camp meals

Double Chocolate Skillet Cookie

One pan of chocolate cookie dough baked over coals. No mixer, no eggs, no butter.

calories
390
weight
3.2 oz
cal / oz
122
protein
5 g
serves
6, scales
prep
10 min
cook
20 min
total time
30 min
water
90 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
  • Campfire coals
  • Dutch oven
  • Car camping
  • Basecamp
  • Canoe / raft
  • Vegetarian
  • Nut free
  • One pot
  • Pre-mix at home
  • Shelf stable
  • Basic

Ingredients

All-purpose flour 1 cup
Sugar 1 cup
Cocoa powder 1/3 cup unsweetened
Baking soda 1/2 tsp
Salt 1/4 tsp the source used salted-free butter, so add it back
Powdered whole egg 1 tbsp stands in for 1 large egg
Vegetable oil or ghee 1/2 cup replaces 1/2 cup butter
Vanilla extract 1/2 tsp or a pinch of vanilla powder in the dry mix
Semi-sweet chocolate chips 1 cup

Method

  1. Burn a fire down to coals well before you want dessert. You want steady low heat, not flames.
  2. Dump the dry premix into a lightly oiled 8-inch skillet or small dutch oven. Add the oil, vanilla, and about 90 ml of cold water.
  3. Stir with a spoon until there are no dry pockets. The dough should be thick and hold a spoon track.
  4. Fold in most of the chocolate chips. Press the dough flat and scatter the rest on top.
  5. Cover. Set the pan on a thin bed of coals and shovel more coals onto the lid.
  6. Bake 18 to 22 minutes. Pull it when the center still looks slightly wet; it firms up as it sits.
  7. Let it rest five minutes, then eat straight from the pan with spoons.

Twenty-four separate cookies on two sheet pans is an oven problem. A fire is not an oven, so this bakes as one thick round instead, which forgives uneven coals: the center stays soft while the edge sets against the hot metal, and that is the texture the original was chasing anyway.

The substitutions are the load-bearing part. Butter is fridge food and creaming it needs a mixer, so oil goes in cold and does the same job of coating the flour. Powdered egg plus a little water replaces the fresh egg. Because unsalted butter is gone, salt gets added back on purpose, and cocoa this dark needs it.

Packing

Flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, salt, and egg powder go in one bag at home. Chocolate chips in a second bag so they do not melt into the flour. Oil in a leakproof bottle.

Variations

  • Swap half the chips for chopped dried cherries if you want it less sweet.
  • No dutch oven: bake it in a foil-lined skillet with a foil lid and rotate the pan every few minutes.
  • Skip the egg powder and add another tablespoon of oil. It comes out fudgier and denser.

https://domesticsuperhero.com/double-chocolate-chip-cookies