Blueberry Lemon Skillet Cake
A dutch oven cake built on powdered milk and dried berries. No fridge, no mixer.
- calories
- 390
- weight
- 3.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 111
- protein
- 8 g
- serves
- 8, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 45 min
- total time
- 60 min
- water
- 300 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.
- Dessert
- Breakfast
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Vegetarian
- Nut free
- Real dishes
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| All-purpose flour | 1 1/2 cups | |
|---|---|---|
| Sugar | 1 cup | |
| Baking powder | 2 tsp | |
| Salt | 3/4 tsp | |
| Whole egg powder | 6 tbsp | stands in for 3 eggs |
| Whole milk powder | 1/2 cup | replaces the ricotta |
| Buttermilk powder | 3 tbsp | brings back the tang ricotta gave it |
| Vanilla powder | 1/2 tsp | extract leaks, powder does not |
| Dried lemon peel | 1 tbsp | or the zest of one lemon if you are carrying one |
| Dried blueberries | 1 cup | kept in two piles, 3/4 cup and 1/4 cup |
| Ghee or clarified butter | 1/2 cup | shelf-stable, unlike a stick of butter |
| Water | about 1 1/4 cups |
Method
- Toss the 3/4 cup of blueberries with 3 tbsp of the water and set them aside to swell while you mix. They will pull moisture out of the batter otherwise.
- Build a bed of coals or start 20 briquettes. You want a 10-inch dutch oven at roughly 350 F.
- Melt the ghee in the oven, then pour most of it into a cup and swirl the rest around the walls to grease them.
- Stir flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, egg powder, milk powder, buttermilk powder, and vanilla powder together in a bowl or bag.
- Add the remaining water a splash at a time and stir until the batter is thick and lumpy. Stop early. Overmixing makes it tough.
- Fold in the melted ghee, then the lemon peel, then the soaked berries. Keep the berries whole.
- Scrape it into the oven, level the top, and scatter the dry 1/4 cup of blueberries over it.
- Lid on. Put 7 coals under and 14 on top, or bank the oven at the edge of a fire and rotate it a quarter turn every 10 minutes.
- Bake 40 to 50 minutes. It is done when a twig comes out of the center clean and the edges pull away.
- Pull the coals off the lid and let it sit 20 minutes before cutting. Hot, it falls apart.
The original leans on ricotta, three eggs, and a stick of butter, none of which survive a weekend in a hatchback. Whole milk powder and buttermilk powder together do most of what the ricotta did, which is add fat and a little acid, and the acid is what makes the baking powder work. Egg powder rehydrates fine in a batter this wet. Ghee replaces butter and does not care about temperature.
Soaking the berries first is the part people skip. Dried blueberries are thirsty, and dropped in dry they steal water from the crumb and leave you with a scone. The quarter cup scattered on top stays dry on purpose, so it firms into something closer to candy against the lid heat.
Packing
Premix every dry ingredient, including the powders and lemon peel, into one bag at home. Berries in a second bag so you can split them. Ghee in a screw-top jar. In camp this is one bag, one jar, and water.
Variations
- Swap the blueberries for dried cherries or chopped dried apricots.
- A third cup of cocoa powder in place of a third cup of flour, and skip the lemon.
- No dutch oven: bake it in a foil pan inside a covered pot set on a ring of small stones over low coals.
https://www.lodgecastiron.com/blogs/recipe/blueberry-ricotta-skillet-cake