5 Ingredient Australian Damper Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is damper food in Australia? ›

Damper is a thick home-made bread traditionally prepared by early European settlers in Australia. It is a bread made from wheat-based dough. Flour, salt and water, with some butter if available, is lightly kneaded and baked in the coals of a campfire, either directly or within a camp oven.

Damper was utilised by stockmen, squatters, swagmen, drovers, and other travellers, because it only needed basic ingredients to make, and required just water[3]. This was important because as a horse rider carrying unnecessary weight would be a burden, but carrying a damper provided a softer and stable ride.

It will keep in the fridge for a couple of days. Pack some extra flour just in case the mix becomes a bit wet in the fridge. From here you can either shape your damper into a round loaf and bake it in a floured camp oven or wrap it around a stick and let the kids cook their own over hot coals.

Damper invented in Pitt Street

The inventor was First Fleeter William Bond, Australia's first baker, whose business was in Pitt Street, and much of the early bread he made was 'damper'. His custom of 'damping' the fire – covering it with ashes to preserve the red coals for the morning – gave the bread its name.

As explained above, this bread was made by drovers and stockmen in the early colonial history of Australia. At its most basic, damper is cooked with just flour, salt, and water. These ingredients were easy to carry on the journey, making it a perfect rest-stop meal.

Once the grain was winnowed, it was ground using a millstone, to create flour. The flour was then mixed with water to make a dough and placed in hot ashes for baking, either into small buns, today referred to as johnny cakes, or a large loaf, known today as damper.

Back in the day, millstones were used to grind the seeds into flour and water was added to form a dough. The damper would then be baked in or heated over hot coals.

This fig and honey damper recipe is a perfect example of how a simple damper recipe can be adapted to create something a little bit special. Working figs and honey into the dough make this simple loaf a delicious accompaniment to a cheese platter.

Damper Size Selection

But if starting with a new duct system 2 variables must be known to determine damper sizes. Calculate using the “whole house load” with maximum diversity. Round damper sizes range from 4” to 18” typically in 1” increments up to 10” and in 2” increments up to 18”.

Your dough will rise in the fridge and it can be a huge help as it makes bread making easy to fit into your day. When you put your dough in the fridge it slows the yeast activity down. It takes ten times longer for dough to rise in the fridge than it does at room temperature.

Can you leave dough to rise overnight? ›

The proofing time for bread dough varies based on the dough's makeup (amount of preferment, flour choices, and hydration) and the temperature at which it's proofed. The dough should generally be proofed for around 1 to 4 hours at a warm temperature or overnight (or more) at a cold refrigerator temperature.

Most bread recipes have two rises, a first rise (also called bulk fermentation), and a second or final rise. You can chill your dough during either the first or second rise. Your yeast won't give you much love if it's asked to do both rises in the fridge, so it's best to do one or the other at room temperature.

"Damper is the bush-bread of Australia. Drovers (cowboys) baked Damper in camp ovens buried in the hot ashes of their camp fires in the Outback, but if you don"t want to build a camp fire in your backyard, damper can also be baked in a normal kitchen oven.

Reliance on the seeds became more pronounced in the Holocene – the recent, post-ice-age period - but some archaeological sites, such as Cuddie Springs contain grinding stones dated to about 30,000 years. These stones were used to grind wild seeds into flour which in turn was baked as bread.

It is now very similar to a scone recipe without any sweetness or milk added. Traditionally damper was eaten with golden syrup and given the nickname “co*ckys joy”.

Damper : bread made from flour and water.

It was made famous by drovers, who baked this bush bread in the coals of their camp fire, and has been recognised as a staple of bush life for decades. It is believed that Damper was originally developed by stockmen, who needed a way to carry food with them into remote areas.

Damper symbolises cultural restoration for First Nations people and you can easily try your hand at making it at home. Bush damper is a food tradition that's been shared among First Nations peoples for thousands of years. Beyond its crusty exterior and spongy interior, damper represents cultural identity through food.