Bushwalk Australia

Hi all, I'm taking the kids through the overland next week so I'm the mule for this trip. To decrease weight I'm trying to go for fairly high calorific dense food so was wondering if anyone has tried dehydrating pumpernickel or rye bread to use as crackers. I'm planning to dehydrate hummus and tinned chicken to go on the bread for lunches. Thoughts?


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hey, not up to dehydrating yet but when i was in norway there was this widely available and delicious seed cracker called knekkebrød. This stuff is light, dry and calorie dense and could be served with sweet or savoury toppings. Here is a recipe and pics for it: https://arcticgrub.wordpress.com/2013/0 ... iest-food/

I'd think you are better off with a cracker recipe than just drying bread, most breads get very crumbly. You might try toasting bread and doing it that way, the high heat might help it hold together instead of getting that stale flavor.

My other thought would be to try flatbreads like pitas, as they are denser to start.

Suz wrote:hey, not up to dehydrating yet but when i was in norway there was this widely available and delicious seed cracker called knekkebrød. This stuff is light, dry and calorie dense and could be served with sweet or savoury toppings. Here is a recipe and pics for it: https://arcticgrub.wordpress.com/2013/0 ... iest-food/

Suz that bread looks and sounds so yummy. I need to make some to try, thanks for the link

Giddy_up wrote:

Suz wrote:hey, not up to dehydrating yet but when i was in norway there was this widely available and delicious seed cracker called knekkebrød. This stuff is light, dry and calorie dense and could be served with sweet or savoury toppings. Here is a recipe and pics for it: https://arcticgrub.wordpress.com/2013/0 ... iest-food/

Suz that bread looks and sounds so yummy. I need to make some to try, thanks for the link

+1!

Ryvita crisp bread is available from Woolies. The seedy stuff in the green packet is quite tasty. (Saying this as a Norwegian)

Not sure what you mean by dehydrating tinned chicken for lunch? At this time of year, will you have time to reconstitute food at lunch? Much depends on the age and pace of your kids but also your willingness to cook/wash up on track, when kms need to be covered. Lunch should be fairly quick and easy so that you don't lose too much time on it, plenty of other ways to do that. Not saying I don't understand the calorie intense requirements of kids, but my own experience is that they much prefer continuous snacks rather than a "lets stop and do lunch" scenario.

We do this at work (as a chef) by freezing the loaves, slicing on a meat slicer, drizzle with olive oil and bake low. Absolutely delicious, that makes very fine chips though. I think you'll find dense breads like pumpernickel or rye will be very hard to chew of you slice them thickly and dehydrate. If you can manage to cut very even, thin slices you might be in luck, but I don't know how you plan on rehydrating or otherwise making them palatable ? If you bake them dry like a crouton with some olive oil you'll make them easier to eat and also more calorie dense.

I have talked to a few people who dehydrate hummus, so that's definitely an option, they rave about it.

High calorie snack food is easy, just find a box of snickers bars on sale ! Otherwise nuts, salami, avocados, add some butter or olive oil.

Thanks all for the feedback. Sorry for late replies but I haven't had WiFi in the study for a while. I just made a parabolic beer can booster for the router and now I'm back up!!

Suz wrote:hey, not up to dehydrating yet but when i was in norway there was this widely available and delicious seed cracker called knekkebrød. This stuff is light, dry and calorie dense and could be served with sweet or savoury toppings. Here is a recipe and pics for it: https://arcticgrub.wordpress.com/2013/0 ... iest-food/

This food looks awesome. Definitely something to try in the future!

CasualNerd wrote:I think you'll find dense breads like pumpernickel or rye will be very hard to chew of you slice them thickly and dehydrate. If you can manage to cut very even, thin slices you might be in luck, but I don't know how you plan on rehydrating or otherwise making them palatable ? If you bake them dry like a crouton with some olive oil you'll make them easier to eat and also more calorie dense.

I have talked to a few people who dehydrate hummus, so that's definitely an option, they rave about it.

Yeah I decided the dehy bread would be too hard to chew on so went with the Ryvita in the end. I did dehy the Hummus. 1Kg of Hummus made about 500g of powder and didn't take too long. I'm currently deyhydrating Tuna and Canned Chicken.

eaglehawk wrote:Not sure what you mean by dehydrating tinned chicken for lunch? At this time of year, will you have time to reconstitute food at lunch? Much depends on the age and pace of your kids but also your willingness to cook/wash up on track, when kms need to be covered. Lunch should be fairly quick and easy so that you don't lose too much time on it, plenty of other ways to do that. Not saying I don't understand the calorie intense requirements of kids, but my own experience is that they much prefer continuous snacks rather than a "lets stop and do lunch" scenario.

