Skillet Bread Pudding, Camp Version
Stale bread, powdered eggs, and molasses baked in a dutch oven over coals.
- calories
- 430
- weight
- 5 oz
- cal / oz
- 86
- protein
- 12 g
- serves
- 6, scales
- prep
- 20 min
- cook
- 45 min
- total time
- 65 min
- water
- 500 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
- Dessert
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Challah or other egg bread | 10 oz | day-old is better than fresh; cube it at home |
|---|---|---|
| Whole milk powder | 3/4 cup | stands in for the milk and cream |
| Powdered whole eggs | 3/4 cup | equivalent to 8 large eggs |
| Sorghum syrup | 1/4 cup | molasses works if you cannot find it |
| Granulated sugar | 1/3 cup | |
| Vanilla extract | 2 tbsp | |
| Ground cinnamon | 1/2 tsp | |
| Ground allspice, nutmeg, and ginger | 1/8 tsp each | |
| Salt | 1/8 tsp | |
| Butter or ghee | 4 1/2 tbsp | ghee needs no cooler |
| Powdered sugar | 2 tsp | for dusting, optional |
Method
- Build a fire and let it burn down to coals. You want about 8 coals under a 10-inch dutch oven and 16 on the lid.
- Grease the oven with half a tablespoon of the butter. Lay the bread cubes in flat, crust side up.
- Whisk the milk powder and egg powder into 500 ml of warm water until no lumps remain. This takes longer than you think.
- Add the sorghum, sugar, vanilla, spices, and salt to the liquid and whisk again. Pour it over the bread.
- Press the bread down and let it sit 20 minutes so the custard soaks all the way through.
- Dot the remaining butter over the top. Lid on, coals on, 45 minutes. Check at 35.
- It is done when the center is puffed and set and a knife comes out clean. Dust with powdered sugar and eat it warm.
Bread pudding is a good candidate for camp because the hard part is soaking, not cooking. Powdered whole eggs and whole milk powder replace eight fresh eggs, milk, and cream, which is the entire reason this works without a cooler. Reconstituted, they set into custard the same way. Ghee instead of butter removes the last thing that needs to stay cold.
The bread has to be dry. Fresh bread turns to paste once the custard hits it, so cube it and leave it out overnight at home. Twenty minutes of soaking before the lid goes on is not optional either: dry centers show up as chalky pockets after baking, and no amount of extra time on the coals fixes them.
Packing
Cube and dry the bread at home, then bag it. Milk powder, egg powder, sugar, and spices go in one bag as a single premix. Sorghum and vanilla travel in small screw-top bottles; ghee in a jar.
Variations
- Dried cherries or raisins scattered over the bread before the custard goes in.
- Swap half the sugar for brown sugar if you cannot get sorghum.
- No dutch oven: bake it in a foil pan set on a grill grate with a foil tent over the top.
https://www.lodgecastiron.com/blogs/recipe/sorghum-bread-pudding