Campfire Breadsticks
Easy breadsticks baked over a fire. Perfect for camping!
It’s officially summer! For me that has meant so many things over the years— slip ‘n’ slides, popsicles, no school, late night outdoors, flip flops, and sunscreen. In recent years summer has come to mean one important thing to my husband and me— camping. We love to go camping and are so lucky to live in a place like Utah, where we can never tire of beautiful places close to home to explore.
One such place is Moab. It’s iconic, it’s picturesque. And unless you’ve been there yourself, you have no idea just how amazing it is. It’s a favorite destination of ours and we returned last weekend to officially kick off our summer.
I love cooking while we camp and the amount of gear we have to haul around to prepare our meals is getting a little excessive. But I can’t resist trying new ways to prepare satisfying meals while out in the middle of nowhere. I have a lot of tried and true recipes, but I’m always looking for something new. Such as this recipe for “bread on a stick” (a recipe I found through pinterest, I’m totally addicted).
This recipe got the wheels in my head turning, thinking about what else I can bake away from my oven, whether I’m camping or just don’t feel like turning on the oven on a hot summer day. I’ve got a few great ideas that I’m really excited about, and so with this recipe I’m kicking off a summer series I’m calling Baking Outside the Kitchen.
First we need to talk about this bread on a stick, because it really is worth talking about.
I prepared the basic bread dough on Thursday night and kept it in the fridge and then a cooler until we were ready for it Saturday night. And boy were we ready for it! We had spent a long day hiking and were tired and very hungry by dinnertime.
Steve started a fire and we wrapped some dough around a few sticks we found while hiking. It took only a few minutes over the hot fire, and we had fresh bread to go with our dinner of beef stew. Some got a little burned around the edges (and we learned how important it is to watch the bread and rotate it often), but we didn’t care. It was delicious.
This recipe is ridiculously easy and since there is no kneading or rising involved (because there is no yeast) you can literally enjoy fresh bread in under fifteen minutes. You don’t need to be camping to make this either, use any fire pit or even a charcoal grill.
Bread on a stick is a great alternative to turning on your oven and besides, it’s fun! Get everyone involved— light a fire, find some sticks, make yourself some bread and make the most of your summer.
Campfire Breadsticks
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 5 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup olive oil
- ⅔ cup water
Instructions
- In a bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Add olive oil and water and mix until the dough is smooth. Use immediately or chill in a fridge or cooler for up to one week for future use.
- When ready, portion the dough into 12 equally sized balls. Roll each ball into a thin rope and pull to be about one inch wide and eight inches long. Wrap around a thin but sturdy stick, clean of any visible dirt.
- Place end of stick over a fire, rotating it so that the bread cooks evenly. It will cook better over the coals of the fire, rather than direct flames. Be careful not to burn. The bread should be ready in about 5 minutes. Eat immediately.
This post is just beautiful. Thank you for sharing.
Woww Well done, simply unique and fabulous..
SO cool! And even better because I'm terrified of yeast…but that's another story. 🙂 Definitely bookmarking for use in the near future!
I can't wait to try this, my kids are going to love cooking their own bread. I LOVE your blog!
Yum! This bread sounds a lot like to the pan-baked bannock I like to make on camping trips. Love the fact that wrapping dough around sticks in your version = no pan to wash after dinner. 🙂 There's something about being outdoors next to a big blazing fire that makes the bread taste a million times better.
My only complaint is that now I wish I had someplace as picturesque as the Moab to camp in! Ontario is lovely, but it's all forest and lakes… nothing nearly as spectacular as those red rock formations.
Very cool! I just started to get into camp cooking myself… this sounds so easy, and amazing!
What a fun idea! I love your photos in this post; makes me want to go camping.
I would LOVE to see some ideas for camping meals. I'm so sick of "boy scout dinners" and hot dogs I could scream!
I am looking forward to this series! I am trying to expand what we cook when camping too. Anything on a stick is great!
wow this is so cool!!
I cannot WAIT to try this! What a fabulous idea!!!!
How cleaver! Nice idea! We are going camping soon and I am for sure going to do this. My kids will LOVE it. Thanks for posting.
That is so innovative! Quick and simple.
What a fun trip and I love the bread on a stick idea! Yum! Maybe I will have to try camping-just for the bread. Maybe:) I am a hotel camping kind of gal..ha!
Wow, I love this idea! I'm not much of a camper, but my family is trying to convince me I NEED to go… If I do cave in, I'm totally trying this out!
Sues
Brilliant idea. We haven't been camping in ages and now I want to go just to make this bread. We have never been to Moab but have always wanted to go. Several folks we know from our Jeep club go there often to go "jeeping" offroad.
