Fireside Guinness Soda Rolls
No yeast, no proving. Six dense rolls out of a dutch oven in under half an hour.
- calories
- 250
- weight
- 3.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 71
- protein
- 8 g
- serves
- 6, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 25 min
- total time
- 35 min
- water
- none
- 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
- Real dishes
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Coarse wholemeal flour | 250 g | |
|---|---|---|
| Strong white flour | 150 g | plus a spoonful for dusting |
| Bicarbonate of soda | 1 tsp | |
| Fine sea salt | 1 tsp | |
| Guinness stout | 150 ml | the rest of the can is yours |
| Buttermilk | 150 ml | powdered buttermilk plus water works if you have no cooler |
Method
- Build a fire and let it burn down to coals. You want steady heat, not flames.
- Mix both flours, the soda, and the salt in a bowl with a fork until the soda is evenly through it.
- Push a well into the middle and pour in the stout and buttermilk. Stir from the center out with a knife until it comes together as a rough, sticky dough.
- Tip it onto a floured board and pat it into a ball. Thirty seconds of handling, no kneading.
- Cut into six pieces, round each one off, and set them in a greased dutch oven with a little space between.
- Lid on, oven on a bed of coals with more coals piled on the lid. Aim for about 200°C. Bake 20 to 25 minutes.
- They are done when the bottoms sound hollow under a knuckle. Pull them and eat hot.
Yeast bread is a bad fit for camp. It wants hours, a warm room, and attention you do not have after a long day. Soda bread trades all of that for a chemical rise: the bicarb hits the acid in the buttermilk and the lift happens in the pan, so the dough goes from bowl to coals with nothing in between.
The one rule is to barely touch it. Knead soda dough and you build gluten, which traps the gas and gives you hard little bricks. Pat it together and stop. The stout is not just flavor, though it does bring a dark malty edge: it keeps the crumb moist for a second day, which matters when these are meant to mop out a stew bowl.
This one needs a cooler and a real fire, so it is a car-camping or basecamp recipe, not something to carry up a hill. Powdered buttermilk makes it shelf-stable if that is what you need.
Packing
Weigh the flours, soda, and salt together into one bag at home so camp is a one-bowl job. The stout and buttermilk ride in the cooler.
Variations
- Powdered buttermilk reconstituted with 150 ml water drops the cooler requirement.
- A handful of grated hard cheese or caraway seed in the dry mix changes the whole roll.
- No dutch oven: a covered skillet over low coals works, but turn the rolls halfway.
https://www.baldhiker.com/irish-soda-bread-rolls-recipe-with-guinness