Banana Strawberry Oatmeal Bars
Muffin batter baked flat in a foil pan, cut into bars that survive three days in a pack.
- calories
- 185
- weight
- 2.2 oz
- cal / oz
- 84
- protein
- 4 g
- serves
- 12, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 25 min
- total time
- 35 min
- water
- 120 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
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Backpacking
- Day hike
- Vegetarian
- Nut free
- Foil packet
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Whole wheat pastry flour | 1 cup | |
|---|---|---|
| Brown sugar | 3/4 cup | |
| Baking powder | 1 tsp | |
| Baking soda | 1/2 tsp | |
| Old fashioned oats | 1 cup | |
| Powdered whole milk or milk powder | 1/3 cup | stands in for the 6 oz yogurt; no cooler needed |
| Water | 1/2 cup | to rehydrate the milk powder |
| Powdered egg | 1 egg equivalent | or one fresh egg if you are car camping day one |
| Canola oil | 1/4 cup | |
| Banana chips | 1 cup | soaked; replaces 1 cup mashed ripe banana |
| Freeze-dried strawberries | 1/2 cup | crushed, folded in dry |
| Lemon juice or citric acid | 1/2 tsp | restores the tang the yogurt used to bring |
Method
- At home, mix flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, oats, milk powder, and powdered egg into one bag. Crushed strawberries go in a second bag. Banana chips in a third.
- In camp, cover the banana chips with hot water and let them sit ten minutes, then mash them in the pot. They will not look like fresh banana. That is fine.
- Add 1/2 cup water, the oil, and the lemon juice to the mashed banana. Stir in the dry bag until it is just wet. Stop stirring the moment there are no dry patches.
- Fold in the strawberry powder and chunks last.
- Spread into a greased foil pan, roughly 3/4 inch deep. Deeper than that and the middle stays raw.
- Bake in a dutch oven at about 400°F: eight coals under, sixteen on the lid. Twenty to twenty-five minutes. Rotate the lid a quarter turn halfway.
- Done when a twig pushed into the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan, then cut twelve bars.
This started as a muffin recipe with yogurt and fresh fruit in it, which is two problems on a trip. Milk powder plus a little lemon juice covers what the yogurt was doing: liquid, a bit of protein, and enough acid to wake up the baking soda. Soaked banana chips replace the mashed ripe banana, and freeze-dried strawberries go in dry so they do not water down the batter.
Bars instead of muffins, because a flat foil pan packs better than a muffin tin and bakes more evenly under a dutch oven lid. Keep the batter shallow and take the heat mostly from the top — coals underneath will scorch the bottom long before the center sets. The oats are structural here; they hold the bars together well enough to survive a few days in a lid pocket.
Packing
Three bags: dry mix, strawberries, banana chips. Oil in a leakproof bottle. Carry a disposable foil pan flat against your pack's back panel, or line the dutch oven with foil and skip the pan entirely.
Variations
- No dutch oven: press the batter thin in a foil packet and set it on a grill grate over low coals. Check at twelve minutes.
- Swap the strawberries for dried blueberries or chopped dates.
- Cut the sugar to 1/2 cup if you are eating these as breakfast rather than trail snacks.
https://ohmyveggies.com/banana-strawberry-oatmeal-muffins