Skillet Biscuits at Camp
Self-rising flour, powdered buttermilk, and cold fat baked in a covered pan over coals.
- calories
- 330
- weight
- 3.2 oz
- cal / oz
- 103
- protein
- 5 g
- serves
- 8, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 18 min
- total time
- 33 min
- water
- 180 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.
- Breakfast
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Vegetarian
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Self-rising flour | 2 cups | plus a little for your hands |
|---|---|---|
| Powdered buttermilk | 3 tbsp | replaces the 3/4 cup of liquid buttermilk |
| Cold water | 3/4 cup | |
| Butter | 1/2 cup (1 stick) | keep it as cold as the cooler allows |
| Melted butter | 2 tbsp | for brushing the tops |
| Shortening | 3 tbsp, melted | shelf-stable, greases the pan |
Method
- Bank a bed of coals and set the covered pan or dutch oven over them to heat. You want it hot before the dough goes in, around 450F.
- Stir the powdered buttermilk into the flour so it hydrates evenly.
- Grate the cold stick of butter into the flour on the coarse side of a grater. Toss it through with your fingers and stop while you can still see flecks of butter.
- Pour in the cold water and stir just until it holds together. Overworking it makes bricks.
- Turn it out on a floured lid or board, pat it to about an inch, and cut eight rounds.
- Pour the melted shortening into the hot pan, set the biscuits in so they touch, and cover.
- Bake 12 to 18 minutes with coals under the pan and more on the lid. Rotate the lid a quarter turn halfway so one side does not scorch.
- Brush the tops with melted butter and pull them out.
This is a cast iron biscuit adapted for a fire pit. The two changes that matter: powdered buttermilk instead of the carton, rehydrated with the same 3/4 cup of water, and a dutch oven standing in for the oven. Everything else about the original method survives the move.
The grated cold butter is the whole technique. Solid flecks of fat suspended in the flour turn to steam in the heat and push the layers apart, so the dough has to stay cold and barely handled. Heat the pan before the dough touches it — biscuits set their crust in the first minute, and a cold pan gives you a dense bottom instead.
Packing
Premix the flour and powdered buttermilk at home in one bag. Butter and shortening ride in the cooler; shortening is fine out of it if the cooler is full.
Variations
- No dutch oven: bake them in a covered skillet on a grill grate with coals raked around the sides.
- Swap the butter for an extra 1/2 cup of shortening and use water only. Less flavor, no cooler needed.
- Grated hard cheese and black pepper in the dry mix turns them into dinner bread.
https://www.lodgecastiron.com/blogs/recipe/briggs-buttermilk-biscuits