No-Bake Banana Pudding for Camp
Instant pudding, powdered milk, and banana chips layered with graham crackers in a bag.
- calories
- 520
- weight
- 3.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 149
- protein
- 9 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 0 min
- total time
- 5 min
- water
- 300 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
- No cook
- Cold soak
- Backpacking
- Car camping
- Canoe / raft
- Bikepacking
- Vegetarian
- Nut free
- Eat in the bag
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Dump and stir
Ingredients
| Instant vanilla pudding mix | 1 box (3.4 oz) | instant, not cook-and-serve |
|---|---|---|
| Whole milk powder | 1/2 cup | nonfat works but tastes thinner |
| Dried banana chips | 1 cup | the crisp fried kind, not freeze-dried |
| Graham crackers | 6 sheets | broken into pieces |
| Salt | a pinch |
Method
- Break the graham crackers into rough pieces inside their own bag before you start. Crumbs are the point.
- Pour 300 ml of cold water into the bag holding the pudding mix, milk powder, and salt. Press the air out and seal it.
- Knead the bag for about a minute until no dry pockets remain, then let it sit five minutes. It sets cold, without heat.
- Drop in half the banana chips and stir. They soften in the pudding while you eat.
- Spoon out portions and top with graham pieces and the rest of the chips.
Instant pudding is one of the few desserts that works with cold water and no fridge, because the starch sets chemically rather than by chilling. Whole milk powder does the job of the milk the box asks for and adds the fat that makes it read as pudding instead of sweet paste.
Banana chips replace fresh banana, which is a non-starter on trail. They go in soft-side-up early so some of them hydrate and some stay crunchy. Graham crackers go on last for the same reason: once they are in the wet pudding, the clock is running.
Packing
Pudding mix, milk powder, and salt go into one freezer bag at home. Banana chips and graham crackers ride in a second bag so they stay crisp.
Variations
- Chocolate pudding mix and a handful of crushed sandwich cookies instead of graham.
- Freeze-dried strawberries in place of the bananas, added at the same point.
- Skip the water measure and use cold-filtered creek water straight from the bottle.
https://zenandhoney.com/no-bake-summer-desserts