Dutch Oven Raspberry Scones
Cut the fat in at home, add water at camp, bake on coals until the edges crisp.
- calories
- 330
- weight
- 2.6 oz
- cal / oz
- 127
- protein
- 5 g
- serves
- 8, scales
- prep
- 20 min
- cook
- 25 min
- total time
- 45 min
- water
- 120 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
- Dessert
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Vegetarian
- Nut free
- Real dishes
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| All-purpose flour | 2 cups | |
|---|---|---|
| Sugar | 1/4 cup | |
| Baking powder | 2 1/2 tsp | |
| Salt | 1/2 tsp | |
| Butter-flavored shortening | 6 tbsp | sticks keep for months without a cooler |
| Whole milk powder | 1/4 cup | |
| Powdered egg | 2 tbsp | equal to one large egg |
| Vanilla extract | 1 tsp | a small dropper bottle is enough for several trips |
| Freeze-dried raspberries | 1/2 cup | |
| Dried apricots | 1/3 cup | chopped small at home |
| Water | about 1/2 cup | |
| Coarse sugar | 1 tbsp | for the tops |
Method
- At home, cut the shortening into the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt until the pieces are pea sized. Add the milk powder and egg powder, then bag it.
- At camp, build a fire and let it burn down. You want a bed of coals, not flame.
- Pour about 1/2 cup of cold water and the vanilla into the bag of mix. Stir, then work it with your hands until it just holds together. Stop there.
- Press the dough flat on a sheet of parchment, scatter the raspberries and apricots over half, fold the other half on top, and press it back into a round about an inch thick. Cut into 8 wedges.
- Line a 10-inch dutch oven with the parchment, set the wedges in with a little space between them, and sprinkle the coarse sugar over the tops.
- Lid on. Put about 8 coals underneath and 16 on the lid. Bake 25 minutes, rotating the oven and the lid a quarter turn every 8 minutes or so.
- They are done when the tops are dry and the bottoms are brown. Pull the bottom coals first if the undersides are darkening fast.
Scones are one of the few baked goods that survive the trip to camp intact, because everything that makes them work happens at home. Cutting cold fat into flour is the fussy part, and once it is done the mix sits in a bag for weeks. At the fire you are adding water and shaping dough, nothing more.
The substitutions matter. Shortening replaces butter because it holds its texture in a hot car, milk and egg powder replace the wet versions, and freeze-dried raspberries replace fresh ones — fresh berries bleed and turn the dough pink and slack, while the dried ones rehydrate from the dough itself and hold their shape. Coals over and under is what gives you crisp edges instead of a pale, steamed biscuit, so keep more heat on the lid than the bottom.
Packing
Flour, sugar, leavener, salt, shortening, and both powders go in one gallon freezer bag at home, cut together and sealed. Fruit rides in its own bag so the berries do not powder into the flour. Parchment, folded, goes in with the dutch oven.
Variations
- Swap the apricots for chopped dried peaches or dates.
- Skip the fruit and add a tablespoon of cinnamon sugar to the dry mix for a plainer breakfast scone.
- No dutch oven: bake them in a covered skillet over very low coals, checking at 15 minutes.
https://www.lodgecastiron.com/blogs/recipe/raspberry-filled-scones