Pumpkin Spice Cookie Bars, Camp Oven
Canned pumpkin, a spice tin, and a dutch oven. Frosting comes from a shelf-stable cream cheese packet.
- calories
- 290
- weight
- 3 oz
- cal / oz
- 97
- protein
- 4 g
- serves
- 12, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 25 min
- total time
- 40 min
- water
- none
- 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
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Flour | 2 1/2 cups | |
|---|---|---|
| Cornstarch | 2 tsp | keeps the crumb soft under uneven camp heat |
| Baking powder | 1 tsp | |
| Baking soda | 1/2 tsp | |
| Pumpkin pie spice | 1 tbsp | |
| Salt | 1/2 tsp | |
| Sugar | 1/2 cup | |
| Butter | 1/2 cup | keeps a week unrefrigerated in cool weather; cooler in heat |
| Canned pumpkin puree | 1 cup | one 15 oz can covers a double batch |
| Molasses | 2 tbsp | |
| Maple syrup | 1/4 cup | |
| Powdered egg | 1 egg's worth | plus the water the package calls for |
| Vanilla extract | 1 tsp | |
| Shelf-stable cream cheese spread | 4 oz | the foil-pouch kind, not tub |
| Maple syrup, for the frosting | 2 tbsp |
Method
- Build a fire and let it burn down to coals. You want a bed of embers, not flames.
- Cream the butter and sugar in the dutch oven with a spoon, off the heat. Work it until the sugar stops looking dry.
- Beat in the pumpkin, molasses, maple syrup, reconstituted egg, and vanilla.
- Add the premixed dry bag and stir until no flour shows. Push the batter flat across the bottom.
- Set the oven on 8 coals and put 14 on the lid. That is roughly 350F in a 12-inch. Rotate the oven a third turn every 10 minutes, and the lid the other way.
- Bake 22 to 28 minutes. Done is when the center springs back and a twig comes out clean.
- Pull it off the coals, sweep the lid, and let it cool fully. Warm bars tear.
- Stir the maple syrup into the cream cheese and spread it over the top. Cut into 12.
Cookies are the wrong shape for camp. Scooping two dozen rounds means baking in batches, and a dutch oven over coals gives you one shot at even heat. Pressing the same batter into a single pan turns it into one bake, one pot, one wash. The flavor is unchanged.
Two swaps make it work away from a kitchen. A powdered egg removes the one ingredient that will not survive a warm day in a pack, and shelf-stable cream cheese from a foil pouch stands in for the tub. The cornstarch is doing real work: camp ovens run hot at the edges, and it softens the crumb enough that overshooting by five minutes does not ruin the pan. Maple syrup and molasses carry most of the sweetness, so there is less sugar here than a bakery version and the bars stay dense rather than crisp.
Packing
Flour, cornstarch, leaveners, spice, salt, sugar, and powdered egg go into one bag at home. In camp that is one bag, one can, and three wet things. Butter and the cream cheese pouch ride in the cooler in warm weather.
Variations
- No dutch oven: bake it in a foil pan inside a covered grill over indirect coals.
- Skip the frosting and dust the top with cinnamon sugar. The bars keep two days longer without it.
- Swap the butter for coconut oil and the cream cheese for a vegan spread to go dairy-free.
https://dontwastethecrumbs.com/pumpkin-cookies