| |
| |
|
Cooking Tips Information |
|
|
|
Bread in the Woods
We really like fresh bread while we're camping. There is something about bread products that just seems especially good in the woods. Maybe it's the fresh air; maybe it's the appetites that we work up in the woods. When we talk about bread in the woods, two thoughts seem to flash through folk's minds: "Hey, I can barely handle yeast in the kitchen," and "Yeah, but I'm a tent camper. I can't bake in the woods." Never fear. This article will help. If you can barely handle yeast in the kitchen, maybe yeast in the campground isn't a great idea. But then, yeast is not temperamental to anything but temperature. If you solve the temperature problems, yeast in the campground is no more difficult than yeast in the kitchen. You need warm enough water to get the yeasty critters growing. Most recipes are going to ask for water in the 105 to 110 degree range. Unless you have a practiced finger, bring a thermometer. Now you've got to keep the yeasty critters growing. That involves temperature too. Instead of covering your dough with plastic wrap, place the dough, bowl and all, in a large food-safe plastic bag. It'll keep the surface of the dough from drying out, the drafts away from the dough, and you'll have a little mini greenhouse. If you have some sun, you can probably get the dough warm enough for the yeast to work. Once at 11,000 feet in Montana with a youth group, we moved a tent into the brunt of the sun to absorb the afternoon rays and create enough heat to make the dough rise. But you still don't have an oven. You can use a Dutch oven. You can fry your yeasted bread. (In some parts of the West, these are called scones.) Raised doughnuts-Spudnuts®-are fried yeast breads. We've written before about fried bread. If you don't want to mess around with the yeast, you can still make some great fried breads. What follows is an easy flatbread recipe. Or try a versatile Sopaipillas Recipe. You can also make some wonderful steamed breads around a campfire or on a cook stove. Many of these are sweetbreads, maybe even dessert breads, but they can be very good-good enough to make at home. And of course, you can always rely on pancakes. In fact, pancakes may be one of the most versatile of camping foods. It works on the trail on a backpacking trip, in an RV, and everything in between. You can make them sweet or savory. You can top them with syrups or sauces. You can even stuff them, roll them, and eat them as a burrito. For more about making bread without an oven or bread in woods, we recommend that you check out our "Emergency and Outdoor Bread Manual"-it's a free download consisting of about 28 pages of goodies. Here's a good recipe to start with, Indian Flatbread. Indian Flatbread This makes a quick side dish to feed the kids, a bread that you can make without an oven, and a great trail bread. You can double or triple the recipe depending on how big your tribe is. 4 cups bread flour 4 teaspoons baking powder 1 cup dry milk solids 1 teaspoon salt 2 tablespoons sugar 1 1/2 cups warm water Enough vegetable oil to fill the frying pan to 1/2-inch deep. Mix the dry ingredients together. Form a depression in the dry ingredients and slowly pour half the water in. Mix and add the remaining water as needed to form a soft but not sticky dough. Knead the dough lightly. Cut pieces from the dough and form them into round discs about 1/4-inch thick. Heat the oil until hot. When the oil is hot enough, a small piece of the dough placed in the oil should brown quickly but not burn. Slip the dough pieces into the hot oil, fry them until brown on one side, and turn. When done, remove them to paper towels. Serve them hot as a bread or with syrup or honey as a side dish. Dennis Weaver is the general manager at The Prepared Pantry (http://www.preparedpantry.com) with recipes, ideas, and the best selection of mixes and ingredients. Visit the free Bakers' Library for more articles like this, free baking guides, and tested recipes.
