Camp Soda Bread
Flour, baking powder, and powdered milk turned into a small loaf on a backpacking stove.
- calories
- 520
- weight
- 5 oz
- cal / oz
- 104
- protein
- 12 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 33 min
- total time
- 48 min
- water
- 80 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
- Snack
- Canister stove
- Alcohol / Esbit
- Campfire coals
- Backpacking
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Vegetarian
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| All-purpose flour | 3/4 cup | carry another 2 tbsp separately for kneading |
|---|---|---|
| Double-acting baking powder | 1 tsp | |
| Baking soda | 1/4 tsp | |
| Salt | 1/4 tsp | a scant half teaspoon is better |
| Raisins or dried cranberries | 1/4 cup | |
| Dry milk powder | 2 tbsp | its own small bag |
| Vinegar or lemon juice | 1 tsp | dropper bottle |
| Oil | 1 tsp | for the pan |
Method
- Shake the dry bag to loosen anything that settled on the walk in.
- Stir the milk powder into 1/3 cup cold water in your mug. Wait five minutes, add the vinegar, wait five more. It will thicken and smell faintly sour. That is the point.
- Pour half the soured milk into the dry bag and work it together. Add the rest a little at a time until the dough is sticky but holds a shape. Stop before it goes soupy.
- Turn it onto a clean surface dusted with the reserved flour and knead for a minute. No longer.
- Shape a ball, flatten it slightly, and set it in an oiled pot on parchment.
- Lid on, lowest flame the stove will hold, and rotate the pot a quarter turn every five minutes. About 33 minutes. A splinter pushed into the center should come out dry.
Soda bread is the one loaf that makes sense on a stove. There is no yeast and no rising time, so the whole thing goes from bag to pot in fifteen minutes. The lift comes from baking powder plus the acid reaction between baking soda and soured milk, and that reaction starts the moment the wet hits the dry. Mix, shape, and get it on the heat.
The buttermilk is reconstructed rather than carried: dry milk plus water plus a teaspoon of vinegar, rested ten minutes total. Real buttermilk would need a fridge. Knead briefly and no more, because worked dough goes tough without yeast to rescue it. Baking times swing hard between stoves and pots, so run this once at home on your actual setup before you trust it at camp.
Packing
Dry ingredients and fruit go in one sandwich bag, mixed at home. Milk powder in a snack bag, kneading flour in another, vinegar in a dropper bottle. Cut the parchment to fit your pot before you leave.
Variations
- Cranberries in place of raisins, plus a spoon of sugar, makes it read as dessert.
- Skip the fruit and add a pinch of dried herbs for something to eat alongside soup.
https://trailcooking.com/fauxbaker/irish-soda-bread-recipe