Dutch Oven Cinnamon Rolls
Biscuit dough, brown sugar, and coals. No yeast, no rise, no waiting around.
- calories
- 430
- weight
- 4 oz
- cal / oz
- 108
- protein
- 6 g
- serves
- 8, scales
- prep
- 20 min
- cook
- 25 min
- total time
- 45 min
- water
- 200 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
- Canoe / raft
- Vegetarian
- Nut free
- Real dishes
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| All-purpose flour | 3 cups | bread flour works, it just needs more liquid |
|---|---|---|
| Baking powder | 4 tsp | |
| Salt | 1 1/2 tsp | split between dough and filling |
| Sugar | 1/4 cup | |
| Powdered whole milk | 1/2 cup | reconstituted, replaces the fresh milk and eggs |
| Ghee or vegetable shortening | 1/2 cup | 1/4 cup in the dough, 1/4 cup in the filling |
| Brown sugar | 1 cup | packed |
| Cinnamon | 3 tbsp | |
| Powdered sugar | 1 cup | |
| Vanilla extract | 1/2 tsp | or a shake of vanilla powder |
| Cold water | about 1 cup | for the dough and the glaze |
Method
- Build a fire early and let it burn down. You want coals, not flames, and you want them an hour before you want breakfast.
- Stir the dry dough mix with about 3/4 cup cold water until it holds together. Add water a splash at a time. Sticky is fine, wet is not.
- Knead it ten or fifteen times against the lid of a pot or a clean stuff sack. Press it out into a rough rectangle about half an inch thick.
- Smear the filling ghee over the dough, then scatter the brown sugar and cinnamon across it. Roll the long edge over on itself and cut into eight rounds with a knife or a length of dental floss.
- Grease the dutch oven, set the rounds in with a finger of space between them, and lid it.
- Bake with coals under and on top, weighted toward the lid: roughly 8 coals underneath and 16 on top for a 12 inch oven. Rotate the oven a third turn every ten minutes and the lid the opposite way.
- Check at 20 minutes. Done is dry and springy in the center, not just brown on the edges.
- Mix the powdered sugar, vanilla, and a tablespoon of water into a glaze and pour it over while the rolls are still hot.
The original is a yeast dough that wants a mixer, a warm kitchen, and two hours of rising. None of that is happening at a campsite, so this is a baking powder biscuit dough instead. It goes together in twenty minutes and it is forgiving about temperature, which matters when the ambient is 40 degrees and windy.
The other swaps are about the cooler. Powdered milk and water stand in for fresh milk and eggs, and ghee or shortening replaces butter because both sit at ambient temperature for a week without going off. Most of the heat belongs on the lid. Coals underneath scorch the bottoms long before the middles set.
Packing
Flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, and milk powder go in one zip bag at home. Brown sugar and cinnamon in a second. Powdered sugar and vanilla powder in a third. Ghee travels in a screw-top jar, doubled in a bag.
Variations
- Dried apple or cranberry pressed into the filling before rolling.
- A tablespoon of instant coffee in the glaze if you want it less sweet.
- No dutch oven: bake the rounds in a foil-lined skillet with a foil lid on a grill grate over low coals.
https://www.lodgecastiron.com/blogs/recipe/classic-cinnamon-rolls