how do I prepare and cook leavened bread?

[petrochemicals]

So then how do I make bread that rises?

I know there are recepies out there, but i'm not being lazy, some are better than others (so I'm told) and there are tips, points on doing it outdoor etc that I do not know.

 

[santaman2000]

For outdoors you probably want to use a quickbread for the sake of ease. Likewise you will want to premix all the dry ingredients at home and add the liquids at the cook site.

 

[JAG009]

550g of strong white flour
10g salt
7g easy bake yeast
350ml hand warm water

Mix then knead until you have a smooth dough ,5mins usually does it ,leave to prove for 2hours or so somewhere warm ( you can do this in a dutch oven hanging near a fire just getting enough heat to keep warm not cook )
Once it has proved knock the bread back and form into a ball again (leave to double in size again in the dutch oven somewhere warm )
Now to cook over the fire not to close with some hot coals on the lid of the dutch oven you just want good heat not direct flame , this will take as long as it takes ,on average 1 hour depending on weather heat and the like

An easy one though is chapati
125g whole wheat bread flour
table spoon of olive oil
60ml water
good pinch of salt
mix together and knead until you have a nice dough
put it in a plastic bag and stick it in your pocket for ten mins
cut it into four roll out thin (3mm or so) and heat in a hot dry frying pan ( no oil at all) they puff up in about a min ,cook both sides

,

 

[lou1661]

The one I have been using lately is
About 500g flour (strong white, or stoneground wholemeal or whatever I have to hand)
1 packet yeast
2ish tablespoons of milk powder,
1ish teaspoon salt,
1tablespoon sugar.
Water.

Works ok in the oven, and in the Dutch oven as well.

Louis

 

[British Red]

A good bannock rises well and is very simple. It rises through baking powder rather than yeast - but its wonderfully simple.


3 pints plain flour
1/2 pint skimmed milk powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 pint Atora vegetable suet
4 tablespoons baking powder

Mix and shake well

That's a basic mix. To get ready to cook, mix (roughly) four parts bannock mix to one part water. You will get a plain loaf.

For savoury, mix in some crumbled cheese, some chopped salami, dome minced garlic, some chopped chillis....whatever you like

For a sweet dessert bun type loaf mix in some brown sugar or honey and maybe some dried fruit (sultanas, dried cherries etc.).

For pancakes mix in an egg and extra water or milk to get a runny batter and fry.

I usually mix up a lot of the basic mix (which lasts for months) and then add other bits as I go according to what I fancy.

bannock by British Red, on Flickr

5 cook by British Red, on Flickr

 

[sandbender]

Bannock - Dampa

I'm using baking powder here, swap that out for yeast and it'll work just fine, don't compress the mix too much and leave it for a bit before you pop it in the oven.

2 cups flour
Baking powder - 1 teaspoon
1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup Beer
3 tablespoons butter

Mix the flour, baking powder and salt on a board (or bowl), slowly breaking the butter into the mix, then gradually add the beer, kneading the mix as you do. Shape into a loaf and then gently push into the bottom of a well buttered pan.

Bake for 35 - 40 mins, don’t open pot lid or oven door until at least 30 to 35 mins have elapsed.

 

[petrochemicals]

Thanks all.

 

[Robson Valley]

There are two basic forms of leavening = the gas bubbles in breads.
1. chemical. Baking Soda releases carbon dioxide in reaction with acids in the formula.
Baking Powder releases carbon dioxide in decomposition when heated in the baking process.
2. biological. Yeast metabolism releases carbon dioxide as an end product of fermentation of sugars.
Same as in the fermentations of beers and wines.

Yeasts respond to temperature so the mixed formula has to rest for some time and does poorly at low temperatures
such as 70F or less. The usual rule of thumb is to allow the dough to double in volume, mash it down thoroughly
and let that happen a second time before baking. The chemical leavening is much more straight forward
but you have to be prepared for a substantial difference in texture and taste.
Hot bread in the pi$$ing rain is a comfort, no matter how it was made.

Other posters here are giving you good formulas for relatively small volumes. Probably practical for on site bush craft.
I really like the idea of preparing mixed units of dry ingredients = no bottles, jars or packets, nothing left over.
I can manage just fine with a bowl and a stick, even in my kitchen.

BUT as for baking outdoors, I have yet to fool with that. I'd like to learn what else is needed besides a fire.

