How To Bake No-Knead Bread In A Coleman Oven

Have you ever baked bread when camping? What about when you didn’t have electricity? Did you know you could? Yup! Turns out you can bake bread in Coleman Camp Ovens!

Coleman Camp Ovens don’t require either electric or gas power. They fold flat so they don’t take up near the amount of storage space you’d think they would. They do need a two or three-burner camping stove, but if you camp, you probably already have one of those.

Survival Mom reader Maureen Enriquez shares a no-knead sandwich bread recipe and exactly how she uses the Coleman oven to make this yeasty goodness and get the best results.

Baking Bread in a Coleman Oven

The bread recipe comes from the My No-Knead Bread Cookbook. No mixer needed, no yeast proofing…just the handle of a wooden spoon (to serve as a dough hook) and a bowl. The dough does have to rise, though, so plan ahead.

The clever part of this recipe is using two bread baking pans to mimic a Dutch oven. Oh, and Maureen baking the bread in a Coleman oven. That’s clever, too.

Ingredients

• 14 oz. of cool water
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp instant yeast
• 3 1/2 cups bread flour

Instructions

1. Combine water, salt, and yeast in a large glass or metal bowl and stir using a whisk.
2. Add the bread flour and stir using the handle of a large wooden spoon. Scrape flour off the sides of the bowl and then tumble the mixture using the spoon handle again.
3. Cover the top with plastic wrap and leave overnight to proof. The dough will double in size.
4. Once the dough has doubled in size, prepare two standard-sized bread pans. These will serve as a dutch oven. The bottom pan needs to be sprayed with cooking spray all over on the bottom and sides. The top pan that serves as a cover is only to be sprayed on the two sides and NOT the bottom. Set those aside.
5. Using the handle of your wooden spoon stir, pull, and stretch the dough. Scrape the sides and sprinkle and throw in a half handful of bread flour (just enough to coat the exterior so it’s no longer sticky,) and stir.
6. Pour dough into the bottom bread pan that is sprayed with cooking spray all over. Place the second pan on top to create your dutch oven and secure the two sides using metal binder clips on the two ends. This secures the bread pans to each other. Leave it like that for the dough to proof again for 30 minutes.
7. Place a square baking tile (some people use a brick) on the bottom floor of the Coleman Camp Oven. This gives your oven even baking. Be sure to set the rack inside the oven to the lowest rack position.
8. Preheat the camp oven to 350 degrees. It takes about 15 minutes. Bake for about 40 minutes.
   (Don’t be concerned if the temperature drops and stays at 300 degrees, because that is what mine did and my bread turned out perfect when I took it out 40 minutes later. The temperature inside the oven can be as much as 50 degrees higher than the temperature shown on the outside of the door.)

Help, I’m out of yeast!

Sometimes it’s because you forgot to pick some up at the store. Sometimes it’s because you can’t find it on the shelves. Or maybe you can’t get to the store. Regardless of the reason, if you find yourself without yeast, you could potentially make some yourself with one of Survival Mom’s recipes for making yeast.

Help, I don’t have bread flour!

If you don’t have bread flour, you can substitute all-purpose flour, although because it contains less protein, which absorbs moisture, the result is a bit wetter dough. My favorite baking authority, King Arthur, agrees with this. However, Maureen used bread flour, so you may need to experiment with all-purpose flour in order to get the same results using Maureen’s camp oven instructions.

Watch a Video of How to Make This Bread

This video shows the cookbook author making the bread but using an oven. According to Maureen, “I proved it can be done in the Coleman Oven, too.”

What Else Can You Bake in a Coleman Camp Oven?

In addition to making bread in a Coleman oven, you can bake rolls, muffins, cookies, cornbread, and other baked goods along the same line as these. You can also just keep food warm in it.

Maureen vouches for making muffins and cookies in the Coleman oven. She says they turned out perfect and recommends leaving the adjustable rack in the lowest position for these.

Can you imagine the comforting aroma of baked bread wafting through your campsite? Or the morale boost of warm, freshly baked cookies during an emergency? Never underestimate the power of food to sustain the body and bolster the spirit!

However, if you’d rather work on your Dutch Oven cooking skills when you’re camping, here are some recipes to try!

Have you ever baked bread in a Coleman Oven? What else do you make in it?