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Damper RecipesDamper Recipes
Back to Recipes Damper HintsWhen making damper or scones, so the the damper bottom doesn't get burnt or stick, use a pie tray or the alfoil trays to put the mix on and use a trivit under the trayAlways wipe the tray with a bit of oil and dust with flower This will stop the damper from sticking . You can also use alfoil if a tray is not available.Treat the same way By following these hints you should always have good results. I have included a video on how to us the "Camp Oven Mate" and hints by Derek Bullock doing a Rum and Rasin damper. Ingredients Double qty. for 12 or 16 inch oven 3 cups S.R. flour ½ cup milk 3 teas. Salt ½ cup water or beer 90 gm (3 oz) Butter Extra flour Sift flour and salt into bowl. Rub in butter until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
Make a well in centre of dry ingredients, add liquid all at once. Mix lightly with a
Sharp knife in cutting motion. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead lightly.
Knead dough into round and place a flowered pie dish on top of the rack to keep it off the bottom so
it does not get burnt and place in camp oven.
Variations:Mixed dry fruit, raisins or dates and some sugar can be added to the mix and if you want to get fancy , some Icing or grated cheese may be added to the top. If you add cheese to the mixture it has been found to cause the damper to go soggy and heavy. If you want to make a savory damper use herbs etc and say use cheese and bacon as a topping for the crust Other variations can be tried to your own taste.return to top
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4 Cups Self Raising Flour Place in hot camp oven Damper is cooked when it sounds hollow to a tap return to top
Number of Serves 12-15 Brief Description of Recipe: scones take no time at all to whip up and are fail proof. Preparation Time: 5 minutes
3 cups Self Raising Flour
Method: return to top
2 cups self-raising flour 1/2 tspn salt 1 tspn sugar 1 tblspn butter 1/2 cup milk 1/4 cup water 1 egg Get your fire ready so that you have some hot coals. Sift flour and salt into a blow and add the sugar. Mix. Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add most of the liquid and mix to a soft dough with a knife. Add more liquid if needed. Amount of liquid will vary, depending on the moisture of the flour. Put on a lightly floured board, mould into a round shape and pat out to about 2cm thickness. Don’t handle the dough too much as it will make the scones heavy. Cut with a scone cutter (or cut into squares with a knife), brush tops lightly with a little extra milk and place in a lightly greased ovenproof dish. Place your pre-heated hot camp oven onto a small mount of coals in a slight depression. Put a trivet inside the camp oven and place the dish of scones on top of the trivet. Put on lid – add coals to lid to help brown the tops of the scones. Bake for approx 10 to 15 mins. Cooking time will depend on the heat of your coals. Serve warm with jam and cream. return to top
A number of years ago I was invited to be a judge for a four wheel drive club damper competition. This was to be held during October Long Weekend and was an annual event and was their Trophy weekend, where they had competitions to see who was the best driver, cook, etc. They invited me to come along, as we were supporters of the club, and participate in the activities and also to be one of the judges for this damper competition. I invited my son Brad to come along on the weekend, and we packed the 80 series Toyota up for a weekends camping, with our tent, sleeping bags and self inflating mats, stove, lights etc and making sure we did not forget anything. It would be terrible for a bloke that runs a camping store to be in the position where he forgot something. One of the reasons I made the camping check list was for myself and extended it to my customers. The location was just a couple of hours drive out of Sydney in a beautiful area of the Blue Mountains not far from Jenolan Caves. If you have never been to the caves you are missing out on an experience everyone should have, to see the beauty that nature can make and supply. It can be done as a day trip or stay overnight at Caves House. The weekend was perfect being the October long weekend, with beautiful clear skies and not too hot. We left home early and found the location for the activities without any problems by following the mud map someone had made for the occasion. It was mid morning when we arrived and there were about a dozen vehicles had arrived before us. It turned out some had driven up the previous afternoon and had camped the night. We found a nice spot to pitch our tent as more vehicles arrived. About midday we all collected in a group to hear what activities were in store for us. At the briefing we found out that there was a track that had been marked out as a time trial where you have to do the course safely etc and you were timed between sections. The damper Competition was to be held the following afternoon. This was what I was here for, The Damper Competition. There were three of us invited to be judges, one a Toyota car dealer, one a diesel expert and myself. This is when I found out the other two had never made a damper, which made me the expert of the team. I took them aside and gave them some instructions on how to judge a damper and what things to look for. At least I came prepared with a sheet I had knocked up on the computer. I had set the sheet out into five columns with each section out of 20 with a maximum total of 100 points. Rules for the Damper CompetitionWe had a total of about 25 dampers to judge. All the participants were given a kilo of flower, and what they did with it after that, we had to judge. The variety of dampers that we received for judging was to say the least, extraordinary. I clued the boys up to follow my lead and then we would confer after each damper as to how we marked it. We had ones that were uncooked - soggy centres. One with a mars bar in the centre, others where they had mixed cheese with the mix and they had gone soggy, others burnt, and there were some very good ones as well. We had some with herbs and spices through the damper as well as cheese and bacon on the top. There were also a number which were of the sweet variety with mixed fruit and also just raisins as well of one that went to the trouble of icing it. We had just about finished the judging when a couple of fellows came over with a beauty. It was larger than the others and when questioned about the size they said they brought their own makings from home. After all they knew that there was the competition and came prepared. The top of it was nicely hatched and had been made from wheat meal flower. Sounded drummy, passed the skewer test. The bottom was a bit oily and I made a comment to that, but wasn't burnt. We cut the damper in half the look at the texture and to make sure it was cooked through. Beautiful job, looked superb. This one looked like it was going to win hands down. Then I went for the taste test. IT WAS COLDThere was quite a crowd around watching the judging to see how they had gone and when they heard me say this then a shout went up, "Cheat Cheat". Asked if they had anything to say for themselves, we got a comment " Thought it would have been warm by now -had it next to the fire for about an hour -Bugger". The two had made the damper at home in the oven and thought they could win. This was an automatic disqualification, no dought about it The day was drawing to a close at this stage and the shadows were starting to get long. Time to get dinner going while we still had some light.After dinner we all got around the campfire to swap yarns, tell stories and jokes but there were two missing. No need to say who, as they had packed up and snuck out of camp without saying goodbye. I wonder why. |