Dutch Oven Chocolate Chunk Cookie
One giant skillet cookie baked over coals. Pulled early so the middle stays spoonable.
- calories
- 610
- weight
- 4.4 oz
- cal / oz
- 139
- protein
- 7 g
- serves
- 8, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 25 min
- total time
- 35 min
- water
- 60 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
- Canoe / raft
- Vegetarian
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| All-purpose flour | 2 cups | |
|---|---|---|
| Baking soda | 1 tsp | |
| Salt | 1 tsp | |
| Dark brown sugar | 3/4 cup | packed |
| Granulated sugar | 3/4 cup | |
| Powdered whole egg | 5 tbsp | equals 2 eggs, rehydrated at camp |
| Refined coconut oil or shortening | 3/4 cup | stands in for the butter, no cooler needed |
| Semisweet chocolate chips | 1 1/2 cups | chips hold their shape better than a chopped bar in a hot oven |
| Vanilla extract | 1 tsp | a small dropper bottle |
| Cold water | 60 ml | for the egg powder |
Method
- Build a fire and let it burn down. You want coals, not flame. Twenty or so briquettes if you brought them.
- Melt the coconut oil in the dutch oven over low heat, then pull it off the coals and stir in both sugars until the mix looks wet and grainy.
- Whisk the egg powder into 60 ml of cold water in a cup until there are no lumps. Stir it and the vanilla into the warm sugar mixture.
- Add the dry bag a third at a time, stirring after each. Stop when the flour disappears. Fold in the chocolate and press the dough flat across the bottom.
- Lid on. Put about a third of the coals underneath and the rest on the lid, so the heat comes mostly from above.
- Bake 25 minutes. Check at 20. The edges should be set and browning and the center should still look underdone.
- Take the lid off and let it sit ten minutes before anyone digs in. It firms up as it cools.
- Eat straight from the pot with spoons.
The original is a home recipe with a stick of butter and two cold eggs in it. Neither survives a cooler-free weekend, so the butter becomes coconut oil and the eggs become egg powder rehydrated in the pot. Coconut oil is nearly all fat where butter is about 15 percent water, so the dough runs a little richer and spreads a little less. That is fine here.
Heat placement is the whole game. Most of the coals go on the lid, because a dutch oven sitting in a bed of embers scorches the bottom long before the middle sets. Pull it while the center still looks wet. Carryover heat in that much cast iron will finish the job while you argue about who gets the edges.
Packing
Flour, baking soda, salt, both sugars, and the egg powder go in one bag at home, whisked together. Chocolate rides in its own bag or it melts into the flour on a warm drive. Oil in a screw-top jar, vanilla in a dropper bottle.
Variations
- Add 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans if nobody in camp has a nut allergy.
- Swap in dairy-free chocolate chips and the whole thing works for a dairy-free crowd.
- A line of instant espresso powder in the dry mix makes the chocolate read darker.
https://www.lodgecastiron.com/blogs/recipe/warm-chocolate-chunk-cookie