Bread

Bread recipes, including damper

I’ve used that recipe for years now, always improvising the quantities to be honest, but it never failed.  I even used it to make damper, which is handy when you’re camping and you have no oven.  The ingredients will always be the same, whether you bake in an oven at home, in a cast-iron oven in camping or even in the fire.

• Ingredients
  • Flour (500g).  Now you can use plain flour, wholemeal flour, or a mix of both, which is what I usually do (50/50).  Plain flour will make your bread lighter (and bigger) but a lot less healthier and probably less tastier as well.  Wholemeal makes it harder to rise but it’s much much healthier.
  • Salt (a pinch)
  • Yeast (8g, so about a small teaspoon).  Of course if you have fresh yeast it’s better, but dehydrated yeast is fine.  Don’t use baking soda, or chemical yeast, always use real natural yeast (from the supermarket it’s fine).
  • If you don’t have yeast (because you’re in the middle of the ocean, or in the middle of the desert), use a can of  beer (because you will always have beer handy, am I right ?).
  • Water (room/tap temperature)
  • Sugar (one teaspoon)

• Method One – Conventional oven (you’re at home then).
  • In a small bowl, mix the yeast and the sugar, cover with water (cover it don’t drown it).
  • Come back 15min later you should have a beer-like mixture, with froth on top.  You’re yeast is now alive and activated.
  • In a large bowl, mix the flour with the yeast.
  • Add a bit of water and mix it together (use your right hand only, you will need your left hand to get the other ingredients in).
  • Add the salt now.  The idea is that salt will kill the yeast, which is a living organism, so it’s best to add the salt one the yeast is mixed in with the flour, never have the two in contact.
  • Add more water and continue mixing well, until you have a smooth dough.
  • Get the dough out of the bowl and start kneading for ten or so minutes, now you can use both hands.
  • Kneading means adding air to the dough, the gluten in the wheat will act as a glue (hence the name actually) and trap the bubbles of air.  The more air, the lighter your bread crumb.  So flatten the dough, fold it in two, turn 45degrees, flatten it, fold in two, turn, etc etc.  Do that for 10minutes.
  • Now the bread needs to rise.  Put it back in its bowl, cover with a clean cloth and leave it in the sun or in a warm place, like the laundry for instance.
  • 1h later, it’s ready.  You now have two choices.  Re-knead for 10minutes and re-rise for another hour, or bake it straight away.
  • Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
  • Put the dough in/on a baking tray, depending on what you use and whack it in the oven.
  • Bake your bread for about 20 minutes.  Stick a knife into it, when the blade comes out clean, it’s done.
  • Another trick is to tap-tap on the crust, when it sounds hollow, it’s done.

• Method Two – cast iron oven (you’re camping, and it’s total fire-ban season)
  • Use the same method, but instead of the oven, put your dough in the cast-iron oven and put it on the gas stove, low heat, for about 35 minutes.
  • If you are allowed to have a fire, you can stick the cast-iron oven directly into the ashes and cover it all with amber and ashes, no flames as we need slow steady baking.
  • It’s a little trickier to get the bread out of the oven but it will get out eventually.
  • If you’re sailing, you can basically put the dough on a frying pan, flatten it as much as possible and slow (very slow) cook your bread on the gas stove for about 35min.  Turn it around half-way through.

• Method Three – damper (you’re in the outback now, there is no total fire-ban here).
  • You need to plan this a little, the bread (damper) will cook for a long time, possibly the whole night.
  • Build your fire as you would normally but select wood that will make hot ash and ambers, not just a half-burnt stump.
  • Prepare your dough just before dinner, and let it rise while you’re eating, watching the sun go down.
  • When you’re done eating, your fire should be almost completely consumed.
  • Get as much ash as possible with the ambers, you need a hot pile of ash and ambers, but not too hot.
  • Flatten your dough a little, not too much, it’s not a pizza.  Clear out a bit of the ashes but leave a thick hot “bed” of ash, and stick your dough directly on top of that.  No foil, nothing, just the dough, trust me.
  • Cover the dough with ash, ambers (though the ambers should not be in contact with the dough otherwise that will make a dark burnt spot on your bread).  The best ashes are the white ones, it’s fully consumed, there is very very little carbon left in it so it’s very healthy.
  • Make sure the whole dough is covered, no naked flames or anything.
  • Make sure the fire is secured, and go to bed.
  • The next day, carefully clear out the ash (it might even still be hot) with a shovel, and get your bread out.  Brush it with twigs if you don’t have a brush, and, voila, warm bread for breakfast.  Brush it well but leave a bit of the ash still, it tastes wonderful.
  • It will have a nice wood fire taste, the crust is thick, and it will remain fresh for a couple of days when travelling as long as you wrap it in a clean cloth, in a not-too-dry place but not in the fridge.