Cinnamon Raisin Skillet Bread
Yeast dough mixed in a bag, proofed in the sun, baked in a covered pan over coals.
- calories
- 220
- weight
- 2.6 oz
- cal / oz
- 85
- protein
- 5 g
- serves
- 12, scales
- prep
- 120 min
- cook
- 40 min
- total time
- 160 min
- water
- 240 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
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| All-purpose flour | 4 1/2 cups | |
|---|---|---|
| Instant yeast | 2 1/2 tsp | instant, not active dry, so it needs no proofing |
| Powdered whole milk | 1/4 cup | reconstitutes into the 1 cup of milk the dough wants |
| Powdered whole egg | 1/4 cup | stands in for 2 eggs |
| Sugar | 1/4 cup | for the dough |
| Salt | 2 tsp | |
| Raisins | 1 cup | |
| Shortening or ghee | 1/3 cup | both hold at ambient temperature; butter does not |
| Granulated sugar | 1/2 cup | filling |
| Brown sugar | 1/2 cup | filling |
| Cinnamon | 3 tbsp | |
| Ghee | 3 tbsp | melted, for the filling and the pan |
Method
- Stir 1/4 cup powdered milk into 1 cup of warm water. Warm, not hot. Water above about 120F kills the yeast.
- In the pot, mix flour, yeast, dough sugar, salt, and powdered egg. Pour in the milk water and 1/3 cup shortening. Add the raisins.
- Knead in the pot for eight minutes. It goes from shaggy to smooth and slightly tacky. Add flour a spoonful at a time only if it sticks to your hands.
- Cover and let it rise until doubled, about an hour in warm sun, two or more if it is cold. Set it near the fire, not on it.
- Punch it down and press it flat on a clean surface or a lid, roughly a foot square. Brush with half the melted ghee, then scatter the two sugars and cinnamon over the whole thing.
- Roll it up tight, pinch the seam shut, and lay it seam down in a greased dutch oven. Let it rise again for 30 minutes.
- Bury coals: about eight underneath, sixteen on the lid. You want roughly 375F. Bake 35 to 40 minutes, rotating the pot a quarter turn every ten minutes and the lid the other way.
- It is done when the top is dark and it sounds hollow under a knuckle. Brush with the rest of the ghee and let it sit 15 minutes before cutting.
Home bread recipes lean on cold milk, eggs, and softened butter, none of which survive a weekend in a car. Powdered milk and powdered egg do the same job dry, and shortening or ghee replaces the butter because both sit at 90F without turning into a puddle. The sugar and cinnamon filling is unchanged, since it was already shelf-stable.
The real variable is heat, not ingredients. Coals under a dutch oven scorch the bottom long before the middle sets, so most of your fuel goes on the lid and you keep rotating. Rise time is the other one: yeast reads temperature, not the clock, so a cold morning means two hours of waiting and there is no shortcut for it.
Packing
Combine flour, yeast, powdered milk, powdered egg, sugar, and salt in one gallon bag at home. Raisins in a second bag, filling sugars and cinnamon premixed in a third. Shortening and ghee ride in a screw-top jar.
Variations
- Skip the filling roll and bake it as a plain loaf. Faster and less to go wrong.
- Chopped dried apple in place of half the raisins.
- No dutch oven: bake it in a covered skillet on a grate with a few coals on the lid.
https://www.lodgecastiron.com/blogs/recipe/classic-cinnamon-raisin-bread