Fudge Brownie Bars, Camp Version
Baking chocolate, sugar, and walnuts in a foil pan over coals. Dense enough to survive day three.
- calories
- 520
- weight
- 3.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 149
- protein
- 6 g
- serves
- 12, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 45 min
- total time
- 60 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dessert
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Vegetarian
- Foil packet
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Unsweetened baking chocolate | 8 oz | bars, not chips |
|---|---|---|
| Butter | 1 cup | keeps a week out of the cooler in cool weather |
| Sugar | 3 cups | |
| Powdered whole egg | 1/2 cup plus 3/4 cup water | equals 5 eggs; or carry 5 real eggs in a case |
| All-purpose flour | 1 1/2 cups | |
| Walnuts | 2 cups | chopped at home |
| Vanilla extract | 1 tbsp | |
| Salt | 1/2 tsp |
Method
- Build a fire and let it burn down to coals. You want steady heat, not flame.
- Line a 12-inch dutch oven with foil, or use a disposable foil pan set on a trivet inside it.
- Melt the butter and chocolate together in the oven over a few coals, stirring constantly. Pull it off the heat the moment it goes smooth or the chocolate seizes. Scrape it into a bowl and wipe the oven out.
- Whisk the egg powder into the water until no lumps remain, then beat in the sugar, vanilla, and salt for a full two minutes. This is where the shiny top comes from.
- Stir in the chocolate mixture, then fold in the flour and walnuts. Stop as soon as the flour disappears.
- Spread it in the lined oven. Bake with about 10 coals underneath and 18 on the lid, roughly 350F, for 35 to 45 minutes. Rotate the oven and the lid a quarter turn every 10 minutes.
- Pull it when a knife comes out with wet crumbs, not batter. Let it cool with the lid off for 20 minutes before cutting.
The original is an oven recipe with a cooked cream frosting, which is a nonstarter in camp. The frosting is gone here. The brownie itself does not need it, and a pan of ganache in a cooler is a mess waiting to happen. Real eggs are swapped for powdered egg so nothing has to stay cold on the drive in.
The high sugar-to-flour ratio is what makes these fudgy rather than cakey, and it also makes them forgiving over uneven coal heat: there is not enough flour to go tough if you overbake by five minutes. Coals on the lid do most of the work. Coals underneath will scorch the bottom if you get greedy, so keep the ratio lopsided and rotate often.
Packing
Combine flour, sugar, salt, and egg powder in one bag at home. Walnuts in a second bag, chocolate and butter in the cooler. Vanilla goes in a small dropper bottle.
Variations
- Skip the walnuts and add a cup of chocolate chips stirred in after the batter cools slightly.
- 1:1 gluten-free flour works straight across, though the bars come out softer.
- No dutch oven: bake in a covered foil pan on a grill grate set high over the coals, checking at 30 minutes.
https://mealswithmaria.site/baking-chocolate-brownie-recipe