Dutch Oven Peach Cornbread Upside-Down Cakes
Canned peaches and brown sugar caramelize under a sweet cornbread batter in one pot of coals.
- calories
- 330
- weight
- 3.2 oz
- cal / oz
- 103
- protein
- 5 g
- serves
- 7, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 30 min
- total time
- 45 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
- Breakfast
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Vegetarian
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Yellow cornmeal | 1/2 cup | |
|---|---|---|
| All-purpose flour | 1/4 cup | |
| Baking powder | 1 tsp | |
| Salt | 1/8 tsp | |
| Granulated sugar | 2 tbsp | |
| Powdered whole milk | 2 tbsp | reconstitutes with 1/4 cup water |
| Powdered egg | 1 tbsp | stands in for 1 large egg |
| Butter | 5 1/2 tbsp | 3 1/2 for the pan, 2 for the batter |
| Light brown sugar | 7 tbsp, packed | |
| Canned peach slices | 14 slices | drained; keep the syrup |
| Honey | 1 tbsp | |
| Vanilla extract | 1/2 tsp | carried in a dropper bottle |
Method
- Build a fire down to coals well before you want dessert. You need about 20 briquette-sized coals or an equal bed of hardwood embers.
- Melt 3 1/2 tbsp butter in the bottom of a 10-inch dutch oven over a few coals. Swirl it up the sides.
- Pull the oven off the heat. Scatter the brown sugar evenly over the butter and lay the peach slices on top in a single layer, flat side down.
- In a bag or bowl, stir 60 ml of cold water into the powdered milk and powdered egg until smooth. Add the honey, vanilla, and the remaining 2 tbsp butter, softened.
- Add the premixed cornmeal, flour, baking powder, salt, and granulated sugar. Stir until just combined. Lumps are fine; overmixing makes it tough.
- Spoon the batter over the peaches and spread it to the edges without disturbing the fruit.
- Lid on. Put about 7 coals underneath and 14 on the lid. Bake 25 to 30 minutes, rotating oven and lid a quarter turn every 10 minutes.
- Check with a stick or knife in the center. When it comes out clean, pull all coals off and let it sit 5 minutes.
- Run a knife around the edge and invert onto a plate or a sheet of foil. Scrape any sugar left in the pot back over the top.
This is a home oven recipe pushed into a dutch oven, which is where it wants to live anyway. Butter and brown sugar in the bottom of the pot melt into a caramel that the peaches sit in, and the whole thing turns over at the end so the fruit is on top. Cornmeal is the reason it works over coals: it bakes into a coarse, sturdy crumb that tolerates uneven bottom heat better than a fine flour cake would.
The fridge ingredients are gone. Whole milk powder and powdered egg replace the milk and the egg, and both go into the dry premix at home so camp is one bag plus water. Butter stays, because nothing else browns sugar the same way; keep it in the cooler or use it the first two days out. Coal placement matters more than time here. Twice as many on the lid as underneath, or the bottom scorches before the batter sets.
Packing
Combine cornmeal, flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, milk powder, and egg powder in one bag at home. Butter, honey, and the peach can ride separately. The drained syrup is worth keeping in a bottle for coffee or oatmeal.
Variations
- Thin a spoonful of jam with a little peach syrup and drizzle it over the turned-out cake.
- Canned pineapple rings work the same way and need no adjustment.
- Chopped fresh basil on top sounds wrong and is not.
https://www.lodgecastiron.com/blogs/recipe/upside-down-peach-cornbread-cakes