Dutch Oven Crinkle Cookies
Cocoa dough rolled in powdered sugar, baked in coals. The cracks come from the sugar, not skill.
- calories
- 210
- weight
- 2 oz
- cal / oz
- 105
- protein
- 3 g
- serves
- 12, scales
- prep
- 20 min
- cook
- 15 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
- Nut free
- Real dishes
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| All-purpose flour | 1 cup | |
|---|---|---|
| Dark cocoa powder | 1/4 cup | |
| Baking powder | 2 tsp | |
| Salt | 1/4 tsp | |
| Powdered whole egg | 3 tbsp | stands in for 2 eggs, no cooler needed |
| Water | 1/4 cup | to rehydrate the egg powder |
| Sugar | 1/2 cup | |
| Vegetable oil | 1/4 cup | |
| Vanilla extract | 1/2 tsp | |
| Powdered sugar | 1 cup | for rolling, and yes you need all of it |
Method
- Build a fire and let it burn down. You want coals, not flame.
- Stir the egg powder into 1/4 cup cold water in a cup or bag. Let it sit five minutes until it stops being lumpy.
- In a bag or bowl, whisk the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt together.
- In the pot, beat the rehydrated egg with the sugar, oil, and vanilla until it looks glossy.
- Work the dry mix in until the dough is even. Let it rest 20 minutes in the shade or a cold creek bag. Cold dough spreads less and cracks better.
- Pour the powdered sugar into a shallow bowl or a bag. Roll tablespoon lumps of dough into balls and coat them heavily. Thin sugar means no cracks.
- Line the dutch oven with foil or grease it. Set the balls two inches apart.
- Lid on. Eight coals underneath, sixteen on the lid, for a 12-inch oven. Bake 12 to 15 minutes and rotate the oven and lid a quarter turn every few minutes.
- Pull them when the tops are cracked and the edges are set. They firm up as they cool.
Crinkle cookies are a coals-and-lid recipe more than a baking recipe. The cracks are mechanical, not magic: the dough rises and splits, and the dry powdered sugar coating tears open along the seams. Coat them thinly and you get brown cookies with no pattern, so be heavy-handed with the sugar bowl.
Fresh eggs do not belong in a food bag, so this uses powdered whole egg rehydrated in cold water. It behaves the same here because the eggs are doing structure and moisture, not flavor. The rest of the recipe was already shelf-stable. The rest at step five replaces the hour in a refrigerator; twenty minutes in shade is enough to stiffen the oil so the cookies hold their shape.
Packing
Premix flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt, and sugar in one bag at home. Egg powder in a second bag, powdered sugar in a third. Oil and vanilla ride in small bottles.
Variations
- Flaky salt on the balls before baking, if you want the salt to read.
- Cut the sugar by two tablespoons and add chopped dried cherries to the dry mix.
- No dutch oven: bake them in a foil pan on a grill grate over low coals, checking at eight minutes.
https://www.lodgecastiron.com/blogs/recipe/salted-chocolate-crinkle-cookies