Real Food On The Road, Part 3

Millie is back with part 3 of the Real Food on the Road series. In part 1, she shared her overall strategy for planning, preparing and serving real food on 10-day road trip. In part 2, she inspired us with travel-friendly nourishing, real food main dish salads and slaws. In this Part 3, you’ll see how the “bucket bread” in Sourdough eCourse and Sourdough A to Z eBook (and other sourdough recipes) came in handy for their trip’s bread needs. Check out part 1, part 2 or the complete trip notes on her blog. Thanks again, Millie! –Wardee

When we began planning a 10 day road/camping trip, I tried to serve real food meals as much as possible. My family does better with traditionally-prepared food using whole ingredients. Myself, I do better with soaked, sprouted or soured grains. Finding stores along the way where we could purchase traditionally prepared bread products was probably not likely. So for our trip, I used a few methods to meet our bread needs.

The First Three Days

We had three days from the time we left home until we actually started camping. The first day was spent in travel and the next two days with family and attending events. On those days, we ate from our cooler. I filled it with prepared foods, including premade sourdough tortillas as our main bread food for those days. Tortillas were a good choice since they work extremely well for wraps and being flat take up little space. I had intended to make two loaves of sourdough to take along also but ran out of prep time. Even though I took along the first few days of bread items, we would need additional items for the remaining time.

The Versatile Bucket Dough

Perhaps my favorite lesson from the Sourdough eCourse and Sourdough A to Z eBook is the No-Knead Sourdough Bread from Wardee’s friend Christina (pictured right) — the dough of which Christina affectionately calls ‘Bucket Dough’ because this sourdough bread can be mixed, kept, scooped out, and then baked, all from a handy bucket. (Christina adapted the ‘Artisan Bread In 5 Minutes A Day’ to use traditional sourdough and whole grain.)

Bucket bread is a wonderful addition to my every day cooking! It is quick, easy and no-fuss bread. Because it is extremely versatile, it seemed a logical choice for our camping/trip needs. It was!

Bucket Dough Prep

Because we wouldn’t be using our bucket bread until a few days into the trip, I did not take it along in a prepared state. Instead I put the dry ingredients in my lidded bucket and took along my sourdough starter. For a week’s worth of bucket dough, I also took along plenty of flour and salt. That, along with fresh water, was all I needed. With these simple ingredients, it would be easy to replenish the dough as needed.

The night before I planned to use my bread for the first time, I mixed up a half batch (the amount that fits best in my bucket). That night on the Oregon Coast was very cool, so I did not even bother putting the dough in the cooler overnight. If the night was warm, I would have used the cooler.

3+ Uses: Pizza Crusts, Rustic Biscuits and Flat Breads

My first use of the bucket dough was to make pizza crusts. I hand-shaped the bread into six individual-size crusts and then cooked each in a cast iron skillet over the fire pit. A couple of minutes on each side and they were done. Each person put on their own toppings (premade before leaving home). Once topped, they went back in the skillet with a cover on until the cheese melted and all seemed warm. My family loved our Camp Fire Pizzas!

The next night I had enough bucket dough left to enjoy rustic biscuits alongside dinner. I will admit to burning a few of those while I got the hang of cooking over the fire! I had enough dough left to cook enough biscuits for breakfast the next morning as well. I made sure to save some of my dough as the starter for my next batch of bucket dough. I used the remaining dough as the starter, and dumped more flour and water in the bucket and gave it all a stir. Very campground friendly!

During dinner prep the following night, I rolled out some of the bucket dough into flat breads with the rolling pin I’d packed. Preparing bread products outside on a picnic table seemed odd at first. But looking back on it – I loved it! The flat breads cooked over the fire just like the pizza crusts had. Super quick and easy! They made the foundation for our picnic lunch the following day — flat breads topped with leftover steak and a yogurt/garlic dressing made great sandwiches.

Funny thing about that picnic lunch: we drove and drove around, looking for someplace to stop. We ended up at nothing more than a wide parking area, and laid down our picnic blanket. Keeping a picnic blanket in our vehicle has come in handy many times for us!

Best Laid Plans

I had planned on using bucket dough for two additional picnic lunches. However, we ran out of cooking fuel one night when at a firewood-free campground. So making flat bread wasn’t possible. At home, though we’ve used the flat breads as a basis for yummy egg salad. Then we came home early, so our final picnic lunch (rustic biscuits topped with salmon salad) was not needed.

Other Bucket Dough Travel Ideas

Bucket dough is amazingly versatile for a camping trip. When you use it to make rustic muffins, you’ve got practically limitless options for toppings. If you use the bucket dough for flat breads, you have lots of options as well. I think of these as thick tortillas and use them that way. Bucket dough makes a terrific artisan loaf. With my Dutch oven and a little practice, I hope to someday provide my family with fresh baked bread while camping.

More Sourdough Travel Recipe And Ideas

A couple of other bread options that worked for us: sourdough pancakes and sourdough waffles. Because each of our camping spots had power, we took along a waffle iron. This could also work if you’re planning a trip with hotel stays. And, I discovered waffle irons for campfires, which I hope to have by next year.

With sourdough starter and other basic ingredients (and a little extra time before departing), pancakes or waffles were easy to prepare. Toddlers and teenagers approved of the snack of leftovers topped with nut butter! I suspect that sourdough pancakes or waffles could be a super good idea when bread is needed but not available. I recently read an article suggesting putting savory items such as sautéed onions and shredded cheese in the pancake batter (I’d omit the sweetener). I’ve not tried this myself but think it has promise. Maybe use the savory pancake as the bread and top with mayo, veggies and cooked meat. Sounds good to me!

Do you have a favorite solution to preparing and serving bread foods while on the road?