Dutch Oven Camp Loaf
Real bread from a dutch oven in the coals. Long, slow, and worth the afternoon.
- calories
- 230
- weight
- 2.6 oz
- cal / oz
- 88
- protein
- 7 g
- serves
- 10, scales
- prep
- 130 min
- cook
- 40 min
- total time
- 170 min
- water
- 360 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.
- Dinner
- Lunch
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Vegetarian
- Nut free
- Real dishes
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Bread flour | 4 cups | measured into a bag at home with the sugar, salt, and milk powder |
|---|---|---|
| Whole milk powder | 3 tbsp | stands in for the 1/2 cup fresh milk |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp | |
| Salt | 1 1/2 tsp | |
| Active dry yeast | 1 packet | 2 1/4 tsp, kept in its own packet |
| Water | 1 1/2 cups | warm, not hot |
| Butter | 5 tbsp | 4 worked into the dough, 1 brushed on at the end |
| Oil or extra butter | 1 tsp | for greasing the oven |
Method
- Warm 1 1/2 cups of water on the fire until it is barely above body temperature. Too hot kills the yeast, so pull it early and let it sit.
- Stir the yeast into the warm water and leave it ten minutes. It should foam. If it does not, the yeast is dead and you are making pan bread instead.
- Add the yeast water and 4 tbsp of butter to the bag of flour, sugar, salt, and milk powder. Mix with a spoon until it clumps, then turn it onto a clean surface and knead five minutes.
- Grease the dutch oven, put the dough in, put the lid on, and set it somewhere warm but not hot. An hour, until it has doubled.
- Punch it down, shape it into a log, and let it rise a second time in the greased oven, about 45 minutes.
- Bake with 8 coals under the oven and 16 on the lid, roughly 35 to 40 minutes. Rotate the oven and the lid a quarter turn every ten minutes so it does not scorch on one side.
- It is done when the top is brown and a knock on the loaf sounds hollow. Brush the last tablespoon of butter over it and get it out of the pot before the residual heat dries it out.
This is a basecamp recipe, not a backpacking one. Two rises and a coal bake take about three hours, and you need a real dutch oven. The tradeoff is a full loaf of bread for a weekend, which beats carrying squashed sandwich bread from a store.
The original calls for fresh milk. Milk powder does the same job, since the milk is there for softness and browning rather than moisture. Coal placement is the part that actually decides the outcome: more on the lid than underneath, or the bottom burns before the middle sets. Turning the oven and the lid in opposite directions evens out the hot spots any fire has.
Packing
Flour, milk powder, sugar, and salt go into one gallon bag at home. Yeast stays in its sealed packet until camp; heat and humidity kill it. Butter travels fine unrefrigerated for a couple of days, longer in cool weather.
Variations
- Swap in 1 cup of whole wheat flour for a denser loaf that holds up better as sandwich bread.
- Roll cinnamon and sugar into the shaped dough before the second rise.
- No dutch oven: bake it in a covered foil pan set on a grill grate over low coals, checking sooner.
https://www.lodgecastiron.com/blogs/recipe/white-sandwich-bread