In the wintertime we love setting friendly fires in our outside fire pit, which we built out of old bricks and creek pebbles. Cooking damper on a stick is a cold month institution at our place.
We gather wood from the bush around our house all autumn long, getting things ready before things get too damp and cold. There are always trees being felled by the autumn winds, handy when not right next to our house!
Then comes our favourite thing to do around the fire – making this easy damper on a stick recipe. This is camping food, a bit blackened by the flames, a bit dirty, but still delicious. It’s super-easy to make, but good fire management is key. In the photos accompanying this recipe we made our fire way too big for good damper on a stick. Keep that in mind when you’re cooking your own – you want glowing embers, not singed eyebrows!
I first met twirly damper on a stick via my mate Tricia at Little Eco Footprints. She doesn’t blog a whole lot these days (insert sad emoticon) but pop over and meet her; you’ll like her very much.
This is a good campfire recipe too: Wholemeal buttermilk pancakes recipe
Easy damper on a stick
Makes about six dampers
Takes 10 minutes and a lovely afternoon
2 cups plain wholemeal flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
¾ cup of water
Golden syrup, honey or maple syrup
Give some long, thin sticks a good clean and set aside for later.
Combine all of the dry ingredients in a large bowl then slowly add the water and knead by hand to make a smooth dough. Add a little more flour if the dough seems sticky, you want a nice, pliant dough.
Take a handful of dough and roll it into a long, fat snake shape. Twirl it around one of your sticks, squashing it at each end to make sure it stays on the stick.
Hold over soft embers, twirling to cook all sides.
Once cooked, carefully remove the damper from the stick and fill the hole with your syrup (or, if your damper refuses to come off the stick, just drizzle on the syrup anyway and eat it straight off the stick… Ignore any dirt particles, this is campin’ food, people!).