I think I'll go with your advice here. It's going to be too cold to stop for long so just snacks on the way. I'll rehydrate the tuna/chicken and hummus in the morning so it'll be good by lunch time. Whack that on crackers with salami and scroggin and beef jerky in between and I think we'll be good to go. I've given the kids a heads up that we won't be stopping long.

flippant wrote:Ryvita crisp bread is available from Woolies. The seedy stuff in the green packet is quite tasty. (Saying this as a Norwegian)

Got the Ryvita! There's quite a few varieties now, thanks.

Got all the main meals done now, oats/dried fruit all packaged, 150g scroggin per person per day, dehy apples and bananas for snacks, cuppa soups, hot chocolates, should make for some happy kids - and their mother has decided to come too now!

Thought I would just do a quick update. The trip was fantastic apart from kids falling over on the ice. They didn't enjoy that bit but got their heads around it after day 2. Due to the temps stopping for much more than 15 minutes meant getting quite cold so lunch was quick. The dehydrated hummus and dehydrated tuna/chicken was fantastic. I rehydrated them each night for the next day. We chewed through a box of vita wheats with these each day. On either side of the lunch break the dried apple, banana and jerky went really well (the kids weren't ecstatic about the banana but ate it anyway) and 120g of scroggin each was icing on the cake.
Next time I'm going to try dehydrating fruitcake and bringing some custard to make desserts.


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if you make it properly there is no need to dehydrate fruit cake. Custard mix with tripled full cream milk ratio is an excellent pudding

I got into seed crackers recently, if you make them not TOO thin they are surprisingly sturdy. This is a flourless version - hunted for it after trying the seed crackers on a cheese platter - bother the artisan cheeses, we were fighting for the crackers. http://www.jessicasepel.com/recipes/easy-seed-crackers/ Um... the rest of you probably know that Flax seeds are sold in supermarkets as Linseed unless you are at Costco..... I was a bit slow on that one. Incidentally my teenage rels really like biltong & Aldi & Costco often have it quite cheaply; if you aren't into snickers then that's one way to go. If they like that stuff you need not worry too much about providing protein in the main meals.

I really recommend the "Life-changing crackers", http://www.mynewroots.org/site/2014/07/the-life-changing-crackers/

If you make them, do not skip the "leave on counter" step (ie soaking), and I would suggest overnight is better than just a couple of hours. All seeds, nuts, bean, legumes etc contain phytic acid and other anti-nutrients, which prevent minerals from being digested & absorbed. They are neutralized by phytase and other enzymes when the seeds etc are soaked for a time before cooking.

jaz wrote:I really recommend the "Life-changing crackers", http://www.mynewroots.org/site/2014/07/the-life-changing-crackers/

If you make them, do not skip the "leave on counter" step (ie soaking), and I would suggest overnight is better than just a couple of hours. All seeds, nuts, bean, legumes etc contain phytic acid and other anti-nutrients, which prevent minerals from being digested & absorbed. They are neutralized by phytase and other enzymes when the seeds etc are soaked for a time before cooking.

Thanks, looks interesting. Tried the "life changing bread" on the same site but wasn't for me. If you take children and you are feeding them psyllium you might need extra toilet paper.....

Thanks, looks interesting. Tried the "life changing bread" on the same site but wasn't for me. If you take children and you are feeding them psyllium you might need extra toilet paper.....

Yeah, I usually reduce the amount of psyllium. Haven't had an adverse reaction so far. But I generally add chia seeds to breakfast muesli to promote regularity, with good effect...

jaz wrote:I really recommend the "Life-changing crackers", http://www.mynewroots.org/site/2014/07/the-life-changing-crackers/

If you make them, do not skip the "leave on counter" step (ie soaking), and I would suggest overnight is better than just a couple of hours. All seeds, nuts, bean, legumes etc contain phytic acid and other anti-nutrients, which prevent minerals from being digested & absorbed. They are neutralized by phytase and other enzymes when the seeds etc are soaked for a time before cooking.

Actually my training says that what I have emphasized in bold is the most important part; practice also tells me that adding lime to the soaking water is a very good idea Some of us are more susceptible to the effects of Phytic acid than others.

Moondog55 wrote:Actually my training says that what I have emphasized in bold is the most important part; practice also tells me that adding lime to the soaking water is a very good idea Some of us are more susceptible to the effects of Phytic acid than others.

Lime (alkaline) is good for soaking some things (eg corn) but not others. Most things work best with an acidic medium, but ideal pH, temperature, time and additives (eg salt, acids, lime or lactobacteria) all vary, depending on what we're soaking.
http://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/living-with-phytic-acid/
http://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/putting-the-polish-on-those-humble-beans/

As one example, oats have very little phytase, the enzyme that neutralizes phytic acid. So soaking oats by themselves, even for several days, does bugger all. But you can add a little (preferrably freshly ground) rye or wheat flour, which have a lot of phytase, and that will neutralize most of the phytates overnight.