Ovenless baking

Not having an oven here in Uganda has caused me to become creative with baking. I love to bake so much that I just couldn't go for a year without it (yet I also couldn't afford to buy an oven...) So with some research, I have discovered two methods of stove-top baking.

The first: Using a cast iron skillet. This seems to work best for things that don't need to be baked for very long, like pizza or cookies, because if it is bread that needs to stay in there for a while, the bottom gets a little burnt in the middle. I suppose that if you had a stove where you could regulate the temperature so that heat was evenly spread out under the skillet at a very low level, this wouldn't be a problem. But I can't regulate the heat very well, so even with really well oiled heavy paper lining the bottom of the skillet, I still end up with some burning of bread.





So, there is the second method: "Pressure cooking." This could be done with a real pressure cooker, but I don't have one. So I use a big pot that has a lid, put some water in the bottom and some spoons, then place a smaller pot containing the dough/batter inside, cover the big pot, and let it boil away for however long the thing needs to cook. It works great for cakes and breads - no problems so far!