Saturday 3 January 2009

wattleseed damper

Last week I was wandering through Woolies (aka Safeway) and saw some ground wattleseed, and decided to try it. Wattleseed is from (Australian) Acacia plants and has a high protein content, but I very rarely see them in recipes and things. Due to its nutritional value, it's been used in bush bread made by Australian Aborigines for a long time, so I decided to try bush food with bush food and give damper a go.

Damper is one of those things, everyone knows about it and generally likes it and vaguely knows how to make it, but nobody ever eats it. It originated as a campfire food, because the ingredients were so simple and wouldn't go off before you could use them. You'd just mix it all together and chuck it in a little oven in the fire. I have this feeling that I've had it cooked this way before, but my camping and bushbashing days are long over, so I can't be sure.

This is a recipe, but it can hardly be called mine, simply because it's pretty much the same all around, with occasional additions of a tiny bit of sugar, or substitutions of milk for water.

wattleseed damper

Wattle Seed Damper

ingredients
3 cups self-raising flour (sifted)
1 heaped teaspoon salt
80 grams of margarine (Nuttelex)
1 quarter of a cup of ground, roasted wattle seeds
just under one cup milk or water

method
Soak the wattleseeds in a little bit of water whilst you rub the nuttelex in to the flour. Then add in the salt. Make a well and pour in the milk and the wattle seeds. Mix in, and then knead thoroughly. Mould into a ball, and bake at 200C for about 35-40 minutes, or until it sounds hollow when you tap it.

Leave to cool, and either cut or pull apart. It is good with a little nuttelex melting in, but is also good dry.

6 comments:

Amy said...

Mmmm I haven't made damper for years and years! (like you said, it's one of those things :P). I love the addition of the wattleseeds! I really should make some again soon!

Anonymous said...

Sounds very much like an Irish soda bread, but for the wattleseeds! I've heard so much about them but they just can't be found over here. Looks delish!

Amira said...

love the look of that damper, that so clever adding wattle I never would have thought of that, pretty sure the last time i ate damper was at a friends sleepover in about grade 5! haha that's way too long ago i miss it, i must give this a try (p.s i had no idea wattle had a high protein content thanks for the info)

steph said...

Vegetation, I've never made damper before! It was fun actually, I love kneading dough! The addition of wattle seeds was a little crunchy (the longer you soak them, the less crunchy they are) and it added quite a fun flavour to it.

Ricki, I think wattle seeds can be bought online, or if you were feeling like you really had to have them you could befriend an obliging Aussie...

Hi Amira! I have to admit, I was thinking about bread but didn't have any yeast, and damper is so simple, it wasn't much of a stretch. I haven't eaten damper in years, it was pretty fun! And I only recently found out about its protein content, it's always good to find out about more stuff to help us be healthy without resorting to tablets and things.

Anonymous said...

Hi! I've been looking for wattleseed in Melbourne. Can you pls tell me which Woolies this is?
Thanks!

steph said...

@anonymous I'm not sure, since I bought this wattleseed almost three years ago and have long been a frequenter of several woolies. However I suspect it was the one in the Perth CBD, which doesn't help you at all. Sorry!