Thursday, June 16, 2011

Cooking Camp Bread

Few things are more satisfying than eating freshly baked bread when you are out camping.

I like to mix all the dry ingredients together and put in plastic bags to be able to have a couple of loaves or bread sticks. You can add your water right into the bag and mix the dough in the bag.
We have made stone ovens to bake in, which can be a lot of work, and the bread turns out much like what a brick oven makes. Good stuff!
You can tote in a camp oven, which is a heavy and bulky addition to a backpack. These can be nice as they have a temperature gauge.

But let's get primitive for a moment.

I am talking bread sticks with a twist, literally.
The way to make bread sticks for over a fire is to wrap your bread dough around a stick that has had the bark stripped off (make sure you use a good wood for this as some woods can be poisonous) and then you can roast if over hot coals.
I like to use Y shaped branches stuck into the ground on each side of the fire to cradle the bread stick stick on. It makes it easy to turn the stick for even heating and lets me work on the other foods for the meal.

And then there is Ash bread.
Ash bread is where you start a fire on a fairly flat rock and once that goes to coals you move the coals aside, place the dough (well floured) on the rock, put a layer of hot ashes on the dough and then hot coals on top of the ashes. Once it is done you just brush off the coals and ashes. You can even cook roasts this way. Ash gives a wonderful flavor.

Most campers like to bring bannock for bread making. Bannock is quite wonderful and less complicated than my camp bread recipe, and quite possibly more versatile. There are several recipes for bannock out there or you can use Bisquick.

It is good to bring extra plain flour and some salt when you go primitive. Don't forget the butter, cooking oil/grease and a fry pan for the fried fish fillets to go with your bread!

I will update this post later with pictures and put my bread recipe on another post.

Thank you for stopping by.
Grab a warm slice and be cozy!
Dee Dee


No comments:

Post a Comment