camp meals

Banana Oat Skillet Bread

Muffin batter without the muffin tin, cooked flat in a pan over coals.

calories
390
weight
3.8 oz
cal / oz
103
protein
9 g
serves
6, scales
prep
10 min
cook
25 min
total time
35 min
water
180 ml cold
cost
$

Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.

  • Breakfast
  • Snack
  • Campfire coals
  • Grill grate
  • Dutch oven
  • Car camping
  • Basecamp
  • Canoe / raft
  • Vegetarian
  • One pot
  • Pre-mix at home
  • Shelf stable
  • Actual cooking

Ingredients

Whole wheat flour 1 1/2 cups
Old fashioned rolled oats 1 cup
Sugar 1/3 cup
Baking powder 1 1/2 tsp
Baking soda 1/2 tsp
Cinnamon 1 tsp
Nutmeg a pinch
Kosher salt 1/2 tsp
Powdered whole eggs 3 tbsp equals 2 eggs, rehydrated with 5 tbsp water
Powdered Greek yogurt or full-fat milk powder 1/4 cup stands in for the fresh yogurt
Banana chips 1 cup the freeze-dried kind, not the fried sweetened ones
Pecans and almonds, chopped 3/4 cup
Olive oil 1/3 cup

Method

  1. Crush the banana chips in the bag until they are coarse crumbs. Add 1/2 cup water and let them sit ten minutes. They should go soft and sticky.
  2. Stir the egg and yogurt powders into the banana with another 1/3 cup water and the oil. Mix until there are no dry lumps.
  3. Dump in the dry premix and half the nuts. Stir just until the flour disappears. Overworking whole wheat makes it tough.
  4. Oil a 10-inch skillet or a small dutch oven, spread the batter flat, and scatter the rest of the nuts on top.
  5. Cover and set on a grill grate over low coals, or bury a dutch oven with a few coals on the lid. Aim for gentle heat, not flame.
  6. Cook 20 to 25 minutes. It is done when a twig comes out clean and the edges pull from the pan. Cut in six wedges.

This started as a muffin recipe and lost the oven. There is no fridge on a trip, so the bananas come as chips rehydrated back into mush, the eggs and the Greek yogurt come as powder, and the whole thing cooks flat in one pan instead of twelve paper cups. The chemistry is unchanged: acid-free batter, baking powder and soda doing the lift, oil keeping whole wheat from setting up like a brick.

Low heat is the only real skill here. Whole grain batter over open flame burns on the bottom before the middle sets, so keep the coals thin and the lid on so heat comes from above too. The nuts on top toast while it bakes, which is worth more than mixing them all in.

Packing

Flour, oats, sugar, leaveners, spices, salt, and the powdered egg and yogurt go in one bag at home. Nuts and banana chips in a second bag so they stay crisp. Oil in a leakproof bottle.

Variations

  • Trade the sugar for the same volume of brown sugar or maple sugar.
  • Leave the nuts out entirely and add another 1/2 cup of banana chips.
  • Cook it as thin pancakes on a hot pan if you have no lid.

https://www.bowlofdelicious.com/whole-wheat-banana-oat-and-toasted-nut-muffins-100-whole-grain