Australian Damper

  • Prep Time: 0 mins
  • Total Time: 0 mins
  • Servings: 4
  • About This Recipe

    “This is the bread made by drovers in the Australian outback. It’s great camping food as it’s traditonally cooked in the coals of a camp fire.”

    Ingredients

  • 2 1/2 cupsplain flour
  • 5teaspoonsbaking powder
  • 1teaspoonsalt
  • 1teaspoonbutter
  • 1teaspoonsugar
  • 1cupmilk, fresh,powdered( or you can just use water)
  • Directions

  • The best way to make this is to mix together the dry ingredients then add the liquid and butter and mix well and then knead it for about 5 minutes.
  • Then wrap it in a double layer of greased foil and place it in the coals of the campfire, poking it in and retrieving it a bit later hoping it’s done.
  • I’ve also had it where you just throw the dough into the coals and pull off the blacked outside when it’s done and eat the inner part.
  • To cook it in the oven preheat to 350 degrees F.
  • Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar and mix well. Rub or cut in the butter. Stir in the milk to form a dough.
  • Shape into a flattened ball and place on a greased baking sheet or in a round cake tin and bake for about 30 minutes.
  • Doing it this way though is not traditional and just won’t taste the same.
  • You eat it straight away while still hot in thick slices with butter, golden syrup, jam or vegemite.
  • This is great camping food and always brings back many happy camping memories.
  • Reviews

  • “This bread was so easy to make and tasted so yummy!Made this recipe in the oven but would love to try and make this recipe while camping with my girl scout troop.My girl scouts troop shared their damper with other girl scouts during our recent “Thinking Day” celebrate in which my troop was studying Australia.Best when right out of the oven and can be served with many toppings such as honey, marmalade, apricot perserves or raspberry perserves. Bread can be torn to eat or sliced but doesn’t serve up neatly.”

  • “I followed the recipe exactly for an oven but it didnt seem to cook. It was very doughy and heavy. I even put it back in for an extra 20 minutes before giving up”

  • “I’m sorry, but my cousins and I just cooked this damper to celebrate Australia Day and we did not enjoy it at all.Definately too much baking powder – that’s all we could taste!!”

  • “My Australian wife was totally rocked of her feet when I served this with Vegemite (the Australian version of Marmite, although most Ozzies will vehemently deny this), so it must have resembled the original pretty well! A nice, soft bread if you like white bread. Like several other reviewers already commented: it is a lot easier to tear than to slice.”

  • “I made this with a pack of boy scouts on a camp recently. Following the suggestions in the camping forum, we made long flattened ‘snakes’ out of the dough, wrapped them around sticks and then cooked them over a small fire. Once cooked (it takes a little while), we pulled out the sticks and filled the resulting holes with jam. A really fun activity for the boys! We were sceptical when we saw the first one being made, but a fair number of adult helpers cooked and ate their own!”

  • “This was really good.My kids enjoyed this with honey on it. Thanks for posting”

  • “Great, but I’d probably reduce the amount of salt next time. I also made it with wholemeal flour and it turned out very nicely.”

  • “Excellent! Baked in a dutch oven in the ashes of a campfire.Couldn’t ask for anything better. We served with butter and golden syrup. Another group of campers took our recipe and made their own, and then put jam and whipped cream on top. Yum!”

  • “Oh, this is so tasty warm from the oven, drizzled with golden syrup and oozing with a pat of butter on top.This is very similar to Irish Soda bread, but has a different taste.Don’t expect to neatly slice this bread – it is more of a tearing bread.I made it in the oven and it came out great – would love to try it camping using the campfire method sometime as well.I did knead the dough briefly on a floured board, but only about 1-2 minutes as it seemed ready to bake by then. My family devoured the entire loaf in under 5 minutes and everyone enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing!”

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