Camp Honey Oat Loaf
A yeasted oat loaf baked in a dutch oven over coals. Mix at breakfast, eat at dinner.
- calories
- 300
- weight
- 2.9 oz
- cal / oz
- 103
- protein
- 9 g
- serves
- 8, scales
- prep
- 20 min
- cook
- 50 min
- total time
- 70 min
- water
- 355 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
- Snack
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Vegetarian
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Bread flour | 3 1/2 cups | |
|---|---|---|
| Whole wheat flour | 1/2 cup | |
| Rolled oats | 1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp | the 2 tbsp are for the top |
| Active dry yeast | 2 1/4 tsp | one packet |
| Salt | 2 tsp | |
| Honey | 1/4 cup | squeeze bottle, not a jar |
| Water | 1 1/2 cups | warm, not hot |
| Oil | 1 tbsp | for the pot and the bowl |
| Parchment paper | one 10 x 10 in sheet |
Method
- Stir the honey into the warm water, add the yeast, and leave it five minutes. It should smell like bread and look cloudy. If nothing happens, the yeast is dead and so is the loaf.
- Combine both flours, 1/4 cup oats, and the salt in the pot. Pour in the yeast water and mix with a spoon until it comes together, then knead against the side of the pot for about ten minutes. It goes from sticky to smooth.
- Oil the dough, cover the pot, and set it somewhere warm. An hour in full sun, closer to two in the shade or the cold.
- Punch it down, shape a round, and set it on the parchment. Let it rise a second time, about 45 minutes, while you build the fire down to coals.
- Lift the dough on the parchment into the oiled dutch oven and lid it. Put 8 coals under the pot and 16 on the lid.
- Bake 45 to 50 minutes, turning the pot a quarter turn every 15 minutes and the lid the other way. Done is hollow-sounding on the bottom and dark gold on top.
- Scatter the reserved oats on before the last 10 minutes if you want them to stick without burning.
This is a home bread moved outside with one change that matters: the egg wash is gone. Egg is the only refrigerated thing in the original and it does nothing structural, just gloss. Without it the crust comes out matte and the loaf is the same. Everything else already travels dry.
The timing is what makes this a basecamp recipe rather than a backpacking one. Two rises and 50 minutes of coals is a whole afternoon, so mix it early and let it work while you do something else. Coal count is the real control here; too many underneath and the bottom carbonizes long before the middle sets.
Packing
Premix the flours, oats, salt, and yeast at home in one gallon bag. Yeast next to salt for months will weaken it, so if the trip is far out, keep the yeast packet separate. Honey rides in a squeeze bottle inside a second bag.
Variations
- Swap 1/4 cup of the bread flour for cornmeal to get a coarser crumb that holds up to soup.
- Press dried cranberries or raisins in during shaping for a sweeter loaf.
- No dutch oven: bake it as flat rounds in a lidded skillet, 6 minutes a side, and skip the second rise.
https://www.lodgecastiron.com/blogs/recipe/honey-oat-loaf