camp meals

Band-Aid Wafer Cookies

Three shelf-stable parts assembled at camp. A Halloween dessert that survives a pack.

calories
150
weight
1.6 oz
cal / oz
94
protein
1 g
serves
5, scales
prep
10 min
cook
0 min
total time
10 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
  • Snack
  • No cook
  • Car camping
  • Backpacking
  • Basecamp
  • Day hike
  • Vegetarian
  • Nut free
  • Eat in the bag
  • Grab and go
  • Shelf stable
  • Dump and stir

Ingredients

Crisp vanilla wafer cookies 15 the flat rectangular kind, not the round pudding wafers
White icing 1/4 cup a squeeze tube or piping pouch, not a tub
Red jelly or jam 2 tbsp single-serve packets from a diner work
Toothpicks 2 or 3

Method

  1. Lay the cookies out on a lid, a cutting board, or the flat side of a stuff sack.
  2. Squeeze a small white square of icing into the middle of each cookie. Keep it inside the edges or it will smear on the way to your mouth.
  3. Dip a toothpick in the jelly and press a red dot into the center of each white square.
  4. Eat them the same session. They do not travel once assembled.

This is a kitchen craft project moved outdoors with two changes. The original shaves the cookie corners round with a zester, which is a fussy indoor step, so it is gone. And tub frosting scooped into a piping bag means carrying a spoon and a bag you have to clean, so a squeeze tube does the same job with nothing to wash.

The rest works on the trail because all three parts are already shelf-stable. Wafers, icing, and jam sit at ambient temperature for months. The only real constraint is crushing: assemble at camp, never at home, and keep the cookies in something with walls.

Packing

Cookies ride in a rigid container or they arrive as crumbs. Icing tube and jelly packets go in a separate zip bag so a burst does not reach the cookies. Skip the tub icing and the grater from the kitchen version: a squeeze tube needs no spoon and nobody is shaving cookie corners in camp.

Variations

  • Red gel icing instead of jam. Less realistic, but it does not leak.
  • Graham cracker halves in place of wafers if that is what the store had.
  • Frosting pen and a squeeze bottle of jam if you are doing this with a group and want fewer hands in the food.

https://domesticsuperhero.com/bloody-band-aid-cookies-halloween-treat