Gingerbread Skillet Rolls
Molasses-spiced pull-apart rolls baked in a skillet over coals, with a sugar glaze stirred cold.
- calories
- 390
- weight
- 3.8 oz
- cal / oz
- 103
- protein
- 6 g
- serves
- 12, scales
- prep
- 90 min
- cook
- 25 min
- total time
- 115 min
- water
- 240 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
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Real dishes
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| All-purpose flour | 4 1/2 cups | premeasured at home |
|---|---|---|
| Instant yeast | 2 1/2 tsp | instant, not active dry, so it needs no proofing bath |
| Powdered whole milk | 1/3 cup | stands in for the 1 cup fresh milk |
| Powdered whole egg | 1/4 cup | equals 2 eggs |
| Salt | 1 3/4 tsp | |
| Molasses | 1/4 cup | in a screw-top bottle |
| Shortening or ghee | 1/3 cup | for the dough; both hold at ambient temperature |
| Warm water | 1 cup | |
| Brown sugar | 1 cup packed | filling |
| Ground cinnamon | 3 tbsp | filling |
| Ground ginger | 2 tsp | filling |
| Ground cloves | 1/4 tsp | filling |
| Shortening or ghee | 1/4 cup | filling, plus a little to grease the skillet |
| Powdered sugar | 1 cup | icing |
| Powdered whole milk | 2 tbsp | icing |
| Vanilla extract | 1/2 tsp |
Method
- Build a fire early and let it burn down. You want a bed of coals, not flames, and you want it about two hours before you plan to eat.
- Stir the milk powder into 1 cup of warm water in the pot. Boil water separately only if you need to warm it; the mix should feel like bathwater, not hot. Add the molasses and the yeast.
- Add the dry bag of flour, egg powder, salt, and yeast to the pot along with the 1/3 cup shortening. Mix with a spoon until it clumps, then turn it out onto a clean cutting board and knead ten minutes until it stops sticking to your hands.
- Grease the bowl, drop the dough in, cover it, and set it near the fire but not in it. An hour, or until it has roughly doubled. Cold mornings take longer.
- Mash the brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves into the 1/4 cup shortening. Roll or press the dough into a rough rectangle about 1/4 inch thick and spread the filling to the edges.
- Roll it up the long way, cut into 12 rounds with a knife or a length of dental floss, and set them cut side up in a greased 12-inch skillet. Cover and rest 20 minutes.
- Set the skillet on a ring of coals and put a lid on with more coals piled on top: roughly 8 coals under, 16 above, for a 12-inch pan. Bake 20 to 25 minutes, rotating the skillet a quarter turn every 5 minutes so one side does not scorch.
- Stir the powdered sugar, milk powder, vanilla, and about 2 tbsp of water into a thick glaze. Pour it over while the rolls are hot. Serve out of the skillet.
This is a home kitchen recipe dragged outside, and most of the work was getting the fridge out of it. Fresh milk, eggs, and butter all became powders and shortening. Powdered egg and milk rehydrate fine inside a dough, where nothing has to look like an egg. Shortening or ghee stands in for butter because both sit in a bear canister for a week without turning. The white chocolate in the original icing is gone; melting chocolate over a fire is a way to burn chocolate.
The molasses is not just color. It is acidic and it holds water, so the crumb stays soft in dry mountain air longer than a plain sweet dough would. Coal placement is the part people get wrong: heat from below cooks the bottoms fast and leaves the tops raw, so weight the coals two to one on the lid and keep turning the skillet.
Packing
Two bags. Dry bag: flour, yeast, milk powder, egg powder, salt. Filling bag: brown sugar and the three spices, premixed. Molasses, shortening, powdered sugar, and vanilla ride in their own containers. Label the dry bag or you will glaze the dough.
Variations
- No molasses on hand: 1/4 cup brown sugar plus a splash of water gets you the color but not the bite.
- Skip the icing and eat them plain with coffee. They are sweet enough.
- A tablespoon of powdered buttermilk in the dough sharpens the spice.
https://www.lodgecastiron.com/blogs/recipe/gingerbread-cinnamon-rolls