Dampers

Dampers are a very basic bread made by scouts and cubs for cooking over an open fire. For hiking the ingredients can be pre-mixed in a zip-lockbag and water is added just before cooking.

Making dampers

Ingredients

• 3 ½ cups self-raising flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ cup of milk
• 1 cup of water (adjusting as needed)

Preparation

• Add dry ingredients: flour, salt and milk powder into a bowl.
• Add water gradually stirring as you go - stop adding just as all the dry ingredients become sticky).
• Add a bit of flour to your hands, get those fingers working and mix everything together - it gets quite sticky at this stage, and you might want to add a bit more flour.
• Once your dough is forming, place the mixture on a well-floured surface and knead lightly.
• Shape the mixture into a round and allow to stand for 5-10 minutes.

If camping or hiking:

• Use ½ cup of powdered milk in the dry ingredients and leave out the milk.
• Pre-mix all the ingredients in a ziplock.
• Increase the water to about 1 ½ cups

Cooking

Option 1

• Place your damper on some greased foil inside your Dutch oven
• Place the lid on firmly and place Dutch oven on the hot coals
• Cover the lid with coals also and allow to cook for around half an hour

Option 2

• Take a handful of dough and roll into a "snake",
• Wind around a stick and hold it over the coals until it's nice and crusty!
• Don't be too hasty or you will be eating raw dough.

Serve with butter and golden syrup!

Tasty Tip: Add chocolate chips or cheese to the damper dough before baking for a sweet or savoury twist.

External links

• Aussie Dampers
• Dampers on a stick

See also

• Twist_Bread
• Damper breads