Australian Damper Bread
G'day, mate! We're having a great day at camp down under and ... what? Why am I talking funnier than usual? Well, as y'all know, America isn't the only place on the globe with a good number of cowboys and people who cook outside on fires.
We have a lot of subscribers and active viewers from New Zealand and Australia, and recently I was asked if I could try out one of their traditional camp foods. They call it "Bush bread" and "Damper" - because it'll dampen the appetite until you can get to a proper meal. I'd probably call it "camp bread" but I'm going to try it the real, authentic way they do it down under. We're going to cook this bread directly on some hot ash.
Place the flour-coated dough in the center of the ashes. Cover over the top of the damper dough with some hot ash and let sit for about 45 minutes. It's done when you thump it and it sounds hollow.
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The trick here really is to cook with ash and not actual coals, because the coals will be too hot and you want a low and slow bake on this bread. As it cooks, you can also use a thermometer and pull the bread when it reaches about 250 degrees F.
This is definitely something you want to give a try. When tasting this, it's surprisingly moist and you don't get a burnt taste at all. It's a light smoke flavor with a good crunch on the outside and soft in the middle.
