camp meals

Peach Crumble in a Pot

Dried peaches, oats, and butter powder cooked into a hot crumble on one burner.

calories
540
weight
3.8 oz
cal / oz
142
protein
8 g
serves
1, scales
prep
3 min
cook
10 min
total time
13 min
water
300 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.

  • Dessert
  • Breakfast
  • Canister stove
  • Alcohol / Esbit
  • Liquid fuel
  • Backpacking
  • Car camping
  • Basecamp
  • Bikepacking
  • Vegetarian
  • Nut free
  • One pot
  • Pre-mix at home
  • Shelf stable
  • Basic

Ingredients

Dried peaches 3/4 cup chopped small at home so they rehydrate evenly
Rolled oats 1/2 cup old-fashioned, not instant
Butter powder 3 tbsp or 1 tbsp real butter if you are carrying it
Maple sugar 1 tbsp maple syrup in a dropper bottle works too
Cinnamon 1/2 tsp
Salt 1/4 tsp
Vanilla powder 1/4 tsp extract is mostly alcohol and leaks

Method

  1. Put the dried peaches and 300 ml of water in the pot. Bring to a boil, then drop to a simmer for five minutes until the fruit is soft and the water has gone syrupy.
  2. Pull the pot off the heat. Stir in the maple sugar, half the cinnamon, and the salt.
  3. In your mug or a bag, mix the oats with the butter powder, vanilla powder, and the rest of the cinnamon. Add a tablespoon of water and work it with your spoon until it clumps.
  4. Scatter the oat mixture over the peaches. Lid on, off the heat, ten minutes.
  5. Eat it out of the pot. The topping will be soft, not crisp. That is the trade.

The oven version bakes fruit under a butter-and-oat topping until it browns. No oven on trail, so this splits the job: simmer the fruit first, then steam the topping on top of it with the lid on and the burner off. Residual heat does the cooking, which saves fuel and keeps the bottom from scorching.

Dried peaches replace fresh ones because fresh fruit is water you are carrying up a hill. They rehydrate into something jammier than canned peaches ever were, and their sugar concentrates, so you need less sweetener. Butter powder stands in for the stick of butter — it will not crisp the oats, but it carries the fat that makes this read as dessert instead of porridge.

Packing

Two bags: fruit in one, oat topping premixed in the other. Butter powder goes in the oat bag so it stays dry until camp.

Variations

  • Dried apples or a handful of freeze-dried berries swap in one for one.
  • Crushed graham crackers or a broken granola bar in the topping gets you closer to crisp.
  • A spoon of powdered milk in the topping makes it richer without adding much weight.

https://dontwastethecrumbs.com/yummy-recipe-oatmeal-peach-breakfast-crumble