Roasted Garlic Camp Loaf
Dutch oven bread with a whole head of garlic worked into the dough. Two hours of waiting, most of it while you do other things.
- calories
- 320
- weight
- 3.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 91
- protein
- 9 g
- serves
- 8, scales
- prep
- 120 min
- cook
- 45 min
- total time
- 165 min
- water
- 355 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
- Snack
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- Real dishes
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Bread flour | 4 cups | premeasured at home with the salt and sugar |
|---|---|---|
| Instant yeast | 2 1/4 tsp | instant, not active dry, so it needs no proofing fuss |
| Sugar | 2 tsp | |
| Salt | 2 tsp, plus 1/4 tsp for the garlic | |
| Water | 1 1/2 cups | lukewarm, not hot |
| Garlic | 1 head | peeled |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp plus 1 tsp |
Method
- Toss the peeled garlic with the teaspoon of oil and 1/4 tsp salt, wrap it loosely in foil, and bury it at the edge of the coals for about 30 minutes. Pull it when the cloves squash under a spoon. Let it cool.
- Stir the yeast, sugar, and lukewarm water together in the dutch oven and leave it five minutes until it foams.
- Add the roasted garlic and the 2 tsp salt, then work in the flour a cup at a time with a spoon. The dough stays wet and sticky. That is correct.
- Pour the tablespoon of oil over the dough, turn it to coat, cover the pot, and set it somewhere warm for an hour until it doubles.
- Punch it down, shape it into a round, and let it sit covered another 20 minutes while you build a coal bed.
- Bake covered with roughly 8 coals underneath and 16 on the lid, aiming for 400F, for 40 to 45 minutes. Rotate the pot and the lid a quarter turn every ten minutes.
- It is done when the crust is dark and the loaf sounds hollow tapped on the bottom. Let it cool ten minutes before cutting or it tears.
This is a car-camping bread, not a trail bread. It needs two hours, a heavy pot, and a coal bed you tend. What it does not need is a fridge or a mixer: the dough is wet enough to stir with a spoon, and no kneading means no floured surface to clean up.
Roasting the garlic first is the whole point. Raw cloves would stay sharp and would fight the yeast; roasted, they collapse into soft sweet lumps that stay whole in the crumb. Premeasuring the dry mix at home turns camp work into pouring one bag, which matters when you are measuring by headlamp. Watch the lid coals more than the bottom ones. Bread scorches from below long before it browns on top.
Packing
Combine flour, yeast, sugar, and the 2 tsp salt in one gallon bag at home. Oil goes in a small bottle. The garlic head travels loose and does not need cold.
Variations
- Rosemary or dried thyme in the flour bag reads as a different loaf entirely.
- A cup of the flour swapped for whole wheat gives it more chew and a shorter second rise.
- No coals? A propane camp oven at 400F works with the same timing.
https://www.lodgecastiron.com/blogs/recipe/roasted-garlic-loaf