Hut Croo Challah
A braided egg loaf baked in a dutch oven, built from a dry premix and powdered egg.
- calories
- 210
- weight
- 1.9 oz
- cal / oz
- 111
- protein
- 6 g
- serves
- 8, scales
- prep
- 25 min
- cook
- 35 min
- total time
- 60 min
- water
- 165 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
- Vegetarian
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- Real dishes
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Bread flour | 340 g | about 2 3/4 cups |
|---|---|---|
| Sugar | 27 g | 2 tbsp |
| Salt | 6 g | 1 tsp |
| Powdered whole egg | 20 g | stands in for 1 1/2 eggs, no cooler needed |
| Instant yeast | 2 tsp | |
| Vegetable oil | 2 tbsp | plus a little more for the pot |
| Water | 165 ml | 110 ml for the dough, 55 ml to rehydrate the egg |
| Sesame or poppy seeds | 1 tbsp | optional |
Method
- Stir the egg powder into 55 ml of water in a cup and let it sit five minutes until it stops being lumpy.
- Put the yeast and salt into 110 ml of lukewarm water and wait until it smells like bread. Add the egg, sugar, and oil, then work in the flour last.
- Knead ten minutes on a clean surface or a cutting board. You want a firm dough, drier than you think, because slack dough will not hold a braid. Hold back a spoonful of water if it feels sticky.
- Cover the bowl and let it double. In warm weather that is an hour; in the cold, set it near the fire ring but not against it. Fold the dough over on itself four times and let it double again.
- Divide into three strands, let them relax five minutes, then braid and tuck the ends under. Set the loaf in a well-oiled dutch oven and let it puff while you build coals.
- Scatter the seeds on top if you brought them. Skip the egg wash unless you have spare egg powder.
- Bake with roughly a third of the coals under the pot and two thirds on the lid, aiming for 400F. Check at 25 minutes. It is done when the crust is deep brown and the bottom sounds hollow, usually 30 to 35 minutes.
- Get it out of the pot immediately or the base keeps cooking.
Hut kitchens bake bread because it turns cheap flour into the thing everyone remembers about dinner. A car camp can do the same, and challah is a good candidate: the oil and egg make a dough that stays soft for two days instead of going to rock overnight.
The trail changes are all about the fridge. Powdered whole egg rehydrates into something close enough to shell eggs for an enriched dough, and it keeps in a pack all summer. The yeast is cut well below the hut quantity, since a small loaf rising slowly in cool air gets better structure than one blown up fast. The braid is not decoration. Three strands bake more evenly in a dutch oven than one thick log, which otherwise stays raw in the middle.
Packing
Flour, sugar, salt, yeast, and egg powder go in one zip bag at home, labeled with the water amounts. Oil rides in a small bottle. The only measuring at camp is water.
Variations
- Swap half the sugar for honey if you already carry it.
- No dutch oven: bake the braid in a foil-lined pot with a foil lid and a ring of coals, and expect a paler crust.
- Leftovers slice and fry in oil for breakfast.
https://www.outdoors.org/resources/amc-outdoors/history/bake-bread-like-hut-croo