MORE RESOURCES:
Cooking-Tips - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
How to Bake: Muffins (with recipes) Muffins are a mainstay around our house. They are as nourishing as they are good to eat. Homemade Whipped Cream Most grocery stores carry cans of whipping cream ready to spray onto your favorite desert. Some of these cans even come in chocolate flavor. Caring For Your Wooden Cutting Board Researchers have found that bacteria have a tougher time surviving on wood cutting boards. However, plastic cutting boards are less porous than wood, making it less likely to harbor bacteria over a long period of time, but only if it is immediately cleaned. Baking Bread and Your Freezer There's a lot of bread in our freezer. In our exuberance, we often bake more bread than we can eat in a day or two. Make-up or Mixing Methods for Muffins When muffins aren't perfect, the first reaction is to change the ingredients in the recipe. Rather than changing the recipe, try a different mixing method. Better Breakfasts Ideas Nutritionists tell us that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. With breakfast, we are replenishing our bodies from the night before and charging them for the day ahead. The Art of the Marinade It's a sad fact that these days it has become almost essential to marinade most cuts of meat, unless you intend to casserole them.I'll go into why that is the case a bit later on, but for the time being let's just examine why we use marinades at all. Clarifying Butter Clarified butter is a delightfully rich concentrated butter that can be used in cooking and making mouth watering sauces. Traditional methods for making this rich butter concentrate can be a little intimidating at first, but not anymore. What's the Thick on Roux? Thickening Soups and Sauces Soups and sauces can be thickened in a variety of ways. A sauce must the thick enough to cling to the food, but not so thick it stands up on its own. 10 Smoky Tips To BBQ Food Safely Cooking outdoors was once only a summer activity shared with family and friends. Now more than half of Americans say they are cooking outdoors year round. Keeping and Wasps and Flies Away from your Barbecue It is one of life's oddities that we take a lot of trouble refrigerating meat, keeping food sealed and washing our hands before touching it, only to throw out the rule book when we have a barbecue. The meat is left out in the sun waiting it's turn to be cooked, exposed to the elements and there is no washbasin to be seen. The Best-Kept Secrets of Beef Revealed! Get Ready to Become the Meat Expert in Your Family! Do you helplessly stand at the meat counter looking from package to package, not knowing what to buy? Do you end up buying chicken because you don't know which cut of meat to buy and wouldn't know how to fix it if you did buy it?There are so many cuts of meat, at so many prices and so many ways of cooking that meat, it's no wonder so many people are confused, and walk away with the same cut every time they buy meat. Bar-b-qued tri-tip again!You don't have to worry anymore! I'm going to explain beef to you so well, you will become the meat expert of the family. 6 Tips for Perfect Homemade Hard Candy There's nothing better than the juicy, flavorful hard candy from your local gourmet candy shop . . Emergency Bread: Can you Bake Bread Without an Oven? What would you eat if you were stranded without power? It could happen; it does happen. A natural disaster, a breakdown in the delivery system as the Northeast experienced recently, or a terrorist strike against the infrastructure could leave you without power. Alone In the Kitchen: Stirring Up Mindfulness Put on your apron! It's time to stir up a batch of mindfulness.Julia Child, the trilling television chef who taught millions of Americans how to prepare French food without being hoity-toity, died in her sleep at the age of 92 recently. Unique Cake Decorating With Flowers Flowers as a Cake Decoration, unique and easy to place on every one of your cake creations.Flowers, both real and artificial are relatively simple to use. How to cut a cake Have you ever wondered how to cut a cake? I have had a lot of practice. When I turned 16 and requested a Spider Man sheet cake I busily honed my cake cutting skills by making concentric rectangles and then served up the master piece. Perfect Picnics - Frugal Food Safety Tips Summer is finally here and for a lot of us that means heading out to the lake or to the park for a picnic with friends or family.Unfortunately, if we're not careful when we plan, transport and serve that picnic, our outing might not end up happily. ServSafe Food Program in Montana a Success Montana has a great program for restaurant employees. Each preparer of foods to the public must go through a special program where they learn at what temperatures food must be served and how to keep the place clean. Outdoor Chefs Choose Gas Grills How many of you remember dad trying to get the charcoal started? The mess, time and burgers tasting of lighter fluid are some reasons why outdoor chefs are choosing gas grills for their recipes for BBQs over a charcoal barbecue. A gas grill offers many advantages for BBQ over charcoal.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
