Blueberry Skillet Muffin Cake
One cast iron pan, muffin batter, streusel on top. Car camping only, but worth the pan.
- calories
- 420
- weight
- 4.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 93
- protein
- 6 g
- serves
- 6, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 25 min
- total time
- 40 min
- water
- 60 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
- Dessert
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Vegetarian
- Nut free
- Real dishes
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| All-purpose flour | 1 cup plus 1 tbsp | batter |
|---|---|---|
| Sugar | 1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp | |
| Baking powder | 1 tsp | |
| Kosher salt | 1/4 tsp | |
| Unsalted butter | 1/4 cup | softened, for the batter |
| Egg | 1 | |
| Vanilla extract | 1/2 tsp | |
| Buttermilk | 1/4 cup | or 1/4 cup water plus 1 tbsp buttermilk powder mixed into the dry blend |
| Blueberries | 1 cup | fresh, or dried and soaked in 60 ml cold water |
| All-purpose flour | 1/4 cup | streusel |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp | streusel |
| Brown sugar | 1 tbsp | streusel |
| Unsalted butter | 2 tbsp | streusel |
| Milk | 2 tsp | or 2 tsp of the blueberry soaking water |
Method
- Build a bed of coals, or light a full chimney of briquettes and let them ash over. You want steady heat, not flame.
- Cut the streusel butter into the flour, sugar, and brown sugar with a fork until it looks like gravel. Stir in the milk. Set it aside.
- In a bowl or a zip bag, work the softened butter into the sugar until it lightens. Beat in the egg and vanilla.
- Add the premixed dry blend and the buttermilk in two rounds, stirring only until the flour disappears. Overmixing makes it tough.
- Toss the blueberries with the extra tablespoon of flour and fold them in. The flour coating keeps them suspended instead of sinking.
- Grease a 10-inch dutch oven or deep skillet, spread the batter flat, and scatter the streusel over the top.
- Lid on. Roughly 10 coals underneath and 16 on top for a 10-inch oven. Bake 20 to 25 minutes, rotating the oven and lid a quarter turn every 8 minutes.
- Done when a twig or knife comes out clean. Pull it off the coals and let it sit 10 minutes before cutting.
This is a muffin recipe that gave up on muffin tins. A dutch oven holds even heat far better than six small cups do over coals, so the batter goes in one layer and comes out as a cake you cut into wedges. Same crumb, fewer things to scrub.
The streusel is the reason to bother. It sits on top and takes the direct lid heat, which browns it and keeps the interior from drying out. Two adaptations from the home version: buttermilk powder plus water removes one cooler item, and dried blueberries soaked in a little water work when fresh ones would turn to mush in a pack. Butter and egg still need a cooler, which is why this stays a car-camping recipe.
Packing
Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in one bag at home, and the streusel dry mix in a second, smaller bag. Butter, egg, and buttermilk ride in the cooler. Dried blueberries are the workaround if the cooler is already full.
Variations
- Swap buttermilk for water plus 1 tbsp buttermilk powder and skip the cooler for that ingredient entirely.
- Dried blueberries soaked 20 minutes in cold water stand in for fresh with no other changes.
- No dutch oven: bake in a covered skillet over low coals, checking at 15 minutes, since the bottom heats faster.
https://www.lodgecastiron.com/blogs/recipe/best-blueberry-muffins