One of life's greatest simple pleasures... Fluffy, delicious bread baked over a campfire. This no knead bread on a stick is so fun to make, and even more to eat!
The Tradition of Bread on a Stick
Making bread over a campfire is one of the rites of passage that everyone should experience. Scouts and forest school children are often taught how to make stickbread. It's a great way to learn about outdoor skills, and a great reward to enjoy! In England bread cooked on a stick is known as damper. In Denmark Snobrød is associated with the concept of hygge - a feeling of coziness, contentment and everyday togetherness. It really is such a good feeling to enjoy fresh bread you have made yourself whilst enjoying the beauty and power of nature! And it's a great activity for everyone to enjoy together. Food for the soul!
How to make the dough
The dough is a yeast based dough, so this recipe requires a little patience - but good things come to those that wait! You can make the dough first, and then start gathering wood for your campfire. By the time the you have a campfire with good embers to cook over, your dough will have risen.
The mix is really easy, just combine flour, yeast, sugar, water, oil and salt. There's no need to knead it, just mix until combined. Our recipe uses cups so it's easy for you to measure when you are out camping. No scales needed!
Choosing your stickbread sticks
The best sticks for cooking over a campfire are long enough that you can hold them a comforatble distance from the fire. Around 1.5m is good. You can also prop them up using a rock for easier cooking.
Freshly cut greenwood is good because it's moister and won't burn so easily. Strip the bark using a sharp knife, pointed away from you. This is always a good task to give to a child keen to work on their whittling skills!
As the wood comes into contact with food, it's a good idea to choose a stick from a non poisonous tree species. Try fruit woods e.g. Apple, Pear, Plum, or Beech, Oak, Sycamore. "Dogwood, ash, maple and elm make good marshmallow sticks; safe but plain" Paul Hetzler on Choosing the Right Stick For Marshmallows.
We like to put our stick in the flame for a bit to sterilise it, and preheat it a little.
Cooking your bread on a stick
Once you've got your sticks, dough and fire ready... Empty the dough from the bowl onto a well floured board. Using floured hands, knock the air out out of it, and bring it into a ball, and divide into the number of bread on a sticks that you want to make. 8 is a good number for this amount of dough.
Stretch out your divided pieces of dough, and then gently roll into long sausage shapes.
Twist around your the end of your sticks, and pinch the end together to secure the strip if necessary.
The best part of the fire to cook over is hot embers. Flames are tempting, but often too hot and likely to burn. You want a nice even heat so your bread is light and fluffy on the inside, and browned and crusty on the outside. YUM!
Keep rotating the bread so you cook all sides evenly.
Quick, your stickbread is ready!
When your bread is browned on all sides, it's ready to enjoy. You can have a little competition over who found the best spot to bake their bread on a stick!
You can eat the bread straight off the stick.... Tear open, unravel and admire the beautifully fluffy inside!
You can also slide the bread off the stick when it has cooled a little, And then fill up the hole with jam. We use our fave Apricot Jam. Oh yes!
We hope you enjoy making your bread on a stick! More great fun vegan camping recipes here:
Campfire Brownie
Wild Blueberry Pancakes
Campfire Dessert Calzone
Happy baking!
Sophie and Paul
📖 Recipe
Campfire bread on a stick
Ingredients
- 1 tsp dried yeast
- 1 tsp sugar
- 2 ½ cups (300 g) flour
- ⅞ cup (200 ml) warm water
- 2 tbsp (30 ml) olive oil
- 1 tsp salt
Instructions
Dough
- In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients into a moist dough. No need to knead!
- Cover the bowl and let the dough rise in a warm place until it has doubled in size - about 1 hour.
- With floured hands, briefly 'knock back' the dough by making it into a ball.
- Tip the dough out onto a floured surface and divide into 8 pieces.
Shaping your stickbreads
- Start by stretching the dough into a strip and then roll it into a long sausage shape.
- Twist a strip around the end of your sticks. Pinch the dough together to secure the end if necessary.
Cooking over a campfire
- Either hold or prop up your stick over the fire.
- Choose a spot over hot embers for best results.
- Keep rotating until all sides are browned.
- Enjoy your freshly baked bread!
Nutrition
This information is calculated per serving and is an estimate only.
Frank says
Great bread. This comes in handy in the woods.
Sophie and Paul says
Thanks Frank!
Joe says
What sort of flour do you use? It doesn't state soI'd assume plain flour but from experience strong flour is best for bread. Does either work?
Sophie and Paul says
Hi Joe, you're spot on. We often just use plain flour, but either works! 🙂
Christina says
We love this recipe and have used it many times with our kids - thanks so much!
Sophie and Paul says
Thank you, Christina! Happy to hear your children enjoy it! 🙂
Ruby says
Hi there, this looks like it will be great for my next forest school session!
How soon after the dough has proven does it need to be cooked? If I made the dough at home in the morning, then divided it out for cooking about 2 hours later, would it still work?
Thanks!
Sophie and Paul says
Hi Ruby, once the dough is proved, it can be used for quite a long time, it doesn't matter much if it's 1 hour, 2 hours, or 10 hours! It's so easy and fun, that's what we love about it. Hope you and the kids enjoy! 🙂
Ruby says
Amazing, thanks so much!
