Dutch Oven Brownie Wedges
One cup of sugar, three quarters cup of cocoa, and barely any flour. Baked over coals in a lid-covered pot.
- calories
- 270
- weight
- 2.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 108
- protein
- 4 g
- serves
- 8, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 30 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
- Basic
Ingredients
| Sugar | 1 cup | |
|---|---|---|
| Cocoa powder | 3/4 cup | unsweetened |
| Salt | 3/4 tsp | |
| All-purpose flour | 1/3 cup | plus a spoonful for dusting the pot |
| Powdered whole egg | 3 tbsp | stands in for 2 eggs |
| Powdered whole milk | 2 tbsp | stands in for 1/4 cup milk |
| Butter | 1/2 cup | ghee keeps longer in a hot car |
| Vanilla extract | 1 tsp | or a scrape of vanilla sugar in the premix |
| Cold water | 1/2 cup |
Method
- Build a fire down to coals, or light 20 briquettes. You want steady heat, not flames.
- Melt the butter in the dutch oven over a few coals, then pour it into a cup and set it aside. Wipe the pot and dust the inside with flour.
- In a bag or bowl, stir the sugar, cocoa, salt, egg powder, and milk powder together dry.
- Add the melted butter, the water, and the vanilla. Stir until it is smooth and glossy with no dry pockets.
- Fold in the flour. Stop as soon as it disappears.
- Scrape the batter into the pot and level it. Put the lid on.
- Set the pot on 6 to 8 coals and put 14 to 16 on the lid. Bake about 30 minutes. The center should be set but still soft.
- Pull the coals off the lid, wait 10 minutes, then cut it into 8 wedges in the pot.
This is a fudgy brownie, not a cakey one. There is only a third of a cup of flour against three quarters of a cup of cocoa, so almost all the structure comes from fat and egg rather than gluten. That is what lets it survive uneven coal heat: a low-flour batter has less to overwork and less to dry out, and it stays edible whether you pull it at 25 minutes or 35.
The fridge ingredients are the part that changed. Powdered whole egg and powdered whole milk rehydrate in the half cup of cold water and behave close enough to the real thing here, since the batter is a wet slurry either way. Butter is the one thing worth carrying real, because it is most of the calories and the flavor; ghee is the safer choice if the cooler is not coming. Coals on the lid do the browning, coals underneath do the baking, and going heavier on the bottom is how you get a burnt floor.
Packing
Combine sugar, cocoa, salt, egg powder, and milk powder in one zip bag at home. Flour goes in a second small bag so it stays out until the end. Butter travels in a screw-top jar.
Variations
- Chocolate chips or chopped dried cherries stirred in before baking.
- A small foil pan set inside the dutch oven on three pebbles makes cleanup much easier.
- Halve everything and bake in a 10-inch skillet with a foil lid for about 20 minutes.
https://www.lodgecastiron.com/blogs/recipe/brownie-wedges