Dutch Oven German Pancake
A batter of eggs and flour that climbs the walls of the pot and settles into something between a pancake and a custard.
- calories
- 400
- weight
- 5 oz
- cal / oz
- 80
- protein
- 14 g
- serves
- 5, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 30 min
- total time
- 40 min
- water
- 360 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
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Vegetarian
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| Eggs | 9 | pack in a rigid carton or a wide-mouth bottle, cracked at home and kept cold |
|---|---|---|
| Milk | 1 1/2 cups | or 6 tbsp whole milk powder plus 1 1/2 cups water if you have no cooler |
| All-purpose flour | 1 1/2 cups | |
| Salt | 3/4 tsp | |
| Butter | 6 tbsp | |
| Powdered sugar | for dusting |
Method
- Whisk the milk, eggs, flour, and salt in a bowl or shake them in a sealed bottle until no lumps of flour remain. Let it sit while the coals come up.
- Bring a 12-inch Dutch oven to about 350°F with coals on the lid and underneath, weighted toward the lid.
- Drop the butter in and let it melt across the bottom. Tilt the oven to coat the sides.
- Pour the batter into the hot butter and put the lid on. Bake 25 to 30 minutes without lifting the lid more than once.
- It is done when the edges have climbed the wall and gone brown and the middle no longer sloshes. Dust with powdered sugar, cut in wedges, serve out of the pot.
This is nine eggs held together by a little flour, so it behaves more like a baked custard than a stack of pancakes. The dramatic rise up the sides comes from steam, not leavening, which is why the lid stays on and the oven has to be hot before the batter goes in. Cold pot, no climb.
It needs a cooler, so it is a car-camping and basecamp breakfast rather than a backpacking one. Milk powder replaces the milk cleanly if you would rather not carry a jug, but there is no honest shelf-stable stand-in for the eggs — powdered egg makes something flatter and rubbery. Butter is doing double duty: flavor, and keeping the whole thing from welding itself to cast iron.
Packing
Measure the flour and salt into one bag at home. Milk powder, if you are using it, goes in the same bag. Eggs are the fragile part: crack them into a leakproof bottle before the trip and keep the bottle at the bottom of the cooler.
Variations
- Swap the powdered sugar for a squeeze bottle of syrup or a spoon of jam.
- Scatter dried apples and cinnamon over the batter before the lid goes on.
https://www.boyscouttrail.com/content/recipe/german_pancakes-1715.asp