Altoids Tin Bread Bake (Survival Bread)

As we've seen throughout this website and others, Altoids tins can be used for a multitude of things. Some examples are survival and fire starter kits. Heck, I pack one of, if not both, every time I load my pack. Be that as it may, I have never seen an Altoids tin used like this. If you have ever been camping or hiking in remote mountain ranges or other extreme conditions, you are more than likely to have a few staples from the kitchen in your pack. Where as flour may be a stretch, who knows, I have heard of stranger things taken on trips! (Like an Altoids tin full of God knows what!) If you do in fact happen to have flour in your pack, (and an Altoids kit of some kind), while in the wild, or your just bored at your house/dorm room and feel like a home made biscuit that rivals your grandmothers, lets carry on to the next step.

Step 1: Ingredients (What you will need)

Again, you probably won't have all of this with you if your camping, but using only water and flour and mixing everything together in the Altoids tin will work just fine. For the sake of this Instructable, I will be using the full line-up of ingredients.

*Self Rising Flour (appx 1/2 cup per serving)

*Water (appx 1 - 1.5 oz per serving; go by consistency)

*Extra Virgin Olive Oil ( just a drizzle)

*Salt (i just use a dash to flavor since the flour already has some in it)

*An Altoids tin, clean of decoration (The best way I have found to do this is to take a wire brush and just go to town. It takes about two minutes to get the entire tin clean.

*A mixing bowl and a mixing utensil. I like to use a small bowl and a whisk. (If your in the woods, the Altoids tin and a clean stick will work just fine.)

Comments

[Tommi Potx]

Gotta try this!!

[glock34]

What a fun thing to do with the kids can't wait to try it
thanks

[fhansen1]

OK

[zaarenoc]

Didn't cowboys use to carry something called "hardtack" in their saddlebags? 

[KittyF]

yup. plain flour and water dough, maybe a bit of salt. rolled out thin as possible and poked with a fork about a thousand times. bake til hard as a rock in a 200 degree oven. as long as your teeth are young and strong, you can eat the stuff and survive on it, but it'll never be gourmet food.
If your teeth won't take it, the Civil war soldiers used to soak theirs in coffee to eat it.
Google "hard tack" you'll learn all about it. it's still made commercially, I think for the reenactment crowd, and at home by same.

[cupojoe999]

could i just use my stove burner instead of a penny stove or tea candle, and if i can will it still take around 12-15 mins to cook

[KittyF]

you can make the same biscuit dough and fry it in a frying pan on the stove. I made those while camping once upon a time. sprinkle with sugar for a semi donut flavor. as for time, go by how it looks, how it smells. but be aware. the hotter your fire, the more likely the inside of the biscuit will be doughy so keep the flame low to medium.

[dodo91]

i added leven, and some cinnimon and sugar. i also made pancakes!

[KittyF]

Self rising flour has levening in it. that's why it's called self rising.

[codeman735]

 nice apple sticker on your windows computer :D

[BobMarleyFan]

Thats nothing, I have one right over the dell logo on my laptop, People get relly confused when they see a black "MacBook"

[ManchesterUtd.]

you DO have the steel wool in there....................

[ManchesterUtd.]

or is that tinder?

[geoslim13]

tinder idont under stand the batery clip though

[monkeychipsx2]

There's a 9V as well. I suppose the idea is to use it to short and create a small spark if you have fueled tinder. Or perhaps the dry tinder would do it as well. I've never used this method.

[eulaliaaaa!]

No. I learned in Boy Scouts that the steel wool immediately starts smoldering when you hold the battery up to it.

[dodo91]

i learned that in boy scouts to!! i had to do that for wilderness survival.

[eulaliaaaa!]

Awesome!

[Metalcaster14]

ummm.... whats the obvious reason for not keeping the steel wool in there? Am I about to feel really stupid?

[dodo91]

if you had the steel wool in with the battery, they could touch, causing the steel to instatly turn red hot, burning you or starting a unwanted fire.

