This started as an experiment to turn a crumpet batter into a tray bake, and ended up somewhere much more useful — a fast, one-bowl yeasted bread with a super crisp top and bottom and an open, sliceable crumb. No kneading, no shaping, just mix, pour, rest and bake. Slice it through the middle and you’ve got a toastable, absorbent base that’s brilliant alongside a brisket, or just with butter and honey for breakfast and it makes a fabulous loaf to serve with anything where a dinner roll would be good.

THE BREAD YOU MAKE WHEN YOU CAN’T BE BOTHERED MAKING BREAD

Ingredients

• 300g plain white baker’s flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp white sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 7g dried yeast (1 sachet)
• 2 eggs
• About 400ml kefir, or kefir topped up with milk
• Olive oil, for the pan and for spraying

Method

1. Whisk the flour, salt, sugar, baking powder and yeast together in a large bowl
2. Add the kefir (and milk if topping up to 400ml) and eggs and whisk to combine (a stick mixer or hand whisk both work fine).
3. Check the consistency — the batter should be pourable but slow to spread, settling to level within about 10 seconds of pouring. Adjust with a little extra kefir or milk if it’s too thick.
4. 
5. Line a 23 x 33cm cast iron or baking dish with baking paper, leaving enough overhang up the sides to use as handles for lifting the bake out later. Spray or brush the paper generously with olive oil.
6. Pour the batter into the lined pan.
7. Rest at around 32°C (a proofing setting, warming drawer or warm spot in the kitchen) until doubled — about 45 minutes.
8. Spray the top generously with olive oil.
9. Bake on a glazed or crust-style bread program at 190°C until deeply golden and crisp on top, with a firm base. In the V-ZUG combi oven on professional baking – glazed works well.
10. Lift out using the paper handles and cool on a rack before slicing.

Notes

This batter started life as a crumpet recipe — same ratio of yeast to baking powder with added eggs — thinned out with kefir and baked as a slab instead of in rings. Don’t expect crumpet-style surface holes; oven heat sets the top before bubbles can break through, no matter what’s happening underneath. What you get instead is a deeply golden, crisp crust top and bottom with an open, almost focaccia-like crumb inside.

Kefir consistency varies day to day, so treat the 400ml as a starting point and adjust to get a batter that’s pourable but holds its shape briefly — not runny, not stiff.

Slice the bake horizontally through the middle to make a sandwich. The cut faces are open and absorbent — perfect for soaking up butter, honey, or braising juices from a brisket or other slow-cooked meat. The crisp top and bottom crusts hold everything together.

Keeps well for a few days in an airtight container, and freezes well. Reheat or toast from the cut face.

If you don’t have a glazed or crust-finishing oven program, a standard hot oven (200–220°C, no steam) for the last part of baking will help develop the crust — watch closely so the base doesn’t catch.