Camp Dutch Oven Chocolate Swirl Loaf
Babka logic in a dutch oven: one enriched dough, one cocoa smear, coals on the lid.
- calories
- 390
- weight
- 3.6 oz
- cal / oz
- 108
- protein
- 7 g
- serves
- 8, scales
- prep
- 150 min
- cook
- 45 min
- total time
- 195 min
- water
- 180 ml cold
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Breakfast
- Dessert
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Vegetarian
- Real dishes
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| All-purpose flour | 3 cups | |
|---|---|---|
| Sugar | 1/3 cup, plus 1 tbsp for the yeast | |
| Instant yeast | 2 1/4 tsp | instant, not active dry, so it can go straight into the flour if you are cold |
| Salt | 1 tsp | |
| Powdered whole milk | 3 tbsp | stands in for the 1/3 cup fresh milk |
| Powdered whole egg | 6 tbsp | equals about 3 eggs; a fourth adds nothing you will notice in camp |
| Butter or shortening | 8 tbsp | shortening does not need a cooler |
| Cocoa powder | 1/4 cup | |
| Chocolate chips | 1/3 cup | melted into the filling |
| Vanilla extract | 1/2 tsp | optional, carried in a dropper bottle |
| Water | about 3/4 cup | warm, not hot |
Method
- Whisk 1 tbsp sugar and the yeast into 1/4 cup warm water. Give it ten minutes. If nothing foams, your yeast is dead and you are making a dense sweet brick.
- Stir the flour, remaining sugar, salt, milk powder, and egg powder together in the pot. Add the yeast water, the vanilla, half the butter softened, and enough of the remaining water to pull it into a shaggy dough.
- Knead on a clean cutting board or inside a large zip bag for ten minutes, until it stops tearing when you stretch it. Cover and let it rise somewhere warm for 60 to 90 minutes. A closed car in the sun works.
- Melt the rest of the butter with the cocoa, chocolate chips, and 2 tbsp sugar in a small pan over low coals. Let it cool until it is spreadable, not runny.
- Press the dough into a rough rectangle, spread the filling to the edges, roll it up, then twist the roll on itself twice. Coil it into a greased 10-inch dutch oven. Second rise, 30 minutes.
- Bake with about 8 coals under the oven and 16 on the lid, aiming for 350F. Rotate the oven and the lid a quarter turn every ten minutes. It is done at 40 to 45 minutes, when a stick comes out dry.
- Lift the lid off the moment it comes off the fire or the bread steams and goes gummy.
This started as a stand mixer recipe with fresh milk, four eggs, and a two-day attitude. Powdered milk and powdered egg do the same job here without a cooler, and hand kneading gets you to the same window of gluten in about ten minutes. The dough is enriched, so it is slack and sticky; resist adding flour to fix that or the crumb tightens up.
Heat control is the whole game in a dutch oven. Most of the coals go on the lid because bread wants top heat, and the quarter turns keep one hot spot from scorching a stripe through the bottom. If your fire is uneven, pull coals off the base first, not the lid.
Packing
Combine flour, sugar, salt, yeast, milk powder, and egg powder in one zip bag at home. Cocoa, chips, and the filling sugar go in a second. Fat rides separately in a screw-top tub.
Variations
- Skip the twist and bake it as eight coiled rolls; they cook in half the time and burn less on the bottom.
- Two tablespoons of instant coffee in the filling cuts the sweetness.
- A glaze of 6 tbsp sugar dissolved in 1/2 cup water, brushed on hot, keeps the crust soft overnight.
https://www.lodgecastiron.com/blogs/recipe/chocolate-babka-loaves