Perfecting a Bushcraft Biscuit Recipe

I like to bake foods when I’m out camp crafting on my motorcycles. I have a small oven for that… the Outback Plus 10. But I like baking in my bush pots when I’m roughing a bit in the Maine backwoods bushcrafting too. There’s no need to “travel light / freeze at night” as long as your pack loads don’t become too heavy. I recently got a large bush pot from Self Reliance Outfitters, and I’m anxious to get out in the woods with my dog to give it a try. My old bush pot has had it. Old military surplus that's seen better days.

I don’t really like the instant biscuit mixes commercially available. I don’t like the tinny chemical taste of the stuff. Maybe I'm just weird… I don’t know. So I experimented at home tonight to get a new recipe going for my trip tomorrow.

Self rising flour

But I like baking in my bush pots when I’m roughing a bit in the Maine backwoods bushcrafting too.

I started off with my usual off the shelf unbleached self rising flour.

Powdered milk ingredients

Next I added some powdered milk and egg replacer. Now the eggs are not normally a part of making biscuits. I wanted to try something different that would toughen the dough just a little bit.

Blending the dry mix

The dry ingredients were well incorporated in an old food processor until mixed thoroughly. So here’s my recipe…

3 cups self rising flour

4 tablespoons powdered milk

1 tablespoon of powdered egg replacer

1 teaspoon of sugar

You’re going to need two wet ingredients as well. Oil, and water.

1/4 cup oil

1 cup water more or less to make a semi dry dough.

Blend well and pack into SRO food pantry tins. This dry mix will fill two large SRO 16 ounce screw top tins.

Oil

Normally you would use butter as the fat in biscuits, but I wanted something a bit less crumbly in the field. I substituted extra virgin olive oil. This makes the biscuit just a bit more dense and it doesn’t come apart when you open them up to add a filler.

1/4 cup oil jar

I have a few small glass jars with really good sealing lids. They hold exactly 1/4 cup of oil, and that’s exactly what the recipe calls for. And lastly you need water. I use approximately 1 cup of water, and I add it directly to the pantry tins and mix the water and oil into a thick dough. To bake the biscuit in the bush pot, I don’t bother with cutting the biscuits individually. I squeeze out my dough to about 1/2” thick and stick it on the baking pan. Just cover the bush pot with coals and let it go for about 10 minutes, then check for doneness.

However… I’m testing the recipe at home the night before I take my trip. So in this instance, I roll out the dough and cut individual biscuits with my cutter.

Biscuits ready for baking

Keep in mind when you cut out biscuits — don’t push down and twist the biscuit cutter. Just punch straight down and pull the dough away from the outside edge of the cutter. If you twist it, you seal the edges of the dough somewhat and your biscuits don’t get the perfect rise you want. The last little bit of dough I form into a ball and flatten out. This is the dog’s biscuit.

Golden biscuits !

You’re going to bake the biscuits at 450*F for about 10 minutes, then check them for doneness.

Sometimes I butter the tops and let them bake for about 3 more minutes until they brown up. They might not brown much in a bush pot so check on them after 5 minutes in the pot, before turning them around so they don’t burn on one side and be raw on the other. In a bush pot, I always go for one BIG biscuit or a biscuit loaf.

Bacon and cheese biscuits

I like my biscuits covered in fried bacon and some pepper jack cheese with a dollop of hot sauce. Tomorrow when I get out and set up camp, I’ll show you how I make bushcraft biscuits.

Packed dry tins

Here’s my dry biscuit mix in the larger SRO pantry tins. They get packed into my bushcraft pot and are ready to go to the field.