camp meals

Pumpkin Pancake Mix

A whole wheat pumpkin pancake mix that only needs hot water and oil at camp.

calories
520
weight
4.4 oz
cal / oz
118
protein
14 g
serves
2, scales
prep
5 min
cook
12 min
total time
17 min
water
270 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
  • Canister stove
  • Campfire coals
  • Grill grate
  • Car camping
  • Basecamp
  • Canoe / raft
  • Backpacking
  • Vegetarian
  • Nut free
  • Real dishes
  • Pre-mix at home
  • Shelf stable
  • Basic

Ingredients

Whole wheat pastry flour 1 1/2 cups pastry grind keeps them from turning into hockey pucks
Buttermilk powder 1/3 cup regular milk powder works
Freeze dried pumpkin powder 1/4 cup dehydrated pumpkin powder is the same thing for this purpose
Powdered egg 3 tbsp freeze dried or store-bought egg powder
Brown sugar 3 tbsp
Baking powder 2 tsp
Baking soda 1/2 tsp
Cinnamon 1 tsp
Nutmeg and ground ginger 1/4 tsp each
Sea salt 1/2 tsp
Oil 2 tbsp melted butter at home, neutral oil on trail
Chocolate chips 2 tbsp optional

Method

  1. At home, whisk every dry ingredient together and bag it. That is the whole mix.
  2. In camp, heat 270 ml of water to a boil and let it sit off the flame for a minute.
  3. Pour the hot water and 1 tbsp of the oil into the bag or pot with the mix. Stir until it is just combined, then leave it alone for five minutes.
  4. Wipe the remaining oil around a pan and get it hot over a low flame. Water flicked in should hiss, not vanish.
  5. Pour rounds of batter. Scatter chocolate chips on top now if you brought them.
  6. Flip when holes open across the surface and the edges look dry, about three minutes. Give the second side two or three more.

Hot water is not a preference here. The mix has powdered egg and buttermilk powder in it, and cold water leaves both of them grainy and the batter thin. Boiled water, rested a minute so it does not cook the egg outright, hydrates everything inside five minutes and gives you a batter that holds its shape in the pan.

The source version is a home griddle recipe, so a few things changed. Butter became oil, which does not need a cooler and pours from a bottle. The batch is scaled to two servings so you are not carrying three cups of flour for one breakfast. Pumpkin powder is doing real work beyond flavor: it is starch and fiber, and it makes a pancake that sits heavier than a white-flour one, which is the point on a cold morning.

Packing

One bag of dry mix per two servings. Oil rides in a leakproof bottle, chocolate chips in their own bag so they do not melt into the flour.

Variations

  • Skip the pan and cook it as one thick cake in a covered pot over a very low flame.
  • Powdered milk in place of the buttermilk powder if that is what the pantry has.
  • Add a spoon of milk powder and extra water for a thinner, crepe-style batter.

https://www.theseasonalhomestead.com/pumpkin-pancake-mix-recipe