BackCountry Cuisine

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Archives for October 2015

Excellent trail bars!

October 25, 2015 by Dustin Dawson 2 Comments

As I mentioned in the last post, I have been listening to “The First 40 Miles” podcast, I am finally getting to trying out the trail bars they mentioned in episode 2.  I had to put my own spin on it of course, and it turned out amazing.  The only problem is making sure I still have some left before I hit the trail!  Here is the recipe I put together:

1/2 cup crisp rice cereal
2 1/2 cups nuts and seeds
1/2 cup dried cranberries

Mix above ingredients in one bowl

2 Tbls butter
2 Tbls almond butter
2 1/2 cups mini marshmallows
1/2 tsp salt

Place all the rest of the ingredients into a sauce pan and heat until all the marshmallows are melted.  Once melted, add the dry ingredients to the sauce pan and mix until all the dry ingredients are well coated (not as easy as it sounds).  The wet ingredients start to harden right away and this gets to be tough work.

Grease the bottom of a 7×11 bake dish and press the mixture into the bottom.  I used parchment paper on top to keep things from sticking to my fingers.  Press it in well, so the bars are as dense as possible.  Wait for them to cool and cut them into bars.  Very easy!

Eat well!

Dustin

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Backpacking Podcast

October 11, 2015 by Dustin Dawson Leave a Comment

A student in my Backcountry Cuisine course just sent me a link to a podcast for new backpackers.  It is called The First 40 Miles.  I have listened to 5 or 6 episodes already and have really enjoyed it.  For someone who has a lot of backpacking experience, you may find that some of the concepts are simplistic, but I got at least 2 new ideas from every episode.  I also appreciate being reminded of what it is like to go backpacking for the first time.  Most importantly to me, they have some excellent meal ideas.  Episode 38 is all about food, and again, I got several good ideas from them.  Go check it out and let me know what you think of it.

Eat well,

Dustin

 

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Peanut Butter Chocolate Lava Cake with the Bobcat Stove system

October 4, 2015 by Dustin Dawson Leave a Comment

DDPhoto-1
It was pretty incredible. We hiked 10 miles up into the three sisters wilderness, set up camp, swam in Husband lake, then made a great meal of Tuna casserole. Did it stop there? No way! Using my ultralight baking setup I cooked up a chocolate cake to have at sunset! Ultralight backpacking has never been better.  You heard me right, baking and ultralight in the same sentence!

I have been baking in the backcountry for over 20 years, but I stopped a few years ago because I went ultralight.  The extra 3 pounds were just not going to fly in the ultralight pack!  Now, Jon over at Flat Cat gear has created a system that works so well, and is so light, I can’t imagine not baking on every trip. My baking kit weighs only 4.6 oz. for my 2-3 person baking setup, or only 2.9 oz for my solo kit.

2015-10-04 15.25.23
2-3 person kit:
3.6 oz Fat Daddio 5in x 2in pan with rim cut off
0.5 oz Flat Cat gear Epicurean Stove (esbit stove)
0.5 oz Felt hat for top of cook pot

You can get this whole kit from Jon for $50. For that price he trims the rim off the pan for you. It is a pain to do it, and he only charges $7.50 for it.

2015-10-04 15.26.21
Solo kit:
2.2 oz Fat Daddio 3 in x 3 in pan with rim cut off
0.5 oz Flat Cat Gear Epicurean Stove (esbit stove)
0.2 oz Felt hat for top of pot

The solo kit is a little cheaper at around $40 from Jon at Flat Cat Gear.

For the simplest of “lava cakes” you can get packaged brownie mix or chocolate cake mix. The recipe below is a gluten free recipe that I came up with.

1/4 cup flour (Bob’s Red Mill gluten free baking mix)
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter powder
5 Tbls cocoa powder
1/4 cup peanut butter powder
2 Tbls powdered egg
1/2 tsp salt

Add all ingredients into a bowl and mix well. Try to break up the clumps of the different powdered ingredients.  I put them through a mesh strainer and that works really well.  To fit the 5″x2″ pan use all of the powdered mix.  For the smaller pot only use 3/4 cup of powder.

In camp use just enough water to barely make it flow.  I put parchment paper at the bottom of the pot to make it much easier to remove.  The paper does not register on my 0.1 g accuracy stove, so that is pretty light and well worth it.  Just be sure to pack out the paper!

I hope you enjoy the baked goods in the backcountry!  Eat well!

Dustin

 

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Backpacking, baking, brownie, carbon felt, chocolate, cooking, hiking, lava cake, peanut butter, recipe, ultralight

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