Using just four ingredients, this simple bread is made in a slow cooker in just 90 minutes – and costs about 60p. Today I made Cheese & Onion Savoury Bread, by adding some oregano and used up three plum tomatoes I had, but they’re optional. I was using up leftover plum tomatoes that needed to be used or lost!

Without Yeast / No Knead Bread

This is a cheap loaf of bread, a low cost loaf – without yeast and it’s a no knead bread – made from a few basic ingredients. It’s a dense/moist bread, great as a side dish with a bowl of soup – or even eaten on its own. Once this loaf was cooked I cut out a fat middle slice and ate it immediately; I’ll have the remainder with some tomato soup later.

Some people call this campfire bread, or damper bread – as it’s easily made in a pot over an open fire, but it cooks in a slow cooker too.

This was cooked in a 3.5 Litre slow cooker on HIGH.

Slow Cooker Bread Ingredients

• 360 grams self-raising flour
• ~400-450ml warm water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Oil, just to spray the baking/parchment paper

Filling/toppings

• 40+30 grams mature cheddar cheese, grated
• ½ medium onion, chopped/sliced finely
• 1 tablespoon oregano; optional, I just added this because I wanted to
• 3 plum tomatoes, optional: they needed using up

How to Make Slow Cooker Bread:

1. Line the slow cooker with baking paper/parchment and spray with oil so your loaf doesn’t stick.
2. Turn the slow cooker on to HIGH, so it pre-heats a little while you’re prepping.
3. Measure the flour out into a bowl, add the salt, slowly add the warm water and mix it all thoroughly – the dough will be wet, but not “sticky”.
4. Add about half the cheese (40 grams) and half the onions to the dough. I also added all the oregano in at this stage.

5. Place the dough into the slow cooker – I scraped it out from the bowl with a large spoon, then pushed it to the edges.
6. Add the remainder of your toppings.

7. Place a tea-towel or kitchen paper towel between the slow cooker lid and the ceramic pot, this soaks up excess moisture so it doesn’t drip onto your bread.
8. Cook in the slow cooker on HIGH for 1½ hours.
9. Remove from the slow cooker – slice and serve.

I usually just eat this on its own – the first chunk while it’s still hot. After that I might put some butter or margarine on a slice, or cut a chunk to serve alongside chilli con carne or a bowl of soup.

How Long Does Slow Cooker Bread Last?

I’d usually eat this within two days – as soon as it’s cool, I place the loaf in an airtight container and pop it in the fridge.

A quick blast in the microwave will warm it up again.

It can be frozen, just wrap it up tight and put it in the freezer.

What is the Cost to Make Slow Cooker Bread?

In this loaf, the basic ingredients were cheap – the cost of the flour (1.5Kg for 55p at budget supermarkets) was just 16p. The water and salt are “free”.

It’s the cheese that’s the most expensive item here – at 33p – but it can be reduced, or left out. The fillings and toppings are your choice.

• Flour/16p; Cheese/33p; Onion/5p; Oregano/pennies.

Electricity to run the slow cooker for 1½ hours on HIGH is minimal – once up to temperature the slow cooker switches off/on to keep the temperature, so it’s no more than 10p at the absolute maximum – probably closer to 3p if you’ve got an energy monitoring plug to check for yourself.