Bec says
Did this last night with gluten free flour and 1/2 tsp xantham gum, worked really well, tasted just like dough balls and the kids loved it… sooo simple, thanks for posting!!
Sophie and Paul says
Hi Bec, well done, and so good too know it works as well and tastes great with gluten free flour, thank you! 🙂 Love, Sophie & Paul
Hannah says
Made these with my family tonight over the campfire and they were wonderful! Can’t wait for apple season this September so we can make these again and fill them with home-made apple pie filling & nice cream. Great recipe. Thanks for sharing!
Caryn says
Can I pre-mix the yeast, flour, sugar, and salt at home and then just add the liquids at the campsite?
Sophie and Paul says
Hi Caryn, what a great idea! We've just tested this, and it works fine!
A few thoughts that might help too: If the water is cold, it will take quite long for the dough to rise. Warm water and resting the dough in a warm place speed up the process. Few things test your patience like bread dough not being ready for cooking, when the campfire is roaring and stomachs are rumbling!
If you are storing the dry mix for longer, keep the yeast separate if possible.
Enjoy your camping trip! Sophie & Paul
Brittney says
Can this dough be frozen? If so how do you recommend to unthaw it?
Sophie and Paul says
Hi Britney, brilliant question.
The dough should keep well frozen for about four weeks in a closed container. Freeze after the rise, as a whole or already portioned up.
Thaw in the fridge overnight or leave at room temperature until fully thawed. For best results, always let the dough come up to room temperature before cooking.
Hope that this helps and that you'll have success freezing your stick bread dough 🙂
Jared says
The ratio of flour to water o. This recipe seems incorrect. We have tried this twice and both times resulted in a very soupy dough. We ended up adding a considerable amount of additional flour to fix the dough.
Sophie and Paul says
Hi Jared, thanks so much for your feedback! I just spotted a typo in the cups flour measurement which I've fixed now. It should be 2 1/2 cup flour to 7/8 water which should give a standard dough of around 66% hydration. Types of flour and weather humidity can also have an effect on hydration, so it's always handy to have extra flour to adjust if needed. Apologies for the error and fingers crossed you were still able to enjoy some campfire bread. All the best, Sophie
Jared says
Thanks Sophie, yes we added some flour and let sit a bit longer and it was better. Thanks for the follow-up. They came out great. Love doing these with the kids.
Boyd White says
Wow, listening to an audio book on the Ohio Valley during colonial times...and they mentioned Bread On A Stick. You guys here have a awesome tutorial on how to do it. Thanks much!
Sophie and Paul says
Brilliant, so glad you found our recipe Boyd. Enjoy!
Suze says
Can you give any alternative to a stick? While it looks really neat, we aren't allowed to remove "green/live" growth from our parks here, and picking something off the ground...well that seems risky. I NEED to try this, as I make all of our bread anyway, but what else could I wrap it around! THANK YOU!
Sophie and Paul says
Hey Suze, Other readers have used metal toasting forks with wooden handles, like you would use for roasting marshmallows. Or perhaps you could cut some from your garden/a friends garden and take them with you, or wrap the end of a stick that you find on the ground in foil. We also love to bake bread in a dutch oven, by placing it directly in the embers of the fire and covering the lid in hot coals. It's a bit of an art to bake it perfectly and not burn it, but it's wonderful fun! Enjoy!
Bo says
Growing up in Denmark we would often pick up sticks from the ground. You have to whittle off the bark anyways and give them a turn in the fire before using them to stop any sap from coming out. They’re totally “clean” after that.
Sophie and Paul says
That's a great suggestion, Bo. I remember similar things from my childhood. We'd still suggest to check that the type of tree is safe to use with food. See our tips in the post 🙂
Alex Mines says
Should I use instant or active yeast?
Sophie and Paul says
Hi Alex, I prefer instant yeast, because it's more easy to use.
If active yeast is what you've got, dissolve it in some of the water, ideally luke warm, to which you can also add the sugar and just a bit of flour to give the yeast something to feed on. After 10-15 minutes, it's dissolved, activated and ready to go! Hope this helps! Paul
Soo says
So, what are poisonous trees to avoid?
Sophie and Paul says
Hi Soo,
We are by no means experts on trees, so unfortunately we cannot give you any professional advice other than pointing you in the right direction.
The link in the post takes you to a blog post by arborist Paul Hetzler, who names black cherry, buckthorn, conifer, and witch hazel among others to better avoid for different reasons. We can name elder and yew as two to definitely avoid. But don't rely just on these. As tree species vary from location to location, do your own research as well - or best, stick to the ones you know are safe.
Hope this helps! Paul
Anna says
I can't wait to try this tonight with my kids! Another tree to avoid in the US would be the tempting but toxic sumac. They are the perfect height and the branches are usually the perfect length and width and they're easy to peel.....but avoid the temptation! Ta!
Sophie and Paul says
Hope you enjoyed it Anna! Great tip about sumac, thanks.
Natasha says
you guys are so inventive!
Sophie and Paul says
Thanks Natasha! <3
Sometimes you gotta be... And we just LOVE cooking on fire!
Love, Paul & Sophie