This week we have a special guest writer, Derek Bullock the Aussie Camp Oven Cook. He shares his secrets for the perfect camp oven (aka Dutch oven) bread.

“Have you ever wandered down past the bakers early in the morning and sniffed the air and taken in that wonderful aroma of fresh baked bread? Well, let me tell you, I can create that same aroma out in the bush! Fresh bread is a delight, especially your own fresh bread, but to bake it in a camp oven in the middle of nowhere is a real treat.

There are two main things you need to do when baking bread:

1. Knead, knead, knead and more kneading. On the first knead I time myself for 12 minutes.

2. A warm, draught free place to let your bread rise. I use the car. Even on a cool day in winter, the inside of your car sitting in the sun is quite warm.

How do you make bread in the bush? It’s simple; you just buy the bread mix from your local store. I use the ones that come with four bread mixes and four little yeast sachets.

Get your bowl and mix the ingredients as directed on the pack. Remember to use warm water to assist the yeast to activate. Then, the fun starts and the kneading begins! You can’t make good bread without kneading it properly.

Once it’s kneaded, let it rise. I use a stainless steel bowl with a tea towel over the top. Let it at least double in size, this will usually take anything up to an hour.

Now it’s time to find a nice warm place for the dough to rise. I have found over the years that the best place is your car in the sitting in the sun. Even on a cold winter’s day, the car warms up quite quickly in the sun.

Then, depending on the directions on the pack, knead it again. Place it in your well-greased bread tin and allow it to rise again for up to an hour.

Place it in your camp oven that has been preheated with Heat Beads^® BBQ Briquettes (16 Heat Beads^® BBQ Briquettes on the top and six underneath) and cook for around 30 minutes.

The bread is cooked when tapping the base produces a nice hollow sound.

Bread rolls are another favourite. I cook these directly in the camp oven. After the first rise, knead again and then divide the dough into round balls and place into the camp oven and leave to rise.

Cheese and bacon bread rolls are delicious. After the second rise I sprinkle grated cheese and chopped bacon on them before cooking.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 14th, 2009 at 11:21 pm and is filed under BBQ info, Camp Oven Cooking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.