How to Cook Bread-on-a-stick Over A Fire

On a cool day in the backcountry, a warm meal goes a long way. While the options are nearly endless, the minimalistic bushcrafter might prefer a meal or a side dish that doesn't require a pot or pan. That's why we're trying out a bread-on-a-stick. Using nothing more than a four-ingredient bread mix, water, a stick, and a campfire, we'll have a delicious snack or decent meal if you double the recipe, with nothing left over but a stick and a zip lock bag. You can carry your premixed ingredients to camp and add water while your fire is building up a good base of coals.

I doubled the recipe when I made the bread, but a good baseline for a serving can be found below.

• 1 cup of flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1tbsp oil or butter

When you add water to the mix, start with just a splash and knead it in the bag. You're looking for the consistency of Play-Doh. Also, if the dough doesn't excessively stick to the bag, you're getting close to the ideal amount of water. You can pinch off a small section and see how it stretches between your fingers to further test it.

Once you're happy with the dough, set it aside and get your fire prepped for cooking. You want to cook over as many coals as possible, and I suggest heat slightly higher than what you'd cook a steak over. For example, I could only hold my hand over this fire at the level of the lowest part of the break for a second or two. Due to some light rain, I kept some open flames going, but ideally, it would be minimal flames and mostly coals.

I poured some olive oil over the stick to keep the bread from sticking, but that was almost too effective as the dough wanted to fall off the stick if I wasn't careful with the angle and rotation of the stick. More experimentation is needed. When wrapping the bread dough around your stick, try to get the first wrap to form a complete ring around 1/2 inch thick. As you spiral up or down the stick, keep the dough around the same thickness.

Depending on the heat and the thickness of the dough, the bread should be ready in 10-15 minutes. When it takes on a golden color, forms a firm crust, and rebounds when you push on it, it should be ready to eat. Testing the thickest spots by slicing into them to check for overly doughy spots is a good idea. I lowered the stick to within a few inches of the coals and slowly rotated the bread to brown the outside.

The bread alone is delicious, but you can add seasoning, either sweet or savoring, to suit your taste. If you're on an outing with a group, you can make one big batch of dough and then top it with honey, cinnamon, spice blends, or whatever else you prefer to have multiple snacking options.

If you make bread-on-a-stick, let us know by sharing it with us on Facebook or Instagram.