The Perfect Food for Camping!

Two words: bread dough! This amazing food is so versatile, and absolutely perfect for camping. Whether it’s your own homemade batch, or a bag of Rhode’s Bake n’ Serve straight from the grocery store’s freezer, here are five things you can do with a batch of bread dough around a campfire:


Cow Horn Biscuits. You’ll want well-washed sticks (one for each person in your camping party) that are at least 1 1/2- to 2-inches in diameter. Coat the end of each stick—6 inches worth—with butter, olive or coconut oil.


Pull about a piece of dough a little bigger than a golf ball from your dough ball. Flatten and stretch it to about 6-inches then wrap it around your chunky stick, per the photo. Bake them over your morning coals, turning continuously until the horn is golden brown and cooked through.


Remove from stick and fill with scrambled eggs. Delicious!


Then there’s Campfire Doughnuts. Fill a Dutch oven with 3- to 4-inches of vegetable oil. Heat until it bubbles; drop a tiny ball of dough into the oil to test for readiness. If the oil is ready, the oil will sizzle and the ball will immediately begin to brown.

You’ll want tongs for turning your doughnuts. Pull golf-ball-sized pieces of dough from your big batch and stretch to about 3 inches. Poke a hole in the middle of each piece and drop them into the oil. Cook on one side for about 2 minutes and then turn to cook the other side. Drain on paper towels and then place them in a paper bag filled with cinnamon and sugar. Or coat each one with maple icing (our favorite touch). These are better than those you get at Crispy Crème!


How about Dogs in a Wrap? Once again you’ll be using golf-ball-sized pieces of dough. Stretch them out in the shape of a triangle. Then lay a hot dog on the widest end of your dough triangle and roll it up to the point of the triangle. Secure the dough with a good pinch, insert your weenie roasting stick, patiently roast the dog over the coals.


Turn continuously until the dough is golden brown and the dog is cooked through. Such a classy and fun take on “Pigs in Blankets.” It’s the campfire smoke that adds a special flavor punch!


Campfire Pies are a wonderful dessert. You need sandwich irons for these (as many as you have people in your group, perhaps). Over at the site, Andrea’s Recipes, I found the suggestion to add ricotta cheese to the pie filling if you want some creaminess (and yes I do).

Grease each side of the iron well. Smallish golf-ball-sized pieces of dough (one for each side of the iron) are spread thin. Place one stretched piece of dough on one side of the iron. Drop a hefty dollop of your favorite pie filling in the middle of this, then cover with the other piece of stretched dough. Pinch all sides together well and close the iron. You’ll want to cover these irons with coals and let the pies cook for about 10 or 12 minutes (depending on how red hot your coals are. This will take a little experimenting, but the end result is SO worth the time and effort!


Pie on a Stick is another dessert that id likely to become a camping tradition—it’s easy and scrumptious. It’s just apples rolled in balls of dough that are then coated in melted butter and rolled in cinnamon and sugar.

I always bring a plastic zippered bag of a cinnamon and sugar mix for coating our fried doughnuts and coating our apples for this Pie on a Stick. After you have your dough (about a golf-ball-sized piece for each apple) firmly covering your apple, just drop it into the plastic bag and give it a few good shakes. Remove the apple, insert a roasting stick, and slowly cook, turning continuously, over hot coals. I serve these with whipped cream and always regret that I didn’t make extras, because these are a huge crowd pleaser and folks always want more.

Sources:
  •   www.oldwoodfiregrill.com
  •   www.thoreausdaughter.com
  •   www.tablespoon.com
  •   www.andreasrecipes.com
  •   www.spoonful.com

    Alice Osborne
    Weekly Newsletter Contributor since 2006
    Email the author! alice@dvo.com


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