This week, I told Roy that we had a request! A few weeks ago, the children at work had damper for afternoon tea. They were quite taken with it and told me all about it, though they did mention that it was rather hard. I explained to them that their damper had been cooked several hours before and reheated, so this was probably why it was hard and dry. Damper is best eaten very soon after it is first cooked, preferably warm. The kids suggested they might buy some from the local shops, but after I explained that it is a very easy to make traditional Australian bread, they wanted to have a go for themselves and asked if Roy could give them the recipe. So this week Roy and I are making damper!
Damper is a very dense, traditional Australian bread and is actually not all that dissimilar to Irish soda bread. It is likely that it was adapted from the Irish recipe by the many Irish people who lived in Australia, right from the time of the convicts. It was a perfect recipe for many of the people working on the big farms or droving cattle and sheep between properties because it could be cooked in a camp fire and didn't have many ingredients, traditionally only using flour, salt and water mixed to a dough and cooked. You didn't need to have eggs, milk or butter, all of which could perish in the hot Australian conditions if you were traveling. Although the recipe I am using today has changed a little, to include self-raising flour and butter, the basic idea is the same and if a drover or swaggie was lucky them might have been able to use these ingredients too!
You Will Need:
- 3 cups of self-raising flour
- A pinch of salt
- 3/4 of a cup of water
- 80 grams of cold butter, cut into small pieces
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celcius.
- Mix the flour and salt together in a large mixing bowl.
- Add the butter to the flour mix and use your finger-tips to rub the butter into the flour. You want to get the mix to the point where it looks like fine breadcrumbs. Make sure you only use your finger-tips - your palm is warm and will melt the butter instead of rubbing it into the mix!
- Add the water to the flour and butter and use a round bladed knife (like a butter knife) to mix it in. You want to use a cutting motion to mix and keep going until the mix just comes together. If the mix is too dry add a little extra water.Roy and I did need a bit extra, but it will depend on the flour you are using.
- Put your dough onto a clean, dry, lightly floured surface. I used a mat, but you can just use your bench. Kneed the dough for a couple of minutes until it is smooth and glossy. To kneed the mix, press your palms into the centre and use your fingers to pull it up a bit, like you can see in the picture below. Move the dough around as you go and keep on with this motion.
- Put the dough onto your prepared tray and shape it into a circle, about 18 centimetres wide.
- Dip a sharp knife in flour and use this to mark out 8 sections in your dough. You want to cut about 1/4 of the way through the dough.
- Bake your damper in the oven for about 30 minutes or until it is golden. A good way to test whether it is done is to knock on its bottom - it should sound hollow!
- Serve the damper warm. We had ours with soup as a bread, but another very popular way of serving it (and Roy's favourite) is with 'Cocky's Joy' (also known as golden syrup). Just drizzle the damper with golden syrup and whipped cream (if you want to be decadent) and enjoy!
- Another way to cook damper is to use a 'green stick' and wind the dough around it. Then, cook the damper over the camp fire.