Recipes / Bread
Stokbrood (bread on a stick)
Strips of soft bread dough wound around sticks and turned over low coals, then filled with butter and jam. A favourite for children at a braai.
- Prep
- 20 min
- On the fire
- 15 min
- Plan ahead
- 1 hour rising
- Serves
- 8 sticks
Ingredients
Method
Cooking on gas?
- Stokbrood is made for glowing coals. On a gas grill, wind the dough around metal skewers instead of sticks.
- Set the burners to low, leave the lid open and lay the skewers across the grates. Turn them every minute or two for 10 to 15 minutes, until golden all over.
- Keep the dough out of direct flame. If it browns too fast, move it over a burner that is off.
- Mix the flour, yeast, sugar and salt in a bowl. Add the water and oil and mix to a soft dough.
- Knead for 5 to 8 minutes until smooth. Cover and leave in a warm place for about 1 hour, until doubled.
- Peel the bark off the last 20 cm (8 inches) of each stick. Rub that end with a little oil and dust it with flour.
- Divide the dough into 8 pieces. Roll each into a rope about 40 cm (16 inches) long and 1.5 cm (1/2 inch) thick.
- Pinch one end of a rope onto the tip of a stick, then wind it down the stick in a spiral with small gaps between the turns. Press the other end firmly onto the stick.
- Hold the dough 10 to 15 cm (4 to 6 inches) above low coals, not over flames. Turn the stick slowly and keep it moving.
- Cook for 10 to 15 minutes, until the bread is golden all over.
- Let it cool for a minute, then twist the bread off the stick. Fill the hole with butter and jam or syrup.
Done when: the bread is golden brown all over, feels firm and light, and twists off the stick easily with no raw dough on the inside.
Tips
- Thin ropes cook through before the outside burns. If the dough is thick, the outside will char while the inside stays raw.
- Use green wood from a tree you know, such as a fruit tree or willow. Never use oleander, which is poisonous.
- Give children a stick each and a spot at the edge of the coals where an adult can watch them. The long stick keeps their hands away from the heat.
Stokbrood is Afrikaans for stick bread. It is cooked on camping trips, at school camps and at the end of a braai when the coals have died down, and it is often the job given to children while the adults cook the meat. Any plain bread dough works. For a version cooked on the grid, see roosterkoek.