Grinch Crinkle Cookies, Dutch Oven Version
Green lime crinkle cookies baked over coals, with a candy heart pressed into each one while it is still soft.
- calories
- 195
- weight
- 1.6 oz
- cal / oz
- 122
- protein
- 2 g
- serves
- 12, scales
- prep
- 20 min
- cook
- 14 min
- total time
- 34 min
- water
- 90 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
- Snack
- 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 | premixed at home with the baking powder and salt |
|---|---|---|
| Baking powder | 1 1/2 tsp | |
| Salt | 1/2 tsp | |
| Granulated sugar | 1 cup | |
| Vegetable shortening | 1/2 cup | stands in for butter, no cooler needed |
| Powdered whole egg | 3 tbsp | equals 2 eggs, mixed with 6 tbsp cold water |
| Bottled lime juice | 2 tbsp | |
| Dried lime zest | 2 tsp | dry the zest at home or buy it |
| Vanilla extract | 1 tsp | |
| Green food coloring powder | 1/2 tsp | powder, not gel, so nothing leaks in the bin |
| Powdered sugar | 1/2 cup | for rolling |
| Heart-shaped candies or sprinkles | about 24 |
Method
- Build a fire early and let it burn down. You want a bed of coals, not flame.
- Whisk the powdered egg into 6 tbsp of cold water and let it sit five minutes while you work.
- In a pot, stir the sugar, dried zest, salt, and shortening together until the shortening breaks up and coats everything.
- Add the egg mixture, lime juice, and vanilla. Stir hard until it is smooth.
- Work in the flour and baking powder mix a third at a time, then the color powder. The dough will be sticky and pale green until it is fully mixed.
- Set the covered pot somewhere cold for 30 minutes. A shaded creek bank or a cooler works. Cold dough spreads less.
- Line the Dutch oven with parchment or foil. Roll tablespoon lumps of dough, coat each one heavily in powdered sugar, and space them two inches apart. Bake in batches of six.
- Set the oven on 8 coals underneath and pile 14 on the lid. Bake 12 to 14 minutes. The edges should be set and cracked while the centers still look wet.
- Pull the oven off the coals, wait five minutes, then press a candy heart into the middle of each cookie. Lift them out and repeat with the next batch.
This started as a home kitchen cookie with butter, fresh eggs, and a four-hour chill in the fridge. All three are gone. Shortening replaces the butter because it keeps at ambient temperature and holds its shape better in a hot Dutch oven. Powdered egg replaces the eggs. The long chill drops to thirty minutes in the coldest spot in camp, which is enough, since shortening dough is already stiffer than a butter dough.
The powdered sugar coat is what makes the crinkle. It stays dry on the outside while the cookie rises and splits underneath, so the cracks show white. Roll the balls heavily, not lightly. Coals on the lid do most of the baking here; more heat underneath than that and the bottoms scorch before the centers set.
Packing
Flour, baking powder, and salt in one bag. Sugar, zest, and color powder in a second. Powdered egg and powdered sugar in their own small bags so nothing goes damp. Shortening travels in a screw-top jar. Candies last in a hard container.
Variations
- Skip the coloring entirely and you have a plain lime crinkle cookie that tastes the same.
- Lemon juice and zest work if that is what you have.
- No Dutch oven: press the dough into a greased foil pan, bake it as one slab, and cut bars.
https://zenandhoney.com/grinch-crinkle-cookies