Delicious Camping Dessert

Dutch ovens

pretty simple recipe yet perfect for outdoors. Summer is on the air and I'm thinking of borrowing this recipe on our next family camp. :-)

Thanks guys for the valuable ideas guys!

Also planning for an outdoor plan. Can you give us the ingredient and procedure on how to make this? I haven't this recipe, hope

this will be a perfect one to have a new food to bring. :)

can(s) of pie filling or canned fruit in heavy syrup--peaches are perhaps the most common. You want about 28 oz of this more or less but is not exact.

1 box of yellow cake mix

1 can of lemon lime or gingerale soda. Must be sugar/corn syrup sweetened, not diet.

12 inch camping oven, also called a dutch oven--has 3 legs to hold it above the coals and a rimmed lid to hold the coals on top.

Charcoal, about 30 briquets worth

Light the charcoal and let it burn to an even gray. A chimney starter is ideal for this.

Arrange about 9 briquets to fit under the dutch oven, no coals in the center. Put the dutch oven over the coals. Fine tune the placement of the briquets as needed.

Open the cans of pie filling/fruit and pour in the bottom of the dutch oven. Open the cake mix and sprinkle it evenly over the fruit. Open the can of soda and pour evenly over the cake mix.

Put on the lid and arrange 15 coals around the top. Every 15 minutes, rotate the oven 1/4 turn clockwise and the lid 1/4 counter-clockwise. This evens out hotspots that form easily when cooking with charcoal, especially if you're using lump charcoal or coals from a wood fire.

Bake 30-45 minues. Exact timing depends on weather, altitude, cooking in the sun vs the shade and other  similar uncontrollable factors. With experence you'll learn to add or subtract coals to better match your cooking environment.

Variations

Spice cake mixes are good also and quite multipurpose. You'll often see chocolate cake mixes used with cherry filling and dr. pepper for the soda with the cherries and chocolate cake.

If you're new to Dutch oven cooking, here's a good starting point formula for the number of coals you need.

Take the number of the Dutch oven. This usually corresponds to the diameter. For the bottom heat, subtract three from the oven number. For the top, add three.

Note that that's exactly what Phil did. So, if you're using a larger or smaller oven, just follow the formula and you'll get the same results.

Also, pay attention to his tip about rotating the oven and the lid. Most Dutch oven cooks don't, often to their detriment. It's especially worthwhile with baked goods, but is a valuable proceedure for just about anything cooked that way.

Quote:

Originally Posted by KYHeirloomer  So, if you're using a larger or smaller oven, just follow the formula and you'll get the same results.

A 12 inch dutch oven is very close to the same size as a 9x13 baking dish. This makes it easy to adapt your favorite casseroles and desserts to camp food.

A caveat I'd add to KYH's statement above is that if you put the dump  cake  in a 10" it will take a little longer to cook as you've got a thicker  cobbler  to heat up. Conversely in a 14" it will be spread out more and thinner so cook quicker.

Yeah, I should have mentioned that, Phil. Just thought it was self evident.

It's going smaller, I'd say, that's important for adjustments. Not too many casual Dutch oven cooks have 14s (but dontcha love 'em!). But 10s are almost as common as 12s.

Something else newbies should know is that a "tall" version cooks a particular dish in the same time as a standard. What counts is the volume of the contents, not the volume of the oven---anymore than it does at home.

Now I know, the tip from you both will be very useful when we make such desserts. Thanks for you guys! 

Quote:

Originally Posted by phatch 

can(s) of pie filling or canned fruit in heavy syrup--peaches are perhaps the most common. You want about 28 oz of this more or less but is not exact.

 

1 box of yellow cake mix

 

1 can of lemon lime or gingerale soda. Must be sugar/corn syrup sweetened, not diet.

 

12 inch camping oven, also called a dutch oven--has 3 legs to hold it above the coals and a rimmed lid to hold the coals on top.

 

Charcoal, about 30 briquets worth

 

Light the charcoal and let it burn to an even gray. A chimney starter is ideal for this.

 

Arrange about 9 briquets to fit under the dutch oven, no coals in the center. Put the dutch oven over the coals. Fine tune the placement of the briquets as needed.

 

Open the cans of pie filling/fruit and pour in the bottom of the dutch oven. Open the cake mix and sprinkle it evenly over the fruit. Open the can of soda and pour evenly over the cake mix.

 

Put on the lid and arrange 15 coals around the top. Every 15 minutes, rotate the oven 1/4 turn clockwise and the lid 1/4 counter-clockwise. This evens out hotspots that form easily when cooking with charcoal, especially if you're using lump charcoal or coals from a wood fire.

 

Bake 30-45 minues. Exact timing depends on weather, altitude, cooking in the sun vs the shade and other  similar uncontrollable factors. With experence you'll learn to add or subtract coals to better match your cooking environment.

 

Variations

 

Spice cake mixes are good also and quite multipurpose. You'll often see chocolate cake mixes used with cherry filling and dr. pepper for the soda with the cherries and chocolate cake.

This sounds excellent. I wish I went camping more often.

We used to take a box of yellow cake mix, 1 can of pumpkin (I think it was about 15oz), combine and place in dutch oven. Allow to cook on the coals for about an hour and holy cow! We would just spoon some out into a small bowl and eat a little chocolate with it - super awesome camp dessert. It also works well at home as cupcakes.

My family makes almost the exact same kind of cobbler when we used to go on shooting trips in the desert in california, its a great dessert and fairly simple to make.