Camping Food: Cooking Damper in a Camp Oven

Damper cooked on an open fire isn’t food. It’s an experience! It’s Aussie, outdoorish and awesome.

I’ve done this recipe at home in my normal oven (find the process here: Damper Recipe).  The last time we camped, I cooked it on an open fire in a camp oven and it tasted amazing!

Ingredients

3 Cups Self-Raising Flour

Pinch Salt

5 Level Teaspoons Butter 

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup water

Preparing

This is how I pack damper for camping

 

Equipment

Heavy aluminium foil

Camp oven

 

Step 1

In the container you have the salt and flour in, add the butter and rubbed together with finger tips until combined.  It will look like fine bread crumbs. Then, make a well in the centre of the mixture for the liquid.

Step 2

Add water and milk and use a knife to slowly combine the mixture using a cutting motion, starting form the outside of the continuer and working the flour mixture into the centre. Keep working until dough forms.

Step 3

Use hands to combine the dough into a ball.

Step 4

Kneed dough for a few minutes and form a ball. Place the ball into a large sheet of aluminium foil (enough to wrap bread completely).  Flatten the ball a little into a circle and place both foil and bread into a camp oven.

Step 5

Using a sharpe knife, cut 4 lines across the top to make it easier to pull apart. Dust with a little flour.

Step 6

Bring foil sides up to the top, and scrunch together.  make sure you leave enough room for the damper to rise.

Step 8

This is the only tricky step, but it’s all part of the fun. For best results, the fire needs to be reduced to warm-hot coals.  If the fire is too hot, it will burn completely without cooking the dough. We had a brassiere so I placed the camp oven in the top. For an open fire, place on hot coals (you can even put coals on the top too.  I cooked our loaf for about 40 minutes but cooking times really depend.  Towards the end (15 minutes before), I removed the camp oven from the heat and put hot coals on the top of the already hot camp oven to finish it off.  The best way to test how it’s going is to make a small cut to see if it’s dough-y inside.

Step 9

This is how it came. out.

Step 10

Cut into section and add lashing of butter and golden syrup. Amazing! The base of the loaf was a little dark, so I cut just above it.  The kids kept coming back asking for seconds. So good.

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Packing food for camping

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