| Flaky salt and dried herbs | 1 tsp | for the top |
Method
- Warm 300 ml of water until it is barely above skin temperature. Too hot kills the yeast. Stir in the sugar and yeast and leave it five minutes, until the surface goes foamy.
- Add the flour, kosher salt, and 2 tbsp of the oil. Stir with a spoon until there is no dry flour left. The dough should be wet and sticky. Do not knead it and do not add flour to fix the stickiness.
- Cover the pot and set it somewhere warm for 45 minutes. In cold weather, put it inside a jacket or near the fire, not on it.
- Oil the skillet or dutch oven heavily with the rest of the oil. Pour the dough in, wet your fingers, and press it out to the edges. Dimple it all over. Scatter the flaky salt and herbs.
- Set the pan over low coals, or on a stove at the lowest flame you can hold. Cover it. Twenty to twenty-five minutes, rotating the pan every five so one side does not burn.
- It is done when the bottom is dark gold and the top has set. If you have a dutch oven, put a few coals on the lid for the last ten minutes to brown the top.
Focaccia is the easiest bread to make outdoors because it does not need kneading, shaping, or a second rise. It is a wet dough poured into an oiled pan. The oil is not a garnish. It fries the bottom crust while the top steams under the lid, which is how you get bread out of a covered pan with no oven.
The sugar is there to shorten the rise to something you can wait out in camp. The original counts on a warm kitchen; outdoors the dough goes slower the colder it gets, so judge by size rather than the clock. Everything dry travels premixed in one bag, and the only fresh thing involved is water.
Packing
Combine flour, yeast, sugar, and kosher salt in one bag at home. Oil goes in a leakproof bottle. The topping salt and herbs ride in a film canister.
Variations
- Press olives, sun-dried tomatoes, or thin-sliced garlic into the dimples before baking.
- A hard cheese grated over the top in the last five minutes melts into the oil.
- No skillet: bake it as flatbreads, a hand-flattened piece at a time, in a lightly oiled pan.
https://dontwastethecrumbs.com/yummy-recipe-basic-focaccia-plus-4-variations