These go by a few names – twisters, twizzlers, twisties or the continental ‘pain aux twizzles’ – as they are known by some of you who attend our over fire cookery courses.
This recipe is designed to encourage the whole family to get involved in cooking in the great outdoors, no matter what time of year.
You can make your twisty breads savoury or sweet; it’s entirely up to you. Today we are making a savoury version which could be served with soups, stews or… if you very carefully remove the stick (keeping the bread intact) you could even stuff them with sausages for a nifty little twist on a hot dog. Try brushing your twisty breads with garlic butter as they turn in front of the fire, or serve up with the meatballs we cooked on week one of our #familyfeasts series.
If you wanted to go for a sweet option, then there are a couple of options. If everyone is happy with the same flavour, then take one of your favourite brands of chocolate bar and roughly chop into fairly small pieces, gently incorporating the chocolate once you’ve finished kneading. Another option is after the dough has proved, quarter the dough and allow each person to choose a ¼ of their favourite chocolate bar to gently fold into their dough. If you do go for sweet – remember to omit any dried herbs from the mix. Or you may end up with very interesting breads!
It’s important to note a couple of things at this point to guarantee success. Firstly, you want a nice radiant heat from the fire, if there are lots of flames then the chances are your campfire twisty bread on a stick will scorch and get covered in soot from the flames, potentially making it taste bitter.
Your twisty bread will cook fairly evenly if you rotate it, just make sure that the base of the bread gets its fair share of the heat. Sometimes the base will take a little longer than the rest of the bread.
Make sure that everyone rolls their bread onto their sticks from left to right, turning the stick clockwise in front of the fire. This will make sure that the bread doesn’t unroll whilst being turned in front of the fire.
Try to keep the bread moving at all times. As the heat penetrates the bread, it will begin to puff up. If it puffs up more on one side it will become heavier, the more weight on one side the harder it will be to turn and the heavier side will always slump to the underside of the stick.
There’s a lot of science behind baking bread and a successful loaf of bread revolves around feeding the yeast. This is done with sugar which the yeast consumes creating carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide will get trapped inside the dough or within the gluten. This creates lots and lots of little bubbles which will make our dough really fluffy and soft.
We stumbled across a nice little online series called The Grain Chain. Giving you a really good insight from the growing of grain, all the way to a finished loaf of bread with all the science in between.
300ml tepid water
14g dried yeast
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp salt
500g plain flour
A few tsp dried herbs of your choice (omit the herbs and replace with chocolate for a sweet version)
4 hazel sticks (they need to be as thick as your thumb and as long as your arm)
Mix the yeast and sugar with the water and set aside for 5-10 minutes, until frothy.
In a large mixing bowl, stir together the plain flour, salt and herbs.
Once the yeast has activated stir into the flour and knead for at least 10 minutes or until smooth and elastic.
Place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl and cover with cling film, set aside and prove until doubled in size.
Whilst the dough is proving, remove the bark from ⅔ of the hazel stick with a sharp knife. Make sure the knife is always cutting away from you and that it is at a nice flat angle so it doesn’t get stuck in the wood. Strip the bark away until you have removed the light green pithy layer from underneath the bark.
Singe off any wisps of wood over the fire, this will also help to sterilise the stick too.
Knock back the dough and split into two. Roll each piece into a long sausage and roll around the hazel stick. Roll from left to right and from the top of the stick down rotating the stick clockwise as you feed the dough onto the stick.
Gently turn the bread over the coals until puffed and golden brown. Tap the bread and if it sounds hollow it should be cooked through, but to double check you can break the base of the bread to double check by looking inside.
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If you do decide to make sweet twisty bread on a stick, remember to omit any dried herbs from the mix. Or, you may end up with very interesting breads?
You want a nice radiant heat from the fire, if there are lots of flames then the chances are your campfire twisty bread on a stick will scorch and get covered in soot from the flames, potentially making it taste bitter.
Make sure that everyone rolls their bread onto their sticks from left to right, turning the stick clockwise in front of the fire. This will make sure that the bread doesn’t unroll whilst being turned in front of the fire.
We stumbled across a nice little online series called The Grain Chain. Giving you a really good insight from the growing of grain, all the way to a finished loaf of bread with all the science in between.
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