Butterscotch Frosted Camp Cookie Bars
A dutch oven bar cookie built from shelf-stable pantry parts, with a browned butter glaze mixed in the lid.
- calories
- 420
- weight
- 3.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 120
- protein
- 4 g
- serves
- 10, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 25 min
- total time
- 40 min
- water
- 120 ml boiled
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dessert
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Vegetarian
- Nut free
- Real dishes
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| All-purpose flour | 2 1/2 cups | |
|---|---|---|
| Baking soda | 1 tsp | |
| Baking powder | 1/2 tsp | |
| Salt | 1/2 tsp | |
| Packed brown sugar | 1 1/2 cups | |
| Shortening | 1/2 cup | stick shortening keeps for months without a cooler |
| Powdered whole egg | 1/4 cup plus 1/2 cup water | equals 2 eggs |
| Powdered buttermilk or sour cream powder | 1/2 cup plus 1/2 cup water | stands in for the 8 oz of sour cream |
| Vanilla extract | 1 tsp plus 1 1/2 tsp | carried in a small dropper bottle |
| Butter | 1/2 cup | for the glaze; it browns, so no substitute works |
| Powdered sugar | 3 1/2 cups | |
| Boiling water | 5 tsp, plus more as needed |
Method
- At home, mix flour, soda, baking powder, salt, and the two powders into one bag. Bag the brown sugar separately so it does not clump into the flour.
- In camp, get 12 to 15 coals going, or burn a fire down to a solid bed.
- Cream the brown sugar and shortening in the dutch oven with a spoon until it stops looking grainy. Work it longer than feels necessary.
- Add 1 cup of water and 1 tsp vanilla, stir until the powders dissolve, then fold in the dry mix. The batter will be slack and sticky. Leave it that way.
- Spread it flat in a greased 12-inch dutch oven. Lid on, 8 coals under and 16 on top, 20 to 25 minutes. It is done when the edges pull from the sides.
- Pull it off the coals and let it cool completely. Warm bars tear under a spreader.
- Melt the butter in a small pot over low heat and keep stirring until it turns amber and smells like toffee. Take it off before it goes dark.
- Stir in the powdered sugar, 5 tsp boiling water, and the remaining vanilla. Add water a teaspoon at a time until it spreads. Glaze the slab and cut it into ten bars.
The original is a drop cookie made with two eggs and a tub of sour cream, which is three refrigerated ingredients and forty small cookies you have to bake in batches. Neither fits a camp kitchen. Baking it as one slab in a dutch oven takes one round of coals instead of four, and the powdered egg and powdered buttermilk carry the same job without a cooler.
Brown sugar and shortening are doing most of the structural work, so cream them properly. Skip that and the batter bakes dense instead of cakey. The glaze is where the flavor sits: butter cooked until the milk solids toast is the whole point, and it sets hard within a few minutes, so mix it only once the slab is cool and spread fast.
Packing
Dry mix in one gallon bag, brown sugar in another, powdered sugar in a third. Shortening and butter go in screw-top jars. Vanilla in a dropper bottle so it does not leak into your food bag.
Variations
- Butterscotch chips folded into the batter double down on the flavor and skip the glaze entirely.
- No dutch oven: bake the same batter in a foil pan inside a covered grill over indirect heat.
- Cut the recipe in half for a 10-inch oven and drop the coals to 6 under, 12 on top.
https://www.tasteandtellblog.com/frosted-butterscotch-cookies