Have you ever wondered how the ancient sort of civilisations managed to make their bread without high-tech things like yeast, or a bread maker or the HomeMaker 3000 or whatever it is that you put everything into and it stirs the mix into dough for you? I did too! So here is something that you don't need a breadmaker for, or a HomeMaker 3000 or the MixMaster Millennium (any similarity to actual products is purely coincidence) or even a food processor. This is called Damper.
It hails from Australian's history when everything was cooked in a pot over the fire, and you really wanted to get -all- the juices from your bowl. Really simple to make, and it is traditionally done with purely drystore products -- flour and salt -- and water, however, nowadays with the invention of the fridge and freezer and easily accessed ice, there is the addition of butter. You can also replace the water with milk if you want it to be extra creamy, but I stuck with the water. For this you will need:
3 cups of self-raising flour
'pinch' of salt - around 1/4th a teaspoon. Not much.
80g of butter, chilled and cubed -- roughly 1/3rd a cup
3/4 cup of water - tap water does fine.
Dump your flour and salt into a bowl, and add the butter (there's actually more flour than visible here, I only added half at first whoopsie) and break up the butter with your hands. If you have little ones that loooooove to help you bake, put them onto this task, making sure hands are clean and all that! What you need is for it to be resembling fine breadcrumbs. How do you tell that, I hear you ask? Tada!
Illumination! Basically it should -look- crumbly and incomplete and kinda powdery or crumbly, but if you scoop up a palmful it should stick together -- slightly -- and fall apart again. Similar to a good bit of damp sand, perfect for throwing at someone.
Add the water, mix it in initially with a butter knife or spatula. Why? I hear your disbelieving snorts, as to why it would be preferable than to use a spoon? Simple. It harks back to the days of yonder before there were such things as cake mixers and electric beaters. A round tipped or 'blunt' knife gets air into the mix much more effectively than a spoon, because a spoon scoops, and shifts the dough all of a piece, however the knife mixes in the liquid, while leaving air-pockets. Saves your arm and makes it very fluffy!
Once the majority of the water is mixed in, then you knead it with your hands, shaping it out onto a lightly floured surface -- baking paper works wonderfully for this -- until it is smooth, elastic and looks like ...well... dough. Shape it into a round disk, and score it with a sharp knife into eight sections, lightly flour the surface.
Now, you can either put your damper onto a tray and bake it in the oven for 20-30 minutes on 200 degrees Celcius, or, if you don't have an oven handy, build yourself a fire, in a hole, and make sure there are LOTS of coals. Wrap your damper up in foil, bury it in the ash for half an hour or so, and dig it up again. Nice, hot, crisp on the outside damper.
If you go the oven method, try the traditional route, make your family a soup, or stew, and while everyone is eating, cook the damper, so that when the plates are being emptied, any lingering nibbles are solved by fresh, hot damper!
It doesn't last much beyond that first meal mind, and tastes best when eaten hot. But! No preservatives, or artificial things. Lovely, simple, and a way to fill the belly when you're low on funds. Butter and self-raising flour, $7 and you have quite a bit of bread to fill your belly! Still hot the butter melts in ...cream, or jam works just as well! Like a really large scone, really.
Deliciousness Delivered.
