Trailhead Breakfast Rolls
Eight soft rolls baked in a dutch oven, built to hold a hot breakfast without falling apart.
- calories
- 280
- weight
- 2.7 oz
- cal / oz
- 104
- protein
- 8 g
- serves
- 8, scales
- prep
- 25 min
- cook
- 25 min
- total time
- 50 min
- water
- 180 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.
- Breakfast
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Vegetarian
- Nut free
- Real dishes
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Strong white bread flour | 4 cups | bread flour, not all-purpose, or they slump |
|---|---|---|
| Fast action dried yeast | 2 tsp | |
| Caster sugar | 2 tbsp | regular granulated works |
| Fine sea salt | 1 1/2 tsp | |
| Whole milk powder | 1/3 cup | replaces the warm milk in the original |
| Water | about 1 1/4 cups | warm, not hot |
| Butter | 3 tbsp | softened; ghee holds up better in heat |
| Extra milk powder slurry | 1 tbsp | for brushing the tops |
Method
- Mix flour, yeast, sugar, salt, and milk powder in a bowl or a large zip bag. Keep the salt away from the yeast until the flour is stirred through.
- Add warm water a little at a time and work it into a shaggy dough, then knead in the softened butter. Ten minutes of kneading on a clean lid or cutting board.
- Cover and let it rise until roughly doubled. An hour in warm weather, two or more in the cold. Set the bowl near the fire, not on it.
- Divide into eight pieces, roll each into a ball, and set them in a greased dutch oven with a little space between. Cover and let them puff for another 30 minutes.
- Bake with coals underneath and on the lid, roughly 350F, for 20 to 25 minutes. Rotate the oven and the lid a quarter turn every few minutes so nothing scorches.
- Brush the tops with the milk slurry when they come out. They are done when the bottoms sound hollow.
Camp bread usually fails in one of two directions: too crusty to bite through, or so soft it collapses under a hot filling. Enriching the dough with milk powder and butter is what splits the difference. The fat coats the gluten strands and keeps the crumb tender, while bread flour gives it enough structure to survive being loaded with grease and egg yolk.
The original recipe uses warm milk, which is not a thing you carry. Whole milk powder mixed into the dry blend does the same job and rides in the same bag as the flour. The rise is the only part that takes patience, and it is mostly waiting, not work. Bake them the night before if you want breakfast to be fast.
Packing
Combine flour, yeast, sugar, salt, and milk powder at home in one bag. Butter rides in a small screw-top tub. At camp you are adding water and butter, nothing else.
Variations
- Swap the butter for olive oil if the weather is warm. The crumb is slightly less tender and nobody complains.
- Split and fill with fried spam, a foil-packet egg, or crisped bacon from the same fire.
https://www.baldhiker.com/soft-breakfast-bread-rolls-simply-delicious