Whether you’re hiking, mountaineering, or bugging out, this is a superior DIY trail food because of its simplicity and versatility. The ingredients will travel indefinitely if kept dry, and you can cook it in the most austere conditions, with or without cookware. Once cooked, it is nutritious, tasty, and will keep several days without spoiling. Depending on your ingredients, it costs literally a tenth as much as commercial foods, and is just as nutritious. To me, it’s a no-brainer.
This “camp bread” recipe is unlike bannock bread in that it uses no leaven. As such, it keeps a little longer, which is useful on the trail. It is very versatile because you can make it from a great variety of flours. Pretty much, what you’re learning here is the method, and you can apply the method to almost whatever kind of flour you have available. If you use high-quality whole grain flours, you can treat it as a staple on the trail for several days. So as an emergency food supply, it’s also excellent.
It is convenient because you can easily transport the ingredients, and they keep well as long as you keep the flour dry. Here’s the recipe:
- 2 handfuls wheat flour
- 1.5 handfuls mix of corn flour and flax flour
- 1 or 2 Tbsp olive oil
- Water to make a non-sticky lump
- Salt to taste
Directions for camp bread:
Heat a skillet over a fire. Roll the dough into a thin sheet like a tortilla. Sprinkle with salt. In this case I used a steel plate, but you can even use a rock, or wrap a thin strip of dough around stick. Fry, bake, or roast until done. It really is that simple!
Notes and Tips:
- The use of oil in this recipe makes the bread taste better, gives it a flakier consistency, and provides more calories, but it will also go rancid in a few days or weeks, so it won’t keep as long as hardtack, even if you let it dry completely. For long-term storage, omit the oil.
- You can roll it out long and pencil-thin instead of a tortilla and wrap it around a stick to roast it over an open flame if no pans or rocks are available.
- Add seeds, ground nuts, and/or raisins for a richer trail snack.
- When you camp for the evening, cook enough to eat that night and all the next day, or even the next few days. It will dry out to a cracker-like consistency, but won’t taste stale for several days.
- Practice with the kids in the back yard — it’s fun!
Share your recipes in the comments!
~SnoMan
you can use regular white bread too wheat and white both work. INSTEAD of a handful it is
1 CUP FLOUR
1 TEASPOON OIL
1/4 TEASPOON SALT
1/2 CUP OF WATER
ROLL OUT A GOLF BALL SIZE OF DOUGH THEN ROLL OUT EACH ONE AS FLAT AS YOU CAN AND COOK LIKE A TORTILLIA. ITS DONE AND READY TO EAT
no corn flour or flax flour needed?
That’s the cool thing about this method — you can use pretty much whatever grain is available. I’ve even made it with barley, millet, and spelt, but always with wheat flour just for texture. You don’t actually have to have wheat.
Snomans’s is more diabetic friendly.
Could lard or coconut oil be used instead of liquid oil? (While coconut oil can turn to a liquid at relatively low temperatures, it can be more shelf stable than other oils kept at room temperature.)
Absolutely. You can use any fat, even if it’s not liquid — just crumble it into the flour before adding water.
Excellent….I’ll try this when I get back to the cabin. Tacos tonight :+)
nice recipe pmp training