Easy Australian Damper

Damper is a traditional Australian bread. There are probably as many variations as there are people to cook it! This recipe comes from the Australian Women’s Weekly cookbook “Muffins, Scones and Breads”. This is a very useful recipe for those times when you want to make bread, but don't have time to use yeast. Damper has a hard crust and a fairly close texture. Its not a light bread (not the sort of bread you'd use to make dainty cucumber sandwiches, for example!), but it is tasty and is also good toasted. I have found various surces of information about Damper on the internet and learned that originally Damper would have been cooked in the ashes of a bush fire. The ashes were flattened and the Damper was placed there to cook for 10 minutes. Then the Damper was covered with ashes and coked for another 20-30 minutes. The Damper was cooked until it sounded hollow when tapped. This recipe was posted for Zaar World Tour 2005.

• Ready In: 1 hr
• Serves: 4-6
• Yields: 1 round

Ingredients

• 525  g self-raising flour (plus extra for top of bread)
• 1  teaspoon salt
• 2  teaspoons caster sugar (superfine)
• 40  g butter
• 125  ml milk (plus extra for top of bread)
• 310  ml water (approximately)

Directions

1. Pre-heat oven to 375F / 190C /gas mark 4.
2. Sift flour, salt and sugar into a large bowl, rub in the butter.
3. Stir in milk and enough water to mix to a sticky dough.
4. Turn dough onto a floured surface, knead until just smooth.
5. Place dough onto a greased baking tray and press into a 16cm round.
6. Cut a cross in the dough, about 1cm deep; brush with a little extra milk then sprinkle with a little extra flour; bake for about 45 minutes; lift onto a wire rack to cool.