Country Scones for the Pack Lid
Bake them at home, wrap them in foil, and pull them apart on a ridge. Sweet or cheese, pick before you turn the oven on.
- calories
- 310
- weight
- 2.8 oz
- cal / oz
- 111
- protein
- 6 g
- serves
- 8, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 0 min
- total time
- 15 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.
- Snack
- Breakfast
- No cook
- Day hike
- Backpacking
- Car camping
- Bikepacking
- Vegetarian
- Nut free
- Eat in the bag
- Grab and go
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Self-raising flour | 3 1/2 cups | or plain flour plus 5 tsp baking powder |
|---|---|---|
| Baking powder | 1 tsp | on top of the self-raising flour, for lift |
| Unsalted butter | 6 tbsp | cold, cut into cubes |
| Milk | 1 1/4 cups | kitchen ingredient only, none of it goes on the trail |
| Sea salt | a pinch | |
| Golden caster sugar | 1/3 cup | sweet version |
| Sultanas | 3/4 cup | sweet version |
| Vanilla extract | 1 tsp | sweet version |
| Extra mature cheddar | 1 1/4 cups grated | savory version, instead of sugar and sultanas |
| Mustard powder | 1 tsp | savory version |
| Cracked black pepper | 1/2 tsp | savory version |
Method
- At home: heat the oven to 425F. Rub the cold butter into the flour, baking powder, and salt with your fingertips until it looks like coarse sand. Stop before it turns to paste.
- Stir in either the sugar, sultanas, and vanilla, or the cheddar, mustard powder, and pepper. One or the other, not both.
- Add the milk in two goes and bring it together with a knife. The dough should be soft and slightly sticky. Overworking it is what makes a flat, tough scone.
- Pat the dough out about an inch and a half thick. Cut straight down with a floured cutter and do not twist, or the sides seal and the scone rises crooked.
- Bake 12 to 14 minutes until risen and browned on top. Cool completely on a rack before wrapping, or the steam softens the crust.
- On the trail: unwrap and pull apart at the seam. No knife, no stove, no water.
This is home baking that happens to travel well, so nothing about it was adapted for camp — it was adapted for the pack lid. A scone is dense, low in moisture, and structurally rigid, which is why it survives being crushed under a rain shell while a muffin turns to crumbs. The whole recipe happens in your kitchen. On the trail you are only unwrapping foil.
Two things decide whether this works. Cold butter rubbed in coarsely leaves fat pockets that steam apart in the oven and give the crumb something to hold onto. And cutting straight down without twisting leaves the sides open, so the scone lifts evenly and splits clean by hand later. The savory version with cheddar and mustard is the more useful one on hot days — it puts salt and fat back in when a sweet snack would just sit in your stomach.
Packing
Cool fully, then wrap each scone in foil and stack them in the lid of your pack. Foil beats a bag here because it keeps the crust dry instead of sweating it soft. They are good for two days out, three in cold weather. Carry jam or a squeeze of honey separately if you want it, but they eat fine plain.
Variations
- Swap sultanas for chopped dates or dried cranberries.
- Powdered whole milk mixed with water works in place of fresh milk if that is what your kitchen has.
- A tablespoon of oil brushed on before baking gives a harder crust that survives a rough pack better.
https://www.baldhiker.com/simple-recipe-for-scones-sweet-or-savoury-varieties