Dutch Oven Blondies
Brown sugar, butter, and chocolate chips baked in a pot over coals. Camp dessert that does not need a fridge.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 4.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 138
- protein
- 6 g
- serves
- 8, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 25 min
- total time
- 35 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.
- Dessert
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Vegetarian
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| All-purpose flour | 2 cups | |
|---|---|---|
| Baking powder | 1 tsp | |
| Baking soda | 1/4 tsp | |
| Salt | 3/4 tsp | |
| Butter | 1 1/4 sticks | 10 tbsp; keeps a day out of the cooler in cool weather |
| Brown sugar | 2 cups | pack it |
| Eggs | 2 | or 2 tbsp powdered egg plus 1/4 cup water |
| Vanilla extract | 2 tsp | |
| Chocolate chips | 3/4 cup | |
| Chopped pecans | 3/4 cup |
Method
- Get a chimney of charcoal going. You want about 25 briquettes total for a 12-inch oven at 350 degrees: 8 underneath, 17 on the lid.
- Melt the butter in the dutch oven over a few coals. Pull it off the heat once it is liquid.
- Stir the brown sugar into the warm butter until it looks like wet sand.
- Beat in the eggs and vanilla. Do this off the heat or you will get scrambled egg in your dessert.
- Add the flour bag a third at a time, stirring after each. Stop when the batter is thick and smooth. Push it flat in the pot.
- Scatter the chips and pecans over the top. Do not stir them in; they will sink far enough on their own.
- Lid on, coals arranged, and leave it alone. Check at 20 minutes with a knife in the center. Give it another 5 to 10 if it comes out wet.
- Rotate the oven a third turn and the lid the other way every 10 minutes so the hot spots move.
- Let it sit off the coals for 10 minutes before cutting or it falls apart.
Blondies are a brownie without the cocoa, which means brown sugar and butter carry the whole thing. That works in a dutch oven because there is no chocolate to scorch against the cast iron, and the batter is thick enough that it will not run into the seam of the lid when the pot sits crooked on uneven coals.
Most of the failure here is heat, not batter. Two thirds of your briquettes go on the lid so the top sets before the bottom burns, and you rotate pot and lid in opposite directions so no one spot cooks twice as long as the rest. The nuts and chips go on top rather than mixed in for the same reason: chips resting on the surface stay chips instead of melting into a scorched layer at the bottom. Powdered egg turns this into a no-cooler recipe if you need it to be one.
Packing
Flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt go in one zip-top bag at home. Chips and pecans in a second. Butter and eggs ride in the cooler; powdered egg makes this a shelf-stable trip food if you have no cooler.
Variations
- Swap the pecans for walnuts or leave the nuts out entirely for a nut-free pot.
- A teaspoon of cinnamon in the flour bag plays well with the brown sugar.
- In a 10-inch oven use about two thirds of everything and keep the coals and timing the same.
https://www.boyscouttrail.com/content/recipe/blonde_brownies-2191.asp