 

[Alreetmiowdmuka]

All above recipes look great.i like too put an oven tray of boiling water in the bottom of as its heating up this creates a good level of steam inside.then when yer ready too put the bread in the oven do it nice n fast keeping the steam in side the oven.ive got the river cottage bread book it's a cracker worth putting on yer Crimbo list
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/074759533X/ref=redir_mdp_mobile/279-5633764-2223955


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[bilmo-p5]

550g of strong white flour
10g salt
7g easy bake yeast
350ml hand warm water

Mix then knead until you have a smooth dough ,5mins usually does it ,leave to prove for 2hours or so somewhere warm ( you can do this in a dutch oven hanging near a fire just getting enough heat to keep warm not cook )
Once it has proved knock the bread back and form into a ball again (leave to double in size again in the dutch oven somewhere warm )
Now to cook over the fire not to close with some hot coals on the lid of the dutch oven you just want good heat not direct flame , this will take as long as it takes ,on average 1 hour depending on weather heat and the like

If you use Allinson's Easy Bake Yeast, you don't need to knock back the dough. After the 1st kneading & proving it's ready for the oven.

Check it out...

 

[JAG009]

If you use Allinson's Easy Bake Yeast, you don't need to knock back the dough. After the 1st kneading & proving it's ready for the oven.

Check it out...

Yeh! I know but I find you get better results doing it the old way, as they say , I have tried it with just the first prove and its ok ,but they say with longer proving you get better flavour, that maybe a old wives tale though

 

[bilmo-p5]

I never had much success with Easy-Bake doing it the trad way, but routinely get good results (when I have my home-baking head on) with the E-B method.
Whatever works best.

 

[Toddy]

If you're proving the dough at home, pop the bowlfull into the microwave. It'll keep it warm enough and you can give it 10 second bursts to heat it up if you're baking when the weather's cold and dreich like now. It's out of the way too if you don't have much space on the worktops.
HWMBLT likes the quick acting yeast, but I prefer the older variety and to knock it back. I think it stretches the gluten out better and it gives a less falling apart/ falling in the middle, type loaf. Then again, Himself uses the breadmaker.

I bought one of the silicon bags from ebay, and am impressed by just how it really means no mess
Like this one
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Silicone-...Crafts_Cake_Decorating_MJ&hash=item27e948bf1a

Haven't used it outside yet, but I think it's going in my kit

M

 

[Humpback]

Petrochemicals: Take a look at youtube's 'artisanbreadwithstev'
He makes no knead bread and I've had good results with his recipe but found I need to reduce the quantity for my set up ie 3.5 cups flour down to 1.75 with the other ingredients reduced by 50% too.

 

[Robson Valley]

The professional method to scale recipes & bread formulas is by weight, not by volume.
In my kitchen, a cup of flour varies from 150g to 170g, depending on how it is packed.
Using 160g as my average, I can shovel out 800g in seconds for my formula and I'm done!

For example, whatever it is, you call the flour 100%. Then all other weighed ingredients
become % of the flour weight (Gisslen/Professional Baking/Cordon Bleu). It's a big, fat
text book that should not be hard to find.

 

[British Red]

The professional method to scale recipes & bread formulas is by weight, not by volume.
.

Bear in mind though that the context of this discussion is making bread whilst camping out.

Many of us use mugs with volume measures on

Do you carry a set of scales with you when bushcrafting?

 

[Toddy]

.....and you get to my age and you do the whole, "That looks about right", type baking

M

 

[British Red]

I do like "1 of, 2 of, 3 of type recipes too" so easy to scale. When recipes are all mixed up with weights and volumes, its a pain. Its easy to convert them all to volumes. Then to multiples of standard volumes (e.g. all tablespoons become 3 teaspoons - because thats what I carry)

My bannock is basically 6 of flour, 1 of milk powder, 1 of fat. You can use cups, or jugs or kuksas or handfuls. Then add a tsp of salt and 12 of baking powder. Always works.

 

[tombear]

Premixed in ziplocks is how I do it with the amount of water to be added written on the pack. One of my Nalgenes has volumes marked on it as does one of my steel mugs.

The Aussie camp ovens I've been using for years now bake as good as the gas oven once I'm in practice. I tend to make baking powder stuff from laziness but its easy enough to use one for rising near the fire while the other preheats.

http://southernmetalspinners.com.au/product/aussie-camp-oven-small-10-2/

just noticed th website has changed and they now do overseas orders. I was lucky in having a mate 15 mins from the factory who wanted some obscure bits of militaria I had spare...

I can do two 14 inch pizzas in the big one at the same time and the bread rises during the cooking lovely. The smell drives the family mad...


atb

Tom

 

[Robson Valley]

No scales. I do the bag trick. Bushcraft is about the same as visiting some of my friends!
Years ago, I did go to the trouble of figuring out the weights of volume measures.
Six eggs. Turns out that 8 small eggs = 6 Large = 350g

What I would like to learn to do is to make use of river stones to build some sort of alcove
for rudimentary baking.