Camp Bagels
Flour, water, yeast, and a molasses bath. Two hours of waiting and a dutch oven full of coals.
- calories
- 290
- weight
- 2.6 oz
- cal / oz
- 112
- protein
- 9 g
- serves
- 8, scales
- prep
- 120 min
- cook
- 35 min
- total time
- 155 min
- water
- 2400 ml boiled
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Breakfast
- Lunch
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Vegetarian
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- Real dishes
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Bread flour | 4 cups | all-purpose works but the chew suffers |
|---|---|---|
| Instant yeast | 2 1/4 tsp | instant, not active dry, so it needs no proofing fuss |
| Kosher salt | 2 tsp | |
| Honey | 2 tbsp | carried in a small squeeze bottle |
| Water, lukewarm | 1 1/2 cups | for the dough |
| Water, for the bath | 2 quarts | |
| Molasses | 1 tbsp | for the bath; a tablespoon of brown sugar substitutes |
| Oil | 1 tbsp | for greasing the bag and the dutch oven |
Method
- Stir the honey into 1 1/2 cups of lukewarm water in a large freezer bag. Add the flour-yeast-salt premix.
- Seal out the air and knead the bag from the outside, about six minutes, until the dough stops sticking to the plastic and feels smooth.
- Add a little oil, work it over the dough, and set the bag somewhere warm for an hour. Near the fire ring, not in it.
- Punch the dough down through the bag and give it another twenty minutes.
- Divide into eight pieces. Roll each into a ball, poke a thumb through the middle, and stretch the hole wider than looks right. It closes as it bakes.
- Bring 2 quarts of water to a boil in a pot with the molasses stirred in. Drop in bagels two at a time, 45 seconds a side, and lift them out.
- Bake in a greased dutch oven with a lid, coals underneath and a heavier ring on top, 30 to 35 minutes. Rotate the oven and the lid a quarter turn every ten minutes so nothing scorches.
- Check at 30. The bottoms brown first and go too far fast.
Bagels are a lot of standing around for one dutch oven of bread, which is exactly why they suit a basecamp with a fire that has to burn down anyway. The dough rises while you do something else. The only real timing pressure is the twenty minutes at the end.
The molasses bath is not decoration. Boiling the dough sets the crust before it bakes, which is the difference between a bagel and a round roll. Keep the dip short; leave them in longer and the outside turns to leather. Kneading in a freezer bag replaces the mixer and the greased bowl and means one less thing to wash in cold water.
Packing
Combine flour, yeast, and salt at home in one gallon bag; that bag becomes the mixing bowl. Honey, molasses, and oil ride in small squeeze bottles.
Variations
- Press sesame or poppy seeds onto the wet tops straight out of the bath.
- Skip the honey and use brown sugar in the dough to make the whole thing vegan.
- Leftovers split and toasted on a grill grate are better the second day than the first.
https://www.lodgecastiron.com/blogs/recipe/classic-bagels