Dutch Oven Cranberry Apple Cobbler
Dried apples and cranberries under a shortening biscuit lid, baked in coals.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 5.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 113
- protein
- 7 g
- serves
- 6, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 40 min
- total time
- 55 min
- water
- 700 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
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Dried apple slices | 5 cups | tart rings, not the sweetened chips |
|---|---|---|
| Dried cranberries | 1 cup | |
| Sugar | 3/4 cup | split: 1/2 cup filling, 2 tbsp topping, rest to taste |
| All-purpose flour | 2 cups | 3 tbsp of it goes in the filling |
| Chopped pecans | 1/2 cup | |
| Ground cinnamon | 1 tsp | |
| Ground nutmeg | 1/4 tsp | |
| Dried orange peel | 1 tsp | stands in for fresh zest |
| Salt | 1 tsp | |
| Baking powder | 1 tbsp | |
| Vegetable shortening | 3/4 cup | sticks, not the tub; it keeps in a pack |
| White vinegar | 1 tsp | |
| Water | about 700 ml |
Method
- Burn a fire down to coals well before you want dessert. You need about 20 briquette-equivalents, or a bed of hardwood coals you can shovel.
- Put the dried apples and cranberries in the Dutch oven with 500 ml of water. Set it over coals and simmer 10 minutes until the fruit swells and softens.
- Stir in 1/2 cup sugar, the cinnamon, nutmeg, orange peel, pecans, and 3 tbsp of the flour. It will thicken as it sits.
- In a bag or bowl, combine the remaining flour, baking powder, 2 tbsp sugar, and salt. Cut in the shortening with a fork or your fingers until it looks like gravel.
- Add the vinegar and cold water a splash at a time, maybe 150 ml, until it just holds together. Stop mixing. Overworked dough goes tough.
- Tear the dough into rough pieces and drop them over the fruit. Leave gaps for steam.
- Lid on. Coals underneath, more coals on the lid, about twice as many on top as below. Bake 30 to 35 minutes, rotating oven and lid a quarter turn every ten.
- Done when the topping is dry to a poke and browned. Lift the lid away from you so ash goes nowhere near the food.
The original is a lard-crust pie with three pounds of fresh apples, which is a lot of weight and a food processor you do not have. Dried fruit does the same job: it rehydrates in the pot it bakes in, so the water you add becomes the filling instead of something you drain off. Cranberries stay tart even dried, which is the whole point of putting them in with apples.
Shortening replaces the butter because it does not need a cooler and it still makes a short, crumbly topping. The vinegar is not a flavor, it slows gluten from forming so the dough stays tender after you handle it with cold hands. The three tablespoons of flour stirred into the fruit is what keeps the bottom from turning into syrup.
Packing
Dry topping mix (flour, baking powder, sugar, salt) in one bag. Fruit, spices, pecans, and filling sugar in another. Shortening in its own bag; it will sweat in heat. Vinegar in a small bottle.
Variations
- Swap half the pecans for pepitas if someone in camp cannot do nuts.
- No Dutch oven: cook the filling in a pot and spoon it over crumbled shortbread. Not the same, but it works.
- A splash of whiskey in the filling cooks off and leaves the fruit tasting deeper.
https://www.lodgecastiron.com/blogs/recipe/cranberry-apple-pie