Want to Know How to Make the Official Texas Pan de Campo?
For the record, as a proud Texan, I love Texas history and not too long ago I wrote about the Official State Animals of Texas. In June of 2005, I learned that the Texas legislators along with then-Texas Governor Rick Perry signed into legislation making the 100+-year-old recipe "Pan De Campo" (AKA country bread, camp bread, or cowboy bread) the official state bread of Texas.
While several recipes have been floating around for the past 20+ years our official Texas State Magazine, Texas Monthly published the original recipe. The ingredients are down to earth and simple. This recipe is quite easy to prepare and cooking time is less than 15 minutes.
You will need to gather a few things and prepare a safe place to bake the bread. While this time of year is camping season, it is also wildfire season in Texas. So before we go any further I do want to advise you to be extremely careful when dealing with outdoor campfires.
While the video below will show you an indoor as well as an outdoor way to prepare this, I prefer the outdoor mesquite-wood-baked Pan De Campo because it tastes so good. If I could talk my wife into making her white sausage gravy recipe, we would have what I call a "winner, winner chicken dinner!"
Pan de Campo Recipe
Ingredients:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon sugar
- 6 tablespoons shortening (slightly chilled; you can also use lard)
- ¾ cup whole milk
Equipment:
- 1 twelve-inch cast-iron skillet
Instructions:
- Preheat your oven to 450°F.
- Stir together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar).
- Blend in the shortening using a pastry cutter or your fingers until the mixture becomes crumbly.
- Gradually add the milk, a bit at a time, until you can form a not-too-sticky ball of dough.
- Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead it gently for about 1 minute.
- Flatten the ball of dough and roll it out into a round that’s about ½ inch thick.
- Prick the top of the dough all over with a fork.
- Melt a little shortening in the cast-iron skillet (enough to coat the bottom).
- Add the round of dough to the skillet and place it in the preheated oven.
- Bake for about 6 minutes, then flip the bread and bake for another 6 minutes.
Enjoy, and I'll see you at the State Park!