How to make campfire bread without a dutch oven

When camping we often bake bread in our dutch oven, but how do you even make bread when you go camping if you don’t have a dutch oven? That is what we are going to dive into in this post.

One of the biggest hits with our kids is to bake bread on a stick. This is a delicious way of making bread. If you are interested in learning more about it, keep on reading.

For all of the recipes when baking campfire bread, I always use my bread roll recipe. It’s a soft bread that goes well with most things.

How to make campfire bread when you only have sticks available

One of the ways that we love baking bread over a campfire, is twisted on a stick. For this, to work you need to have a campfire that is ready for cooking. You can read about how to start a campfire here. Once you have a fire going you will need to let it burn for about 30 minutes before you start baking these bread. They need to be roasted over embers and not directly in the flames.

For this to be a success you need clean or semi-clean sticks. You can do that by collecting branches nearby (if you are allowed to). Clean the bark off the end of a stick. Make sure that there are no side branches that the dough can get caught on. That will poke through the dough. Cut until the wood is clear, and clean under the bark.

Once you have a clean stick, grab what would have been the dough to one bread roll, from the recipe here. Take a small amount of dough on the first try. It can be hard to get it cooked through on the first try, and once you have made a few you can make each bread bigger and bigger.

How to place the dough on the stick

Roll the dough into a long sausage shape. Start at the very tip of your stick. Wind the dough around the stick until all of it is rolled onto the stick. Secure it at the end and squeeze the dough gently together.

Once the dough is placed on the end of your stick you can hold the dough over the fire, without getting burned. Hold it over the embers of the campfire, and turn it regularly. If you find a really good spot you will find yourself with baked bread in no time.

The hardest part of this is to make sure that the dough is baked all the way through and all the way up and down the stick. Make sure you move the stick over the embers while cooking. Make twist side to side and turn the bread. Move it back and forth until the bread is roasted brown all the way up and down the bread.

Once the bread is completely done you will be able to slide it off the stick when you pull gently on it. Careful because the bread will be very hot.

Fill the empty space in the bread with jam, Nutella, or anything else of your liking.

For a healthier choice, you could fill the dough with sundried tomatoes, or olives. If you want to get really fancy you could roll cheese and ham into the dough and create a pizza like bread on a stick.

How to make bread on a cast iron skillet

If you have a cast iron skillet or a large pan for a tripod, you can choose to roast the dough in plenty of oil or butter. Making bread this way is one of the quickest way to make a snack, where the kids are happy to eat it. And if you are away winter camping, this is the perfect snack for the kids.

Heat the skillet over the fire and place it in your oil or butter. You can not use too much, but remember that you can always add more. Be aware to protect your hands with gloves or similar – the pan gets very hot.

Create small rolls, I use my bread roll recipe and take about what fits in my hand for each roll. I place the small dough piezes on the hot skillet and press down gently. Make sure that you don’t cook it over the very hottest place in the fire. The bread can easily burn, but with care and turning them often, you can make them golden.

Serve the small bread while they are hot, maybe in a towel or something to keep hands from burning when you hold them.

FAQ about making campfire bread without a dutch oven

Can you bake over a campfire?

Yes, you sure can. There are plenty of ways. You can make bread in a dutch oven, or as mentioned here, make bread on a stick or in a cast-iron skillet.

How do you bake over a fire?

When you make on an open fire, you need to make sure that you take it nice and slow. Because the dough will need to be baked all the way through. One of the biggest mistakes we see when we bake is that the dough is still raw on the inside but black on the outside. This goes for all types of baking. Therefore you want to make sure that you heat the dough all the way through, in a way that doesn’t scorch the outside of the bread. This is done by moving the dough a little further away from the heat . It also helps to make sure that you move it, not giving it too much heat on either side of the bread.