Camp Pizza Dough
Three cups of flour, a packet of yeast, and a dutch oven. Crust in camp with no oven and no mixer.
- calories
- 390
- weight
- 3.6 oz
- cal / oz
- 108
- protein
- 11 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 45 min
- cook
- 12 min
- total time
- 57 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
- 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 cups | keep 1/2 cup separate for the starter mix |
|---|---|---|
| Rapid-rise active dry yeast | 1 packet (1/4 oz) | |
| Salt | 1 tsp | |
| Honey | 1 1/2 tsp | a squeeze packet is easier than a jar |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp | plus a little more for greasing |
| Water | 1 1/4 cups | lukewarm, not hot |
Method
- Warm 300 ml of water until it is barely above skin temperature. Hot water kills the yeast.
- Stir the honey into the water until it dissolves.
- In your largest pot or a gallon freezer bag, combine 1/2 cup of the flour with the yeast and salt. Pour in the honey water and the olive oil.
- Beat it with a spoon for three minutes. It will look like batter. That is correct.
- Work in the remaining flour a handful at a time until the dough pulls together and is only barely tacky.
- Knead on a floured cutting board or inside the bag for about five minutes, until it stops tearing and goes smooth.
- Oil the pot, drop the dough in, cover it, and set it somewhere warm for ten minutes. A sunny rock or beside the fire ring works.
- Punch it down, split it in two, and let it rest another ten minutes.
- Press one half into a greased, preheated dutch oven or a well-oiled cast iron lid. Top it.
- Bake with coals under and on the lid, roughly 8 to 12 minutes, until the bottom is browned and the edge is firm. Rotate the pot a quarter turn every few minutes so one side does not scorch.
Real dough in camp is mostly a heat problem, not a skill problem. The rapid-rise yeast is what makes it possible: two ten-minute rests instead of an hour and a half, so dinner does not depend on how warm the afternoon is. Honey feeds the yeast faster than plain sugar and gives the crust color, which matters when you are cooking blind under a lid.
The divided flour is the one step worth not skipping. Mixing half a cup with the yeast and liquid first gives you a loose batter you can beat air into; dumping all three cups in at once leaves you kneading a dry lump on a cutting board in the dark. Coals go under the pot and on the lid both, or the top stays raw.
Packing
Bag the flour, yeast, and salt together at home, keeping the 1/2 cup starter portion in its own small bag inside. Oil in a dropper bottle, honey in a squeeze packet. Second half of the dough keeps a few hours in a bag for a next-day flatbread.
Variations
- Swap the honey for a teaspoon of sugar and the dough is vegan.
- No dutch oven: press the dough thin and fry each side in an oiled skillet over the fire for flatbread.
- A pinch of dried oregano and garlic powder in the dry mix makes the crust worth eating plain.
https://www.lodgecastiron.com/blogs/recipe/simple-pizza-dough-recipe