[ThePropNerds]

haha well, if you kept the steel wool in there, it would hurt when you ate your bread, wouldn't it? ^_

[erasei]

I think he means the steel wool isn't in the fire starter tin,.. because when the steel wool shorts the terminals of the 9v battery it creates a fire.. thus, a fire starting kit. You would not, however, want it to start while it was still in your pants or backpack.

[sokamiwohali]

theres a way around that...use elecrical tape and cover the terminals of the battery, and/or put both the battery AND steel wool in a hyper small "jewelry" plastic baggie. you cant conduct electricity through plastic with that small of a battery...or elecric current for that matter.

[sokamiwohali]

*i meant put them in separate baggies of course*

[iheart7s]

Erasei, you nailed it. I didn't leave the steel wool in the fire starter tin with the 9v battery for just that reason.

[telboyo]

What sort of flour has salt in it?

[robyn_hart2000]

self-rising flour already has salt in it.

[jibbers75]

thats y he said only a little salt

[spark master]

If you make a small origami box in very heavy aluminum foil (see Tinny Minibull designs) to make an oven. I used two pots in my home to try this concept. Tinny and backpackers will use rocks from trail 4-8 whatever. It keeps the inner and outer pans from touching, which will work way better, no scorching, In my home I used a piece of ceramic tile. I made a nice cake 4 inches in diameter, perfectly risen and quite tasty. You can also use tuna cans cat food/dog food cans and you can easily find two cans that nest with a 1/2 inch between them, then you just need some rocks, or a hunk of old ceramic tile. you can use a piece of waxed paper as a release paper, or clean brown paper bag (rub with oil/fat/lard). Left over pancake batter is nice as well Very nice instructable I enjoyed it and may look about for the tins now that I see more possibilities. ciao

[mattbomb]

weener.lol minibulldesign is the best he makes good stuff. youtube addict

[Darto501]

At home I found bread making machines take too long, muffins are quicker, so we bake them every morning.

I leaned this: substitute all you like, but keep the same amount of dry and wet ingredients as the original muffin recipe. Keeping the same degree of moisture is the key, dough should never be more dry or more wet  than the original recipe.

So on the trail where milk or eggs would spoil you can use powdered milk or eggs + water. Or use 1/2 the oil  (less fattening) + water. Use Stevia (sweetner) instead of sugar (sugar in camp attracts ants and bears).

Convert any muffin recipe found on the internet like that to use it in camp.

[spylock]

Thats a very good one,Ill have to buy some so I can get a tin.

[Surfer24]

How long do you think the unbaked dough would last, if say you made a couple of these at home and put them in your pack?

[robandjen]

I carry a dry mix of flour,baking powder,and salt in a small baggie in my ditch bag. In the old days this mixture was used to make pan bread in a frying pan or if put in a stove it was called hard tack. Eith way it is a time tested mix and just by adding water and heat you have food. Irial and error would give you the exact amout to carry with you for the size of the tin. I also add some garlic or onoin powder sometimes too. I know of a guy who cooks this mix with a small solar over with great sucess.

[KittyF]

Thought you're readers would like to know that if you have a fry pan with lid can act as an oven for bread or biscuits then you can cook more than one.  Don't know if that is pertinent or not.  I'm just remembering my own make do as a teen.  

[iheart7s]

I just wanted to say thanks to everyone that has commented, voted, added as favorites, etc.! It's amazing how many hits this instructable has had over the last few months. I'm very grateful that everyone likes it!

There will be more from me soon. It will most likely be "survival" oriented or at least have that theme.

Again guys and girls, thanks so much for all your feedback!

[GoodOldTin]

I am having trouble with getting the paint off the box.....i have that exact box in the picture of step 1 (i have the one on the left side)

[iheart7s]

The absolute best way that I have found to get the paint off is to use a wire brush, (usually used for cleaning a grill). It does take some time, so if you get winded just take a breather and get right back at it! And as far as the embossing goes, no it doesn't matter. Embossing won't release any chemicals into your bread. =D (I hope by embossing you mean the letters pressed into the lid.)

[GoodOldTin]

does the embossed words on the tin box matter?

[132connie132]

 This is cool.