One of my favorite things about camping is the cooking. There’s something special about preparing a meal in the middle of nature, with minimal supplies and good company. It makes the process more fun, the effort more rewarding, and the food somehow even more delicious.

In this blog post, I’m sharing a super easy sourdough recipe you can make right outdoors in a skillet. Good bread is a luxury when you’re camping—and there’s nothing quite like enjoying it fresh off the fire, warm and toasty, alongside a hearty camp dinner or breakfast.

Below, you’ll find the minimal equipment you’ll need to make this recipe. When camping, I like to keep things light and avoid packing too many single-use items—less gear means less to clean. So I’ve only listed the essentials to keep things simple and efficient!

Equipment:

• Cooler: to store the sourdough bread
• Plate or some prep surface: to prepare and shape the sourdough bread and to serve food in
• Tongs/cooking utensil
• Flour, corn meal, or sesame seeds: to coat the dough and prevent it from sticking
• Cast iron skillet with lid: cast iron is ideal for cooking over a camp fire, but a normal skillet is fine if you are using a camp stove
• Camp stove if a fire ring with grill grate is not available at the campsite

Skillet Bread Recipe

Makes about 5 skillet flat bread larger than the size of an English muffin

Ingredients

• 60 g sourdough starter
• 180 g water
• 5 g salt
• 250 g all purpose or bread flour
• cornmeal and extra flour for dusting

Instructions

On the day before the camping trip, prepare the dough: ~3 hours.

• Mix sourdough starter, water, and salt together until they are well combined. Then mix in flour until a wet sticky dough forms. Cover and let the dough rest for 30 minutes.
• Stretch and folds the dough over itself about 4 times and allow it to rest for another 30 minutes. Repeat this 2 more times.
• After the last fold, cover and rest the dough for 45 minutes and then transfer it to the fridge

On the day of the camping trip:

• Transfer the dough into a cooler with ice. The dough can stay in the cooler during the camping trip for about 2-3 days, given that the cooler has enough ice to keep it cool.

Cooking the skillet bread:

• Remove the dough container from the cooler and allow it to come to room temperature for 1 hour.
• Transfer the dough onto a plate or a prep surface sprinkled with flour, corn meal, or sesame seeds.
• Divide and shape the dough into rough flat disks, reapplying the flour, corn meal or sesame seeds when needed.

• Place the dough in a dry cast iron skillet and cover it with a lid. Cook over medium low heat on a campfire or camp stove for about 7 minutes. Since heat levels can vary depending on your setup, check the bottom of the bread occasionally to prevent burning. Try to avoid lifting the lid too often, as this will release heat and reduce the oven-like effect inside the skillet.

• Flip the bread– the bottom should be golden brown. Cover the skillet with a lid again and allow the skillet bread to cook for another 7 minutes.
• Turn off the heat and allow the skillet bread to sit in the cooling skillet, covered for about 2 minutes before removing the lid. This will allow the bread to continue to cook.
• Transfer to plates, and allow it to cool until it is just warm to the touch. Enjoy warm or at room temperature!