Freshly baked bread on a camping trip is a delishious addition to any meal. You can serve it up as a fun “make yourself snack” for the kids, or you can bake a big bread in a dutch oven. In this post you will learn different ways to bake bread, on a campfire, while you are camping.
We really like to bake homemade bread when we go camping. On the 3rd or 4th day, the bread you brought from home can be stale. Baking over a campfire is not hard, once you have done it a few times. In this post I will tell you everything I have learned about it, and I am sure that you will be able to produce brilliant breads for your family next time you go camping.
Baking bread while camping – Over fire
One of the bigger obstacles for me when making bread on a camping trip is how to knead the bread without my favorite kitchen stand mixer. It is completely doable to make great bread if you start the night before, and use the dough recipe from the best crusty bread recipe. That is a no knead bread recipe that will work very well for this. If you want to make right now, you can use the simple bread roll recipe, and be happy that you get a work out along with freshly baked bread.
TIP: You can make the crispy Bread recipe in a zip lock bag. Stir everything together inside the bag. Close it, but with plenty of Air inside the bag. Next morning you can procead like in the recipe.
If Im baking bread on the campfire close to home, i usually bring a batch of dough from the simple bread roll recipe. That works really well, all ways of cooking over campfire.
Baking campfire bread in a dutch oven.
One of the ways that I like to make bread is in a dutch oven. Here is a great dutch oven for camping if you dont have your own jet. I use half of the dough from the simple bread rolls recipe. Once the campfire is ready and have burned for a little while, leaving embers in the fire, you can bake bread.
Place your bread, on a trey inside your dutch oven. We raise this tray from the bottom of the dutch oven with 3 pieces of salt dough. Ensures that there is air circulating around the bread.
TIP: Its easy to get excited and add to many embers to the dutch oven – this will make it to hot, and burn the bread. Try and apply the embers evenly around the oven and keep a close eye on it. See full tips for Campfire cooking in a dutch oven here.
Bake the bread for about 20 minutes and keep an eye on it while it bakes. I ususlly check on the bread every 5 minutes, to make sure that add/remove embers where needed.
When its done, remove the dutch oven from the campfire, remove the bread from the dutch oven. Lightly knock on the bottom of the bread to ensure that it is baked through. If you hear a hollow sound, its good. Leave the bread to rest a little, if you can. – If not, serve it up, and enjoy.
FAQ about baking bread in a dutch oven – over fire.
Can I preheat an empty dutch oven?
Yes, you absolutely can. But like with anything you want to make sure that you keep your equipment as safe as possible. Its better for the dutch oven to heat up slower. Think about bringing it close to the fire, early when you light your fire, that way you can put it into the fire when the fire becomes big enough to bear a dutch oven. We usually use heat resistant gloves when handling the dutch oven in the fire.
What do you put under the dutch oven?
You want to makre sure that you souround your bread with embers. I have found that you need to be careful with adding to much heat to the bread from under the dutch oven, and therefore I only have 2-3 embers there. I make sure that most of the heat comes in from the sides and from above.
Can I speed up the cooking of the bread by adding more firewood?
Usually when you cook bread in the dutch oven inside you want to turn up the heat as high as you can, but outside with elements that you cant control in the same way, I recommend that you take it slow. Enjoy the process of making slow bread. If you are in a hurry, its better to make the bread on a stick or bake them in smaller portions on a pan.
What size dutch oven is good for baking bread?
Honestly – the one you have. There is no need to go out and buy another dutch oven for just baking bread. When baking over fire, I would make sure that if you do get another dutch oven, it is a different size to the one you have, to make sure that you can stack your dutch ovens on top of each other.
How to I make bread if I dont have a dutch oven?
This is a full post on its own. I would suggest bread on a stick or pan bread. I will make a full description of these.