Fauxbaker Biscuits
A steamed biscuit baked in a bag over a pot of simmering water. No oven, no oil, no dishes.
- calories
- 520
- weight
- 4 oz
- cal / oz
- 130
- protein
- 8 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 20 min
- total time
- 25 min
- water
- 350 ml boiled
- 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
- Canister stove
- Alcohol / Esbit
- Backpacking
- Basecamp
- Car camping
- Canoe / raft
- Vegetarian
- Eat in the bag
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Biscuit mix | 3/4 cup | the just-add-water kind |
|---|---|---|
| Chocolate cake mix | 1/4 cup | dry, straight from the box |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp | |
| Cinnamon | 1/2 tsp | |
| Warm water | 5 tbsp | added in camp, roughly |
Method
- Coil a strip of foil or thin metal into a loose spiral and set it in the bottom of the pot. Lay the perforated disc on top of it.
- Pour water into the pot until it sits just below the disc. Two or three fingers of water is plenty.
- Add water to the bag of dry mix a spoonful at a time and knead from the outside until it is a thick, sticky dough. Do not make it pourable.
- Push the dough to the bottom, stand the bag open on the disc, and bring the water to a boil with the lid on.
- Once it boils, drop the flame to the lowest setting that keeps it simmering. Twenty minutes, lid on, no peeking. Cold air collapses it.
- Kill the heat and let it sit five more minutes before you open anything. Eat straight from the bag.
This is steam baking, not baking. The dough never touches the pot: it sits in an open bag on a perforated disc above an inch of simmering water, and steam does the work an oven would. That means you need a fraction of the water and a fraction of the fuel a boil-and-drain method would burn, and the pot comes off the stove dry and clean.
Two things decide whether it rises. The dough has to be stiff enough to hold its shape, so add water slowly and stop early. And the lid stays on the whole twenty minutes, because a rush of cold air will flatten a raised batter and it will not come back. The five-minute rest off the heat lets the center finish on residual steam.
Packing
Combine biscuit mix, cake mix, sugar, and cinnamon in one quart freezer bag at home. Carry the spiral and disc nested inside the pot; they weigh almost nothing and take no space.
Variations
- Skip the cake mix and add powdered milk and dried blueberries for a plain morning biscuit.
- A spoonful of instant coffee in the dry mix pairs with the chocolate.
- Double the sugar and call it dessert.
https://trailcooking.com/fauxbaker