Dutch Oven Pawpaw Pecan Bread
A camp quick bread built from a bag of dry mix, powdered eggs, and rehydrated fruit.
- calories
- 480
- weight
- 3.4 oz
- cal / oz
- 141
- protein
- 7 g
- serves
- 6, scales
- prep
- 20 min
- cook
- 55 min
- total time
- 75 min
- water
- 400 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
- Snack
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Vegetarian
- Real dishes
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| All-purpose flour | 1 cup | |
|---|---|---|
| Sugar | 1 cup | |
| Baking soda | 1 tsp | |
| Salt | 1/2 tsp | |
| Buttermilk powder | 3 tbsp | stands in for 1/4 cup liquid buttermilk |
| Powdered whole egg | 5 tbsp | equals about 2 1/2 eggs |
| Pecans, chopped | 1/2 cup | |
| Dried banana or pawpaw, chopped | 1 cup | pawpaw if you dried some in season, banana otherwise |
| Shortening or coconut oil | 1/2 cup | butter works if you have a cooler |
| Water | about 400 ml |
Method
- Cover the dried fruit with about 180 ml of water in the Dutch oven and leave it 20 minutes. Mash it with a spoon until it is a coarse paste. No need to drain.
- Whisk the egg powder and buttermilk powder into another 220 ml of cold water in a mug or pot until there are no dry lumps left.
- Add the fat, the wet mix, and the whole bag of dry mix to the fruit. Stir until just combined. Lumps are fine, overworking is not.
- Let the batter sit covered for an hour, somewhere warm. This is not optional. The soda needs time against the acid in the buttermilk powder.
- Grease the walls of the oven and smooth the batter flat. Bank about 8 coals under and 16 on the lid for roughly 350°F.
- Bake 50 minutes, rotating the oven and the lid a quarter turn every 15 minutes so it does not scorch on one side.
- Test the center with a twig or skewer. Clean means done. Batter means another 10 minutes.
- Lift the coals off and let it cool in the oven 15 minutes before slicing or it will tear.
The original is a home quick bread with fresh smashed pawpaw, five eggs, and two sticks of butter. None of that rides in a pack. Dried fruit rehydrated in the pot gets you the same wet, dense crumb, powdered egg and buttermilk carry the binding and the acid, and shortening replaces butter without a cooler. The recipe is also cut in half here, because one loaf feeds six and two Dutch ovens is a lot of coals.
The hour of rest before baking does the real work. Baking soda hitting buttermilk acid produces gas immediately, and a batter this heavy needs that reaction to run before it goes near heat, otherwise you get a brick with a burnt bottom. Rotate the oven while it bakes for the same reason you rotate anything over coals: campfire heat is never even.
Packing
Flour, sugar, soda, salt, both powders, and the pecans go in one gallon bag at home. Dried fruit in its own bag so it does not sweat into the mix. Fat in a screw-top jar.
Variations
- Cut the sugar to 3/4 cup if the dried fruit is on the sweet side.
- Walnuts work if pecans are what you don't have.
- Bake it in a foil loaf pan set on three pebbles inside the oven for easier cleanup.
https://realtree.com/timber-2-table-wild-game-recipes/pawpaw-and-pecan-nut-bread-recipe