Real bread Real baking?

[Moondog55]

So one of the things most missed during my long camps is the smell and taste of real bread
Does anybody have any experience in baking on the top of a cast iron stove using the double tin method?
I'm trying to decide between using a small aluminium round cake pan or a shallower steel cake pan that I already have with a large SS bowl over the top or to try and find/make a fireproof box from aluminium flashing and angle
Both would perhaps use a small cake cooling rack to get the bottom of the cake pan off the very hot stove top

[GBW]

Mmmmm...fresh bread. Camp ovens are great, but a bit heavy to carry.

I cooked bread on a hot rock next to a fire at Mt Skene...worked a treat...not much different to cooking damper.

Maybe do a test run on the stove top at home and see what works best.

You can also wind a sausage of dough around a stick and simply cook it like a marshmallow.

[Moondog55]

I could stash the cast camp oven or one of the Bedourie ovens but the hot charcoal sitting on top is too much of a fire hazard in a LW tent and the Bedourie ovens are a little too big for the top of the stove

Not a bad idea if I ever light a big fire outside tho
I haven't cooked damper on a stick since I was in the Scouts, Ohh bad memories of half raw dough and tummy aches

[MeanderingFlyFisher]

Not quite real bread but the flat bread recipe in a recent edition of the emag on this forums homepage works a treat.I have spiced them up a bit adding garlic granules or mixed herbs and they make an amazing accompaniment to the evening meal.I pre package them in glad bags and just add water at camp then do them in the frypan.
I have been working on my fishing/hiking mate to carry in my camp oven and I would make him some damper as he seems to enjoy it but he just baulks at the suggestion Does anybody know of any high country huts with a camp oven in them

[Giddy_up]

MD, just dust the top of your cast stove with flour and put a tin or metal bowl over the top and don't run your stove to hot. I've done that when I was working in NT and it works a treat.

[Pongo]

Sounds like you're trying to cook a full loaf of bread. This thread is smaller items baking but might give you some inspiration:

viewtopic.php?f=58&t=14235

[andrewa]

Ran into some Danes on Bogong at Cleve Cole last autumn who were cooking dough wound around a stick over a fire. Looked yummy - esp since we didn't have the facility to do same.

A

[Moondog55]

That thread has inspired me to include a few packet mudcakes or muffin mixes
Flat bread is easy and I can do that, what I really miss is the crunchy crust of proper sourdough Pasta Dura but being as that isn't possible without a proper oven I'd try and get as close as I can
I'll give that a try Giddy-up but I'll need a fallback, the cooking ring on the stove gets very very hot as that is where the baffle shelf directs all the flame
Mind you a 200mm cob loaf is a good size for one; I'll scour the Op-Shops for a deep cake tin as a lid or with luck a #1 Bedourie oven will come up

[Moondog55]

I'll take some pictures soon but I just mixed up a small sourdough mix to try baking bread on the stove top before packing it away for the trip up. If it works outside exposed to the wind it should work fine up the mountain inside the tent
It turned out that my #2 Bedourie oven is OK on the stove top, a little wide but OK and as I have it that is what I'll use

[Giddy_up]

Can't wait to see the final product MD, butter and honey at the ready

[GBW]

Good luck Moondog.I can smell it already in Ferntree Gully.

[icefest]

I've made fresh year bread rolls with the double tin method before.

I used two aluminium pots with an aluminium spacer in between. This was then all put on a large cast aluminium frying pan and then on a shellite stove.

Worked pretty well but temperature regulation was just impossible. The biggest issue was letting the dough rise for me i was on Mt Feathertop in the snow and hard to keep warming up the dough on the stove.

[Giddy_up]

The biggest issue was letting the dough rise for me i was on Mt Feathertop in the snow and hard to keep warming up the dough on the stove.

I agree icefest,

Getting the dough to prove at cold temps, at altitude will be the hardest part of the process I think. The thought of fresh bread like this just makes my mouth water though [FACE WITH TEARS OF JOY][FACE WITH TEARS OF JOY]

[icefest]

Thinking about it a bit more... a sourdough culture kept on the body with a runny dough proved in a nalgene in the sleeping bag could work.

[Giddy_up]

That's a really good way to do it. I actually have a couple of insulated Nalgene bottle covers from Outdoor Research that would really suit this. Dough consistency is the key for sure. Maybe you could get away with a firmer dough but a much smaller size in a wide mouth bottle and still be able to pull it out and give it a quick knead before baking.

[icefest]

Or let it prove in the dedicated hotbox MD is planning to make.

[Moondog55]

Getting a good proving is most of the battle ; too true
The next is control of the baking temperature, hot but not too hot
If I'm not using the haybox to cook in I'll definitely be using it for the proving
Also I'll keep the loaf size to 150mm which will be about a heaped cup of flour so 6 - 8 loaves from a bag unless I get really on top of the technique and start baking big loaves

[Giddy_up]

First loaf looks like you targeted a flat loaf, the second was left to rise and then bake. Brilliant results MD, I'd eat all that haha


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[Moondog55]

I just threw together another insulated cardboard box to keep the sourdough starter alive in.
I'll only be taking up enough dried yeast for a few loaves so I'll do it properly and keep some back each time.
I'm hoping the space under the stove will be just warm enough to allow the mix to prove, flat bread is nice but a real loaf is heaven

[Giddy_up]

Very cool that you're keeping seed dough MD. That's the secret to good sourdough


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[Moondog55]

I think I'll add a small aluminium pizza tray to the cooking kit as well for cooking straight on the stove top, cleaning the polenta off was quite difficult and the smoke from the burning corn meal would chase everybody out of the big tent
Stove is now packed and on the trailer ready to take up so no more experiments

[Moondog55]

Well there is good news and bad news
The underside of the stove gets nice and warm for proving dough and I took up enough spare foil and thin plate to box in that space for keeping the warmth in; the bad news [ sort of anyway] is that if I get the stove hot enough to bake bread on top of it it will be too hot to actually be in the tent unless all the doors and vents are open
But bread only need 20 minutes of real heat so I can close the stove down after that, you know what this means? Fresh pizza when I want it and real bread to go with the Vegemite

[north-north-west]

Wonder if it will be the first time a bunch of snow campers were medevaced out due to heatstroke from cooking . . .

[Moondog55]

Wonder if it will be the first time a bunch of snow campers were medevaced out due to heatstroke from cooking . . .

You just made me choke on my coffee; now I have to clean up

[Moondog55]

And I have to report that during my time away i simply could not be bothered baking bread at all
After skiing i was simply too tired and all i wanted to do was eat fast and sleep mostly and when I has a day off skiing it was simply easier to eat crackers or buy sliced bread at the supermarket