Dutch Oven Banana Bread
Banana bread from a dry mix and a bag of banana chips, baked over coals in a camp oven.
- calories
- 280
- weight
- 2.2 oz
- cal / oz
- 127
- protein
- 4 g
- serves
- 10, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 50 min
- total time
- 65 min
- water
- 180 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
- Shelf stable
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| All-purpose flour | 1 1/2 cups | |
|---|---|---|
| White sugar | 1/2 cup | |
| Dark brown sugar | 3/4 cup | break up any lumps before packing |
| Baking soda | 1 tsp | |
| Salt | 3/4 tsp | |
| Powdered whole egg | 3 tbsp | stands in for 2 eggs |
| Powdered buttermilk | 1 tbsp | stands in for 1/4 cup buttermilk |
| Freeze-dried banana, crushed to powder | 1 cup, loosely packed | or banana chips run through a blender at home |
| Vegetable oil | 1/3 cup | |
| Cold water | about 180 ml | |
| Oil or shortening for the pot | 1 tbsp |
Method
- Build a fire and let it burn down. You want coals, not flame. Start them at least 40 minutes before you plan to bake.
- Grease the inside of a 10-inch dutch oven, bottom and walls.
- In a bowl or a large zip bag, stir the dry mix with 180 ml of cold water and the oil. Mix until no dry flour is left. Do not keep beating it after that.
- Scrape the batter into the pot and put the lid on.
- Set the oven on 8 coals and lay 16 on the lid. That is roughly 350 F in a 10-inch oven.
- Bake 45 to 55 minutes. Rotate the pot a third turn every 15 minutes, and the lid the other way, or one side burns.
- It is done when a twig or knife pushed into the center comes out clean. Pull the coals off the lid and let it sit 10 minutes before cutting.
This started as an oven loaf with fresh bananas, eggs, and buttermilk, none of which survive a weekend in a car. Freeze-dried banana crushed to powder carries the same flavor at a fraction of the weight, and egg and buttermilk powders rehydrate with the water you were adding anyway. The result bakes and tastes close enough that nobody asks.
Heat is the whole game here. Coals on the lid do the browning and coals underneath do the cooking, so a lid stacked too heavy gives you a scorched top over raw batter. Rotate both the pot and the lid on a schedule; a dutch oven sitting still in a fire ring cooks one side twice as fast as the other.
Packing
Combine flour, both sugars, baking soda, salt, egg powder, buttermilk powder, and banana powder in one bag at home. Oil rides in a leakproof bottle. That is two containers and one measured pour of water at camp.
Variations
- Chocolate chips or dried blueberries, 1/2 cup, stirred in at camp.
- No dutch oven: pour the batter into a greased foil pan, tent it with foil, and set it on a grill grate over low coals.
- A teaspoon of cinnamon in the dry mix if the banana powder tastes flat.
https://www.lodgecastiron.com/blogs/recipe/banana-bread