No-Knead Skillet Bread

I missed bread more than anything when we first moved in. Not toast, proper bread, the kind with a crust that shatters. We don’t have an oven, so for a while I assumed that was that. It isn’t. A heavy pan with a lid is an oven if you treat it like one, and the loaf that comes out steams up every window in the van.

The low and slow of it

The trick with no oven is a low flame and a tight lid, so the bread bakes in its own trapped steam rather than scorching on the bottom. The first one I made was black underneath and raw in the middle, so learn from me: keep the heat gentle and trust the time. A diffuser ring under the pan helps if you’ve got one. The dough itself does all the real work while you’re out with the camera.

Method

1. Mix the flour, yeast and salt in a bowl, pour in the water, and stir to a rough, shaggy dough. No kneading. Cover and leave somewhere out of the draught for a couple of hours, until doubled and bubbly. The van’s dashboard in the sun is perfect.
2. Tip it onto a floured surface, fold it over itself a few times into a rough round, and let it sit while the pan heats.
3. Warm the lidded pan over a low flame with a sprinkle of polenta in the base. Lower in the dough, put the lid on, and keep the flame low.
4. Cook 30 minutes with the lid on, then 8 to 10 with the lid off to colour the top. It’s done when it sounds hollow tapped on the base. Let it cool before you tear into it, if you can manage that.