I'm going camping tomorrow and we're going to bring a batch along now. thanks!!
This is pure genius. I imagine this also being perfect for a beach barbecue on a cool night on the coast. Love Moab, too, it's been too long since we've visited last. Thanks for inspiring a camping trip for us soon 🙂
I regret that it's been so long since I last commented, you've been creating some beautiful food! I finally have a reader organized so I won't miss a beat. 🙂
Lovely post..brings back memories..lovely recipe..
Victoria
I'm gonna try this in the Boundary Waters Wilderness next month! Since it's going to be
with a pasta meal, I think I'll add just a pinch
of garlic powder to the mix: garlic bread on a stick………
I love this idea and I have always wondered…. Thanks for doing the work for me, I will definitely be doing this with my family …..
Nice Dish.. looking very hot to eat. I will prepare this dish when camping with my family. 🙂
It’s really a cool and useful piece of info. I am glad that you just shared this helpful info with us. Please keep us informed like this. Thanks for sharing.
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would I be able to wrap this dough around wooden chopsticks that have been soaked in water previously to prevent burning(becuse if i were to do these with sticks I found while camping,I would be concerned about accidently using sticks from poisonous plants example Oleander). Would I be to rotate them over the flames of a gas burner? what about inserting the sticks into hot dogs & then wrapping with the dough would it work?
You could definitely use a metal skewer or another alternative to a wooden stick to roast the bread. I’m not sure about chopsticks, as then your hands would be too close to the hot flame. I’m also not sure about using a gas burner, you could try it (and with the chopsticks) though I’m guessing it would alter the flavor. And the bread would be delicious wrapped around a hot dog, though you’ll have to be careful not to cook the bread too quickly before the hot dog has a chance to heat through. Enjoy!
If iIwanted to bake this dough as rolls in a gas oven at what temp & how long would I bake them for and could I brush them with butter before baking for a softer crust? If I wanted to bake it as a loaf so I could get sandwich slices, how long would I bake it for & at what temp? thank you
I’ve only ever tried this recipe over a fire, but there’s no reason you can’t bake them in an oven. I just don’t have exact instructions for you. Bake at 350 degrees until golden brown. Check rolls after 12 minutes and a loaf after 25 minutes, though both may need more time. Good luck!
I found your recipe just before we were leaving so I quick mixed some up. Because of the sugar content I had this GREAT idea, i mixed up butter, sugar and cinnamon and put it in a bag then brought along the extra cinnamon sugar. Once I had rolled out the dough I flattened it and piped in the butter mixture into the middle. Pinched close and wrapped around my stick. Once cooked sprinkle with extra cinnamon sugar… It’ll stick to the butter that leaks out and then enjoy what my boyfriend and I started to call fire doughnuts (I was going for cinnamon bun flavor? guess I didn’t hit it). Such a treat after your meal and a long day of hiking.
I LOVE this idea. Definitely trying it myself. Thanks so much for sharing Jenny!!
My kids do stick bread over a campfire at my local pre-school outdoor toddler group and I was looking for a dough recipe to try it at home, thank you! At the toddler group they shape the ball around the end of the stick rather than twisting, and sometimes we put cheese, chocolate fingers etc into the hole made by the stick once the bread comes off 🙂
Some more little rules they have for the kids (age around 2-4 years), is that when the bread twists easily off the end of the stick it’s ready, and that once an adult takes the bread off the stick the child can hold it in their elbow (as long as the child has long sleeves or a coat on!), or in a pocket, until it cools down.
You need to add a bit more flour than it says.
The Scouts call this stick bread and we’ve been doing it for about 40 years now. Excellent with just a little butter and jam.
hi, sounds like a great recipe, but in the photo it doesnt look like it’s that fluffy. Could someone who’s tried this please tell me how fluffy it is. many thanks🙂
I found this recipe in 2015 and have used in for literally hundreds of kids at big and small Boy and Girl Scout gatherings since. Twice in the last two months, even. The breadsticks are fantastic and seem to be fool-proof, as long as you have the patience to hold and turn them until they are cooked. Because of the high amount of oil and sugar (relatively) they are very soft and fluffy inside. The outside gets a little crunch from the high heat. We have served them by putting a cheese stick inside once cooked; or with jelly; or with homemade butter. Just the best.
I ran this recipe at a Cub Scout campout this year. The Scouts loved it! I think they loved baking the bread as much as eating it.
Have people wear food-safe plastic gloves when working with the dough, as it will make the hands very sticky. Which is appropriate for something being cooked on a stick.
Can I sub canola oil?