It’s summertime and you are camping because camping is glorious. Or because it’s a cheap family vacation. Either way, you’re up early because, well, everything else is. The birds, the light, the kids - it all happens quite early in the great outdoors. You unzip your tent and stand up, stretching and breathing the fresh morning air. What could be better?
Freshly baked bread and butter with your coffee, that’s what.
You can have your bread and eat it too if you remembered to bring along your EZ DOH manual dough mixer. (Otherwise your dough will pick up bits of twigs and moss while you’re kneading it on that flat rock!)
EZ DOH is a compact, lightweight container (just over one pound) with an easy-to-install hook and hand crank that mixes, kneads, and provides a perfect place for resting/rising bread dough. EZ DOH uses no electricity and has no sharp blades. And at $39.95, it's the lowest-cost product on the market.
Just follow the instructions printed on the bucket for a basic recipe, browse the blog for more recipe ideas, or make your own recipe. In 5 minutes you’ll have perfectly mixed dough, ready to rise while you build a fire, make the coffee, and change your socks.
Now for the baking. Never baked bread outdoors? No fear. It is a learning process, but once you’ve done it a couple of times, you’ll be a pro.
Campfire Baking Instructions
You’ll need:- Dough prepared in your EZ DOH mixer
- Hot coals
- A dutch oven with legs or a covered pot and a base of bricks or rocks to keep the bottom of your pot from sitting directly on the hot coals. Your bread will cook unevenly if your pot doesn’t have a lid that can accommodate coals on top.
- Start your fire - charcoal or wood; the goal is to have enough coals to put under and on top of the oven.
- Build the base of bricks or rocks, if needed.
- When the coals are ready, put some under the base. Put the dough in the oven, cover with the lid, and place on top of the coals.
- Put some coals on top of the lid - you’ll want more heat on the top than the bottom.
- Check the bread after 20 minutes, although it may take 15 or 20 minutes more. Color, smell, and feel will tell you when it’s done. The top should be golden, you should smell a nice bread smell (but not a burned smell), and the bread should sound hollow if you tap the top.
- Remove the oven from the fire when done and let cool for several minutes.
Resources
Learn about cooking on a campfire using a dutch oven.https://whatscookingamerica.net/Information/DutchOven/DutchOvenCooking.htm
Amazon sells a selection of dutch ovens for use on a campfire.
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=camping+dutch+oven
