Emily Vikre’s camp recipes for your family
Enjoying friluftsliv and good food
Pinnebrød with Garlic Butter is one of Emily Vikre’s all-time favorite camp cook-out recipes.
KRISTI BISSELL
Taste of Norway Editor
The Norwegian American
All Norwegians know “ut på tur, aldri sur.” That is to say, out on a hike, never grumpy. Having grown up steeped in the Norwegian love of friluftsliv, the outdoor life, distiller and food writer Emily Vikre combines her penchant for delicious food and delightful outdoor experience in her new book The Family Camp Cookbook, Easy, Fun and Delicious Meals for the Great Outdoors.
This book has something for everyone who enjoys cooking and eating outdoors, whether that’s on the trail or on your back porch. It starts off with the basics of planning, prepping, and cooking when you don’t have the comforts of your full kitchen.
Then, the recipes! The book’s chapters are divided up by meal with hearty breakfasts, delicious lunches, exciting dinners, and of course treats and drinks to end your day right. The family-friendly recipes and tips range from the classic (quirky takes on hot dogs and s’mores anyone?) to the unexpected, like kebab fajitas, dilly lamb pasta, or quinoa, corn, and bacon salad.
There is also an assortment of Norwegian and Norwegian-inspired recipes, Norwegian pancakes, for example, and the Norwegian camping classic pinnebrød – quick bread wrapped around a stick and toasted over the fire.
PINNEBRØD
with Garlic Butter
By Emily Vikre
Makes about a dozen bread twists
INGREDIENTS
For the Pinnebrød dough:
3 1/3 cups (417 g) flour
1 tsp. (6 g) salt
1 tbsp. (13 g) sugar
1 tbsp. (14 g) baking powder
½ cup plus 2 tbsps. oil (150 ml)
(I just use olive oil, as I do for most things that call for oil)
1¼ cup (295 ml) water
For the Garlic Butter:
½ cup (112 g) butter
4 garlic cloves, minced
INSTRUCTIONS
Make it at home:
1. Combine all the dry ingredients for the bread in a large bowl and make a well in the center.
2. In another container, whisk together the oil and water to emulsify them, then drizzle this into the well in the dry ingredients. Mix everything together with a wooden spoon until a shaggy ball forms.
3. Get in there with your hands and knead the dough 8–10 times to pick up any flour that wasn’t incorporated, and to bring it together into a smooth dough ball.
4. Coat the dough ball with some additional oil, then transfer it to a zip top bag or sealed container to transport.
Make it in camp:
1. In a small pot, heat the butter until it is melted. Stir in the minced garlic and cook for a minute until it has softened. (I do this because I don’t really like raw garlic, but I love cooked garlic. If you’re into raw garlic in your garlic butter, then just melt the butter and stir in the garlic off the heat.)
2. Break off pieces of dough that are about the size of a walnut, roll them into thin ropes and twist them around cooking sticks (use sturdy, green tree branches like the kind you would use for hot dogs. Make sure they are sturdy enough to hold a breadstick. I haven’t tried using metal marshmallow/hot dog roasting sticks, but I bet it could work!). Brush the outside of the bread twist with a bit of garlic butter, then cook over fire embers, turning often, until the bread is browned on the outside and cooked through to the middle.
Repeat to make as many bread twists as you want.
3. Brush with more garlic butter and eat warm. Leftover dough can be cooked as flatbreads in a skillet.
The Family Camp Cookbook by Emily Vikre offers good food for your entire family to enjoy outdoors.
Photos courtesy of Emily Vikre
This article originally appeared in the July 8, 2022, issue of The Norwegian American. To subscribe, visit SUBSCRIBE or call us at (206) 784-4617.
