Pita Does It For Me
After a lifetime of backpacking, mule packing, and expedition canoeing, I’m sold on pita. It packs well into a tupperware dish (waterproof), and it satisfies the need for sandwiches and gravy soaking as good as anything out there.
Experimental loaf # 1
– Last Updated: Nov-23-08 10:43 PM EST –
Didn't find anything on the bwca site, but did find an interesting thread on a backpacking site. Of several options discussed, I decided to try out a fellows recommendation to use an "oven" of a small pot inside a big pot. I fished through the trash barrel in the shop and retrieved three cheapie little paint brushes with hollow metal tube handles, the kind you can buy at some hardware stores, a half-dozen in a bag. I'd used them for epoxy work, then thrown them out. I cut off the handles and threw them in to the cook kit. I laid those tubes on the bottom of the big pot to create air space under the little pot. Dough went into the little pot. A cover went on the big pot, which became the oven.
This small loaf was made from a cup of bread flour, .5 cup of a mix of whole wheat flour, cracked wheat and steel oats, .5 tsp salt, 2 tsp powdered nonfat milk, all combined in a baggie; 1 tsp brown sugar in its own baggie; 1 tsp yeast in its own baggie. I proofed the yeast, sugar and some warm water, then added the rest of the bagged ingredients and enough water to make a doughy consistency. I coated the small pot with olive oil, dropped in the dough ball, covered and set it down near the campfire to rise.
I let it rise to about double the size, removed the cover, set the small pan onto the tubes inside the big pan, put the cover on the big pan, and placed the big pan on some rocks in the fire pit, sweeping coals underneath it. My original plan was to bake it on my camp stove, but I didn't like the way the Coleman Exponent stove was flaming up when I set it on a low-simmer. I think stove-top ovening best because it is easyier and would be more consistent, but cooked on the fire instead.
I tried not to open the pot and look at the loaf as it baked because that would release all the heat, but finally broke down and gave a look. I felt the loaf wasn't cooking fast enough so I heaped more coals under and around the pot. Let it cook longer. It would have been good to time it, but using a fire like this, it wasn't really going to be a repeatable process, so what the heck.
The next time I took the cover off the top was nicely browned and cracked from expansion. Removed from heat. Extracted small pan from big pan. Popped the loaf out. Hot, hot, hot, and smelled great. It tasted excellent, too, only the bottom, while not burnt, was way too stiff/crisp/hard. I need either bigger tubes for more separation of the pans, or to cook at a higher temperature from the start.
For an experiment, loaf 1 turned out great. I need to try it again on the stove and see if I can get a better bottom consistency.
Bread in the backcountry is definately doable!
pic: http://home.comcast.net/~ChipCanoe/Misc/ExLoaf1.jpg
~~Chip
Packit Gourmet Bread
I tried the skillet bread from Packit Gourmet on my last trip. I got the Italian Pesto Dipping Sauce to go with it and boy was it good! Here’s the site:
http://www.packitgourmet.com/
I haven’t tried their other bread but I bet it’s good too. I did try the biscuits and gravy based on a good review in another forum. It was really good and made a lot! I just needed a frying pan for both items.
Bannock
Bannock is the traditional bread of canoe trippers. There are hundreds of recipes and variations. Here is my basic recipe:
1 cup white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 c. powdered milk
1 Tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder (always use good baking powder)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 t of cream of tartar
To bake, brown the bottom of the cake. Then tilt pan on edge in front of the fire, and let bake.
Hre’s a video on it
http://www.solotripping.com/vid.php?id=32
Different Types of Bread/Biscuits
A hiker friend of mine brought biscuits that he cooked in a pan over the campfire. I don’t know if he used a mix or brought the rolls that you can bake that are raw, but it can be done in a pan w/tin foil on top.
He served that with a sausage gravy mix.
-Capri
Beer bread
We had this for a potluck lunch at work. This was amazing bread-delicious! nobody could believe that it was so simple! 3 cups self rising flour, 1 cup sugar & 1 beer.
used in an Outback Oven or Dutch oven
– Last Updated: Nov-18-08 10:34 PM EST –
prepackaged in a quart freezer ziplock bag:
2 Cups flour (white or 2/3rds+ white & 1/3 wheat)
1 tablespoon or 1 packet of yeast
1 teaspoon of sugar
add to ziplock and zip closed:
2/3 cup hot (not to hot) H2o
tablspoon+ of olive oil
kneed dough in closed ziplock 5+ minutes and invert ziplock to drop dough into Bake Oven (20min) or Dutch oven (+/- 20min), let rise 10+ minutes and bake. I've used it as pizza dough, bread, calzones, rolls etc. Adding cheese, Itallion or pizza spice, garlic, cinnimon, fresh berries, dried fruit,nuts or what ever 'floats your boat' for simple variations. nothing like hot bread out'a the oven in the backcountry. flat breads seem to cook better, just push down and flatten the dough a bit
What do you do with
the flour and sugar after you drink the beer?
Experimental loaf # 2a
Steve was over Saturday pitching in with help on THE WALL project. When we took a lunch break, I mixed up a batch of dough–same basic recipe as loaf #1. I cooked it in the pot-in-pot as before, only I used the medium size pot over the Coleman Exponent stove.
