Backcountry Brownie Mix
Cocoa brownie mix premixed at home, baked in a dutch oven or a foil pan over coals.
- calories
- 330
- weight
- 2.6 oz
- cal / oz
- 127
- protein
- 4 g
- serves
- 9, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 30 min
- total time
- 35 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dessert
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Vegetarian
- Nut free
- Foil packet
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| All-purpose flour | 1 cup | |
|---|---|---|
| Sugar | 1 1/2 cups | |
| Cocoa powder | 3/4 cup | unsweetened |
| Baking powder | 1/2 tsp | |
| Salt | 1/2 tsp | |
| Powdered whole egg | 6 tbsp | equals 3 eggs; skip the cooler |
| Water | 6 tbsp | to rehydrate the egg powder |
| Butter or coconut oil | 2/3 cup | coconut oil holds up in heat, butter tastes better |
| Vanilla extract | 1 tsp | a small dropper bottle |
| Chocolate chips or chopped dried fruit | 1/2 cup | optional add-in |
Method
- At home, whisk the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, salt, and egg powder together and bag it. That is the mix.
- In camp, burn a fire down to coals, or start about 25 briquettes. You want steady heat, not flame.
- Melt the fat in the dutch oven, then pour most of it into the bag or a bowl with the mix. Leave a film in the pot.
- Add the 6 tbsp of water and the vanilla. Stir until it is a thick, glossy batter. Do not beat it, or you get cake.
- Fold in the add-ins and spread the batter in the greased pot or a foil pan.
- Bake with about 8 coals under the oven and 17 on the lid, roughly 30 minutes. The center should still look slightly underdone.
- Pull the lid coals off and let it sit 10 minutes before cutting. It firms up as it cools.
The home version of this is a pantry mix plus eggs and butter. Two of those three do not travel, so the eggs become powdered egg and the butter can become coconut oil, which does not turn to soup in a hot car. Everything else was already shelf-stable, which is why brownies work in camp at all.
Cocoa powder and melted fat, with no melted chocolate and almost no leavening, is what makes these fudgy rather than cakey. The half teaspoon of baking powder is there for lift, not rise. Pull it early: a dutch oven keeps cooking after you take it off the coals, and an overbaked pan of this goes dry and crumbly fast.
Packing
Dry mix in one quart freezer bag, add-ins in a second. Fat and vanilla go in leakproof bottles inside a bag of their own. Carry a square of foil to line the pot if you would rather not scrub it.
Variations
- No dutch oven: spread the batter in a doubled foil pan, tent the top with foil, and set it on a grate over low coals for about 25 minutes.
- Swap the flour for a cup-for-cup gluten-free blend. The texture gets denser, which is not a problem here.
- Instant coffee, a teaspoon in the dry mix, makes the cocoa taste more like chocolate.
https://dontwastethecrumbs.com/brownie-mix-recipe