The campfire soda bread of the outback — a simple unleavened dough of flour, water, and salt, traditionally baked in the coals or a camp oven, here enriched with native wattleseed for a nutty, roasted note. The bread of stockmen and bush travellers.
Damper is a traditional Australian soda/unleavened bread cooked in campfire coals, adopted by stockmen and Aboriginal communities; wattleseed adds a native flavour.
Tear into warm damper and it is dense, soft, and faintly sweet, with a thick, crusty exterior and a nutty, roasted wattleseed aroma running through the crumb. Bite: hearty and plain in the best way, the wattleseed lending a coffee-like depth, butter and honey melting into the warm bread. The unfussy campfire loaf of the Australian bush.
Damper is a quick bread leavened by baking powder (or just the heat and steam in the coals), needing no yeast or rise — ideal for the bush. Minimal mixing keeps it tender; the scored cross helps it cook through and the wattleseed adds the roasted, native flavour that distinguishes the bush version.
Variations
Plain (classic). With dried fruit. With cheese and herbs. In the coals (true bush). With golden syrup. Mini dampers on sticks.
On the Palate
Where Bush Damper sits in the Aboriginal Australian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 8How it's made
8 steps · 20 min active · 40 min waiting
- 13 min
Mix flour, ground wattleseed, baking powder, and salt.
- 23 min
Rub in a little butter.
- 34 min
Stir in milk to a soft, shaggy dough; do not overwork.
- 44 min
Shape into a round and score a cross on top.
- 530 min
Bake in a hot camp oven or oven (or in foil in the coals) about 30 min.
- 62 min
Tap the base — it should sound hollow when done.
- 712 min
Cool slightly under a cloth.
- 82 min
Tear and serve warm with butter and honey.
