Bread over a campfire? Why not! It's really easy to bring bread dough on the road to make this Dutch Oven Campfire Artisan Bread. By mixing the dough ahead at home, all that's left is to make hot coals and bake!
Nothing beats fresh bread! Whether you prefer to bake with yeast or with sourdough, a hot loaf of bread with lots 'o butter is where it's at. When at home, I've perfected my dutch oven sourdough loaf. I then wanted to have bread on the road because why not?? You can of course take your home-baked bread with you, but why not go a step further and bake it at camp!
We will bake our loaves in parchment paper, meaning the Dutch ovens won't be dirty. That's perfect because then you can turn around and whip up some campfire chicken thighs or a Dutch oven roast. The bread will be great at totally cleaning your plates!
Key Ingredients
Flour - Just regular old all-purpose flour here. I do prefer unbleached but nothing fancy is necessary!
Water - Make sure it is warm to keep the yeast happy but not hot to kill it.
Yeast - This recipe calls for instant yeast - this is different than "active dry."
How to Make Artisan Bread in a Dutch Oven
***See recipe card below for precise measurements and instructions.***
Step 1: Use a large container or bowl to combine the water and flour and let hydrate.
Step 2: Use your hands to combine the salt and yeast into the dough.
Step 3: Let raise and make sure and "fold" it a few times over the next few hours. Refrigerate overnight.
Step 4: Once at your destination, shape into proofing vessels, using either flour or parchment paper. Let rest.
Step 5: Heat up your coals, and "preheat" your Dutch ovens in the coals, including coals on the lids.
Step 6: Transfer the dough to the HOT Dutch ovens and bake!
Step 7: Finish baking with lids off, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Campfire Cooking Basics
- Use special equipment, such as a hook/lid lifter and super heat-resistant cooking gloves. These likely have longer arms than your oven mitts for extra protection.
- Make sure you know if a recipe calls for open flames or a hot bed of coals and prepare the area accordingly.
- This isn't like an oven or stove where you can easily change the heat. This means you'll need to keep a closer eye on things, and cooking times in recipes are much broader. Your Campfire Brownies could "bake" a lot faster than mine!
FAQs
Instant, or rapid rise, has smaller granules. It is made to be added straight to your dough, and doesn't need to be hydrated first. You'll know the difference because other recipes will have you use "active dry yeast" which is added directly to the warm water to proof before adding to the dough. Make sure your yeast is fresh, because you won't know it isn't working until the entire dough has failed.
You'll want specific Dutch ovens just for camping. This way you'll keep your pretty enameled Dutch ovens in the kitchen. These will be more utilitarian and they also have flat lids, or lids you can reverse to be "indented" so that you can pile coals on top. If you lid is rounded, the coals will just slide right off. These lids also generally have a loop or handle that works with a lid lifter so you can safely maneuver things.
Make sure and pop some homemade raw milk butter in a jar to slather on a thick slice! Besides the chicken and roast mentioned above, you could also braise some ribs over the campfire. It's also great for your tea or coffee in the morning, which is why I like making two losves!
Photos by Dante from Shire by the Sea
More Campfire Recipes
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Dutch Oven Campfire Artisan Bread
Equipment
- 2 Dutch ovens mine were 9- and 5-quarts
- 30 - 40 hot coals
Ingredients
- 1,000 grams all-purpose flour approximately 7 ¾ cups
- 780 grams warm water 90-95°F
- 20 grams sea salt 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon
- 1 teaspoon instant yeast
Instructions
- Combine the flour with the water in a large tub or mixing bowl with lid.
- Mix with hand until fully incorporated. Cover and let sit for 30 minutes.
- Sprinkle salt and yeast on top of dough. Wet hand and reach under the dough and fold over the dough carefully.
- Repeat this 4 times until salt and yeast are worked in.
- Pinch dough and fold over a few more times.
- Cover and let dough rise until doubled.
- Over the next few hours, fold the dough a few more times.
- Let dough rise overnight in the fridge, covered, to take camping. Take out of fridge/cooler at least 4 hours before baking.
- Take out dough from cooler at camp and with floured hands, gently move dough to a floured surface to cut into two parts.
- Shape dough with floured hands and put seam down in proofing basket or container, lined with parchment paper (see notes).
- Lightly flour the tops of the loaves and time it so that you can rise for another hour and a half to two hours with your Dutch ovens heating for at least 45 minutes. So in other words, after about 30 minutes of rising, start your fires or have your coals ready to go at the 45 minute mark.
- Start your fire and make a nice bed of hot coals. You can also use charcoal (30-40) or a combination of both.
- Once coals are ready (make sure there's no flame!) place 25 coals under both Dutch ovens (15 or so under larger, 10 or so under smaller). Put lids on and divide remaining coals on lids (10 on larger 5 on smaller). Preheat for 45 minutes
- After the preheating is done, get your loaves ready for the transfer.
- Carefully with oven mittens and lid lifter, remove lids and place to one side. Place loaves with parchment paper carefully into Dutch ovens and replace lids with coals on top.
- Cook bread for 20-30 minutes, checking at 15 minutes to see how it is cooking. Because fire cooking varies so greatly the food needs to be tended more than in a more temperature controlled environment.
- After this time, take lids off and finish bread without the lids. If coals are fading, you could add a few of the remaining coals that were on the lids around the bottom of the Dutch oven. Cook for another 15-20 minutes.
- Lift loaves out of Dutch oven carefully with gloves and parchment paper and place on a wire rack to cool.
Notes
- You can use flour if you don't have parchment paper, but I think the paper is much easier to transfer the proofed loaf to a very hot Dutch oven!
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