I've been playing with lightweight baking for a while and have just made a new discovery for camping gas stoves!
With a campfire on the ground, it's possible to bake on a piece of tin foil folded up on some sticks to make a reflector oven (I made a lovely cheese bread this way). You can take your dry ingredients in a plastic bag, then use the bag as a mixing bowl to make up the bread. Letting the dough rise might involve putting the bag near (but not too close) to your campfire, or even putting the bag of dough up your jumper for a while. Where there's a will, there's a way!
But what if all you've got is a camping stove and no fire? I've just found a fantastic bit of kit that allows you to bake on a hob: an Omnia oven. No disclaimers here, I don't have any shares or monetary interest in Omnia, I just bought one of their ovens and found it works, so thought I'd share my experience.
The omnia oven cost me £46 inc p&p, so didn't break the bank, and I haven't bought any of the accessories (silicon liners et c), just the oven. So far, I don't feel the need to buy any accessories either, but I have only used the oven to make cinnamon buns so far.
It is an oven which turns any hob, except an induction hob, into an oven. It's also light (mostly aluminium) and packs up pretty small.
For all those back-packer campers out there, used to making and living off 1-pot stews and pasta sauce dishes, suddenly baked goods are within your grasp! Oven chips. Quiche. Bread rolls. I made cinnamon buns. Here's a picture of half of them still in the oven as I was getting them out.
This is my 4th successful attempt at cinnamon buns (I haven't had any fails). I made them 3 times while camping at the Wintermoot. I cooked them on my camping gas hob and forgot to photograph them each time because they got eaten so fast
So I just made them again at home on the electric hob.
I guess the trickiest thing is figuring out temperature. I found with my buns that taking a peek after 25mins to see how fast they appeared to be cooking allowed me to adjust things. If I could smell caramelisation and sizzling and the buns weren't quite ready, then time to turn down the heat to prevent burning but continue the cooking for a bit. On my camping stove, I turned the flame down as low as I dared without it blowing out in the wind, but cooked the buns for 40 mins. (Slow is better than burnt, right?). At home on my electric hob, I tried the buns at setting 6, but they seemed to be cooking too fast at 25mins, so I turned them down to 4 for another 15 mins. As you can see, the buns were cooked beautifully - lovely soft bread, plenty of cinnamon sauce and the pan just needs a little soak to get that sticky sauce off.
With a campfire on the ground, it's possible to bake on a piece of tin foil folded up on some sticks to make a reflector oven (I made a lovely cheese bread this way). You can take your dry ingredients in a plastic bag, then use the bag as a mixing bowl to make up the bread. Letting the dough rise might involve putting the bag near (but not too close) to your campfire, or even putting the bag of dough up your jumper for a while. Where there's a will, there's a way!
But what if all you've got is a camping stove and no fire? I've just found a fantastic bit of kit that allows you to bake on a hob: an Omnia oven. No disclaimers here, I don't have any shares or monetary interest in Omnia, I just bought one of their ovens and found it works, so thought I'd share my experience.
The omnia oven cost me £46 inc p&p, so didn't break the bank, and I haven't bought any of the accessories (silicon liners et c), just the oven. So far, I don't feel the need to buy any accessories either, but I have only used the oven to make cinnamon buns so far.
It is an oven which turns any hob, except an induction hob, into an oven. It's also light (mostly aluminium) and packs up pretty small.
For all those back-packer campers out there, used to making and living off 1-pot stews and pasta sauce dishes, suddenly baked goods are within your grasp! Oven chips. Quiche. Bread rolls. I made cinnamon buns. Here's a picture of half of them still in the oven as I was getting them out.
This is my 4th successful attempt at cinnamon buns (I haven't had any fails). I made them 3 times while camping at the Wintermoot. I cooked them on my camping gas hob and forgot to photograph them each time because they got eaten so fast
I guess the trickiest thing is figuring out temperature. I found with my buns that taking a peek after 25mins to see how fast they appeared to be cooking allowed me to adjust things. If I could smell caramelisation and sizzling and the buns weren't quite ready, then time to turn down the heat to prevent burning but continue the cooking for a bit. On my camping stove, I turned the flame down as low as I dared without it blowing out in the wind, but cooked the buns for 40 mins. (Slow is better than burnt, right?). At home on my electric hob, I tried the buns at setting 6, but they seemed to be cooking too fast at 25mins, so I turned them down to 4 for another 15 mins. As you can see, the buns were cooked beautifully - lovely soft bread, plenty of cinnamon sauce and the pan just needs a little soak to get that sticky sauce off.
