Camp Chocolate Gateaux
Dark chocolate cakes baked in a dutch oven, with a raspberry sauce built from freeze-dried berries.
- calories
- 720
- weight
- 5.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 131
- protein
- 8 g
- serves
- 3, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 25 min
- total time
- 40 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.
- Dessert
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Vegetarian
- Nut free
- Real dishes
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Dark chocolate, 60% cocoa | 4 oz | chopped at home, carried in a bag |
|---|---|---|
| Ghee or clarified butter | 1/2 cup | does not need a cooler |
| Sugar | 1/2 cup | |
| Whole egg powder | 1/3 cup | stands in for 2 eggs and 2 yolks |
| All-purpose flour | 1/4 cup | |
| Salt | 1/4 tsp | |
| Vanilla extract | 2 tsp | 1 tsp for the cakes, 1 tsp for the frosting |
| Powdered sugar | 2 cups | for the frosting |
| Powdered whole milk | 2 tbsp | reconstitutes into the frosting |
| Freeze-dried raspberries | 1 cup | half for sauce, half crushed for garnish |
| Sugar for the sauce | 2 tbsp | |
| Citric acid or lemon powder | 1/2 tsp | replaces 1 tsp lemon juice |
| Water | 120 ml total | for egg powder, frosting, and sauce |
Method
- Build a small bed of coals or start 20 briquettes. You want steady low heat, not flame.
- Set the dutch oven off the coals. Melt 1/2 cup ghee with the chopped chocolate, stirring until smooth. Scrape it into a bowl and let it cool while you mix the rest.
- Whisk the egg powder with 6 tbsp water until it is smooth and has no dry lumps. Stir in the sugar and 1 tsp vanilla.
- Fold the egg mixture into the cooled chocolate, then fold in the flour and salt. Stop as soon as the flour disappears.
- Grease the dutch oven or three foil cups. Pour the batter in no more than an inch deep.
- Bake with about 8 coals under and 14 on the lid, roughly 20 to 25 minutes. The edges set first and the center should still be soft. Rotate the lid a quarter turn halfway through.
- For the sauce, crush 1/2 cup freeze-dried raspberries to powder, stir in 2 tbsp sugar, the citric acid, and 3 tbsp water. Let it sit five minutes to thicken.
- For the frosting, stir the milk powder into 2 tbsp water, then beat in the powdered sugar and 1 tsp vanilla a little at a time until it holds a shape. Add water by the teaspoon if it seizes up.
- Frost the cakes once they are cool enough to touch, spoon the sauce over, and scatter the remaining crushed raspberries.
Almost nothing in the original version survives a weekend without a fridge, so the substitutions do the real work. Ghee replaces butter because it keeps at ambient temperature. Whole egg powder replaces four eggs’ worth of structure, and it wants to be hydrated on its own before it meets anything else or you get dry pockets in the crumb. Freeze-dried raspberries replace fresh ones and are actually the better ingredient here: crushed to powder with sugar and a little acid, they make a sauce with more concentrated flavor than fresh berries would.
The batter is short on flour on purpose. That is what keeps the center soft and forgiving, which matters when your oven is a pile of coals and you cannot see inside it. Pull it while the middle still moves. Overcooked, it turns into a dense brick that no amount of frosting fixes.
Packing
Chocolate, sugar, egg powder, flour, and salt go in one bag. Powdered sugar and milk powder in another. Ghee in a screw-top jar, vanilla in a dropper bottle, raspberries in a rigid container so they do not become dust in your pack.
Variations
- Skip the frosting entirely and eat the cakes warm with just the sauce. It is one fewer bowl and half the sugar.
- Freeze-dried strawberries work the same way and are usually cheaper.
- No dutch oven: bake the batter in a foil packet on a grill grate over low coals, checking at 15 minutes.
https://www.lodgecastiron.com/blogs/recipe/mini-chocolate-gateaux