Pan De Campo

Breakfast for dinner. It's one of my most favoritest dinners. And I almost always do the bacon and eggs with biscuits and gravy thing. Which happens to be one of my most favoritest breakfasts too.

This week for our Cook-off and Spotlight of The Homesick Texan Cookbook we got to choose whatever recipe we wanted to showcase. There were so many to pick from. I could've gone with the Blueberries with Cornmeal Shortcake, or the Hush Puppies...I really considered the Tamales. I mean there are just so many wonderfully mouthwatering recipes to choose from and you just KNOW you're going to love whatever it is you decide to make.

And here I am.....with one of the most simple recipes in the whole dang book. The Pan De Campo. Lisa Fain proceeds the recipe with a bit of history telling. It's just so cute how she has a story behind every recipe in the book.  The Pan De Campo is Texas' state bread. (I wonder if California has a state bread...it should....and I think it should be Sourdough Bread). Apparently this is the bread of cowboys. It's kinda like the biscuit version of cornbread....made in a cast-iron skillet and all. If you're a cowboy out on the range, you'd be making this over an open fire. Us citified people will have to put up with using a stove and oven and just deal with it. 

Pan De Campo
Printable Version

2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 TB (aka 1 1/2 tsp) baking powder
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
6 TB lard or shortening, at room temperature
3/4 cup buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 400' F and grease a large (10") cast-iron skillet

Combine the dry ingredients. Stir in the shortening and blend (use a fork or pastry blender) until you have fine crumbs. Add the buttermilk and blend until smooth.

Heat up your skillet on the stove. While that's going on....on a floured surface, roll out the dough into a circle, about 9" wide (a bit smaller than your skillet)

Place into your hot, greased skillet and cook for about 5 minutes per side over a medium low heat

Then put the whole thing in the oven, skillet and all, and bake for about 15 minutes

And there you have it....Pan De Campo. You can slice it like a pizza or tear it off into pieces

What do you do with a giant biscuit? Well...you can do what I did and treat it like a regular biscuit by pouring luscious, creamy breakfast gravy all over it.

You can do as the cowboys do and dip it into beans. Or you can have it for dessert with some honey or homemade jam.

And if you have any leftover the next day slice it length-wise and make yourself an egg sandwich.

Whatever you do...I'm sure you'll have fun with it as much as you enjoy it. And maybe, just maybe.... you'll feel a little bit like a cowboy while you're doing it.

*This post is part of The Homesick Texan Cookbook Spotlight and Cook-Off sponsored by Hyperion and hosted at Girlichef*