Camp Oat Bread
A two-day oat loaf, rebuilt for a dutch oven and a premixed bag of flour.
- calories
- 200
- weight
- 1.8 oz
- cal / oz
- 111
- protein
- 7 g
- serves
- 8, scales
- prep
- 25 min
- cook
- 45 min
- total time
- 70 min
- water
- 420 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
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- Real dishes
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Oat flour | 55 g | for the scald, kept in its own small bag |
|---|---|---|
| Boiling water | 110 g | for the scald |
| White bread flour | 180 g | |
| Fine whole wheat flour | 82 g | |
| Rolled oats | 88 g | large flakes, not instant |
| Instant dry yeast | 9 g | |
| Fine sea salt | 8 g | |
| Water | about 310 ml | cool, not cold |
| Oil | 1 tsp | for the pot |
Method
- Night one: boil water, pour 110 g of it over the oat flour in a mug, and stir to a thick paste. Cover it and leave it out overnight. It will be stiff and slightly sweet by morning.
- Morning: dump the premixed flour bag into the pot liner or a bowl and add about 310 ml of cool water. Stir until there is no dry flour left, then knead in the pot for eight to ten minutes. The dough stays slack and sticky. That is correct.
- Work the oat paste in a spoonful at a time. Keep kneading until it stops looking marbled.
- Cover and let it rise until roughly doubled, about an hour in mild weather, longer if it is cold. Sit the pot in the sun if you have it.
- Oil the dutch oven, fold the dough over on itself a few times, and drop it in seam down. Cover and let it rise again for 45 minutes.
- Cut a slash across the top. Set the oven on a bed of coals with more coals on the lid, aiming hot for the first ten minutes and moderate after that. Bake about 45 minutes.
- It is done when the loaf sounds hollow tapped on the bottom. Cool it on a rack or a clean rock before cutting, or it tears.
The scald is the part worth keeping. Pouring boiling water over oat flour the night before gelatinizes the starch, and that gelled starch holds water through the bake. The result is a loaf that stays moist on day three instead of turning to sand, which matters more in camp than it does at home.
Everything else got cut down. The original runs a separate overnight preferment; here the yeast goes straight into the dry mix and the rise happens while you drink coffee. One loaf instead of two, one pot instead of a bowl and a sheet pan. The dough is wet and awkward to handle, so the dutch oven doubles as the pan — it gives the loose dough walls to climb and traps enough steam to get a crust.
Packing
Bag the bread flour, whole wheat, oats, yeast, and salt together at home so camp assembly is one pour. The oat flour rides in a separate small bag because it gets scalded on its own. Oil in a dropper bottle.
Variations
- Skip the overnight scald and just add the oat flour to the main bag. The loaf comes out drier and stales faster, but it saves a day.
- Bake it in a foil-lined loaf pan set inside the dutch oven if you want slices that stack in a pack.
https://brodogkorn.no/oppskrift/bakerens-havrebrod