It was actually me second attempt at #2. Last weekend I made dough and while it was rising I was going to clean the air intakes on the stove. I got off track and ended up having to put the dough in the regular oven.
I used poor scientific method on 2a, since I changed both the cook method (stove) and the pot that served as my oven. Also, I timed the cooking–figured 40 minutes should be right. The loaf was a good but undercooked. However, the bottom was still too tough. Not as bad as loaf 1, but then, it was undercooked.
With the medium pot serving as the oven, there is less room for air to circulate, and less “overhead” space for the loaf. Air temp was about 28 degrees, and maybe insufficient heat was getting around the pot to the top. the top of the loaf was visibly pale. My conclusion was that I can turn up the burner a little more than what I had going, but that I should probably increase the air space between the bottom of the loaf and the bottom of the oven-pot, to try to avoid the overcooking of the bottom. Also, I’ll go back to the large pot for the oven-pot.
If the over-cooked bottom can’t be overcome, it’s still good bread, just need to plan on there be some waste.
~~Chip, bad-method man
Bakepacker
I have been using the Bakepacker, and I love it.
http://www.bakepacker.com/
It is a very lightweight accessory that fits into the bottom of your pot. You just add 1 inch of water to the pot and bake your bread, muffins, desserts, or what have you in a plastic bag. I pre-measure the flour and other ingredients at home in plastic bags, then just add water and cook them IN THE BAG! No cleanup, just carry the bag out with you.
bannock
from a boundary waters journal…use a pile of flour the size of your fist, enough baking powder to cover your palm, and a pinch of salt. Mix with melted lard, and bake in a greased frying pan (with lard) till done.
I even eat this at home…delicious and heart healthy too!
5th try; real good, but I cheated
After four previous efforts, I had excellent results on a test loaf this weekend, on the back deck. I had an extra pouch of dough ingredients from last weekend’s Assateague trip, and I didn’t think it would keep indefinately, so I went ahead and mixed it up.
The dough went into the small pot. The small pot went into the big pot, sitting on three, half-inch long sections of aluminum tube (laid on end). A cover goes on the big pot, but not the small pot, and the assembly goes on the Coleman Exponent cook stove.
Previous loafs were undercooked, or #1 was well cooked over too long a period, so the bottom crust was too tough and crunchy. All the loafs had tough bottom crusts. This time, I was resolved to use more heat. Then I decided to cheat. I unscrewed the pot lid’s handle and jury rigged a Martha Stewart digital thermometer to fit through the screw hole and read the temperature inside the pot. Cheating in this manner, I was able to keep the temperature in the pot between 350 and 380. I had an excellent loaf, golden browned, in 35 minutes.
I don’t plan on taking that thermometer with me when I go camping, so that was the cheating part. I hoped to learn to gauge the burn of the stove and then reproduce that burn in the field. I was able to see that I had, on past loafs, used way too low a flame. Trouble is, I learned that produdcing a static temperature in the pot is hard. It was either getting hotter or cooler at almost every setting. Still, I have a lot better idea what the flame should look like now. Beyond that, if Martha Stewart isn’t along with me, I’ll just have to keep an eye on the baked goods and fiddle with the fire.
Interesting, and I’m done experimenting.
Happy baking to you, and happy holidays, too.
~~Chip
Making Bread?
I thought making bread was illegal, but I guess you have to pay for all this paddling some how.
Rude
haha
great thread! just ordered an aluminum dutch oven, so I’ll have to try some of these recipes.
2 Bakers
I’ve tried two different baking methods that both work well:
http://www.backpackeroven.com/
This is a little oven that you set up over your flame or coals. It works really well but it does mean that you have to take an extra piece of equipment.
http://www.packitgourmet.com/Baking-Set-p203.html
This is a baking set made of silicone that you nest down inside your cookpot. The down side is that you don’t get a crust but you don’t need to pack in any special equipment and the silicone squishes down well.
THANKS
THANKS FOR ALL OF THESE TIPS
Bread in the Backcountry
Check out NOLS Cookery. Fresh baked bread, pizzas, cinnamon rolls, etc are staples on NOLS courses: http://www.nols.edu/store/product.php?productid=16302
Enjoy!
Bread
There is always tortillas.I use them all the time.
But mix some self rising flour with powdered milk and add water when you are ready to make bread or biscuits etc…
Skillet Baking
Here’s a pretty good article on how to ‘skillet bake’. Seems like this would be a good idea since you wouldn’t have to carry any special equipment or anything.
http://www.packitgourmet.com/How+to+Make+Bread+in+the+Backcountry-sp82.html
I’m with campsalot
Pita is the way to go… it doesn’t get squished like bread does, it makes sandwichcraft a lot easier, and it takes up less space than bread. I’m a lazy cook in the wilderness. I want the least amount of trouble when it comes to my meals, plus tend to have full days of activity with not a lot of leisure time in camp, so baking is not an option for me.
My favorite application so far for pita bread is Hormel cooked chicken breast in a pouch, some pre-cooked bacon, a packet of Chik Fil A Mayo, and a bit of Tabasco sauce in a pita. If you want a hot meal, warm up the chicken in your cook pot for just a minute or two. Also, if you like freeze dried omlettes or scrambled eggs (or regular eggs for that matter) they go nicely in the pita and save you a little bit of cleanup.