Camp Grill Naan
Yeasted flatbread cooked straight on a grill grate. The dough is mixed at camp and rises while you do something else.
- calories
- 430
- weight
- 3.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 123
- protein
- 11 g
- serves
- 6, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 20 min
- total time
- 35 min
- water
- 300 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.
- Dinner
- Lunch
- Grill grate
- Campfire coals
- Dutch oven
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Vegetarian
- Nut free
- Real dishes
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| All-purpose flour | 4 cups | |
|---|---|---|
| Instant yeast | 2 tsp | instant, not active dry; it goes in with the flour |
| Salt | 1 tsp | |
| Whole milk powder | 1/3 cup | stands in for the milk and yogurt |
| Olive oil | 4 tbsp | 2 in the dough, 2 for brushing |
| Garlic powder | 1 tsp | |
| Coarse salt and black pepper | to taste | |
| Water | about 1 1/4 cups |
Method
- Dump the premixed dry bag into a pot or bowl. Add 2 tbsp oil and about 1 1/4 cups water, a little at a time, until it pulls together into a soft, slightly tacky dough.
- Knead in the bowl for five minutes. It should stop sticking to your hands and start sticking to itself.
- Cover with a lid or a bandana and leave it somewhere out of the wind for 45 minutes. In cold weather set it near the fire ring, not in it.
- Build a bed of coals and set the grate low, or run a camp grill on medium-high. You want the grate hot enough to hiss.
- Divide the dough into six pieces. Press and stretch each one flat with your hands, roughly a quarter inch thick. Flour is optional; oiled hands work better in camp.
- Lay a piece on the grate. Two to three minutes a side, until it puffs and picks up dark spots. Move it off the hottest coals if it colors before it puffs.
- Stir the garlic powder, coarse salt, and pepper into the remaining 2 tbsp oil and brush each bread as it comes off. Stack them under a cloth so they steam soft.
The original is a tandoor bread built on milk and whole-milk yogurt, neither of which survives a day in a pack. Milk powder does the same job: it puts sugar and fat into the dough so the crust browns and the crumb stays soft. Olive oil replaces the butter, in the dough and in the finish.
The rise is the only real constraint, and it costs you nothing if you start it when you get to camp and cook when the fire is down to coals. Direct heat is the point. A grate over coals chars the outside faster than the inside dries, which is why the bread puffs instead of turning into a cracker.
Packing
Combine flour, yeast, salt, milk powder, and garlic powder at home in one gallon bag. Oil rides in a leakproof bottle. The bag doubles as the mixing vessel if you are short on pots.
Variations
- Cook them in a lidded dutch oven over coals if there is no grate: three minutes a side on the bare bottom.
- Fold a piece around a foil packet of chicken or a scoop of lentils and it is dinner.
- Cinnamon and sugar in the brushing oil instead of garlic makes it dessert.
https://www.lodgecastiron.com/blogs/recipe/grilled-naan