Skillet Cookie for Camp
One pan of cookie dough over coals. Cut it in wedges and hand it around.
- calories
- 520
- weight
- 4 oz
- cal / oz
- 130
- protein
- 6 g
- serves
- 8, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 30 min
- total time
- 40 min
- water
- 60 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.
- Dessert
- Campfire coals
- Dutch oven
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Vegetarian
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| All-purpose flour | 2 1/2 cups | |
|---|---|---|
| Light brown sugar | 1 cup | packed |
| Granulated sugar | 1/2 cup | |
| Baking soda | 1 tsp | |
| Salt | 1 tsp | |
| Powdered whole egg | 3 tbsp | plus 6 tbsp water at camp |
| Vanilla extract | 1 tsp | or 1/2 tsp vanilla powder in the dry mix |
| Butter | 1 cup | shelf-stable canned butter or refined coconut oil |
| Chocolate chips or M&Ms | 2 cups | M&Ms handle heat in the pack better |
Method
- Build a fire and let it burn down to coals. You want steady heat, not flame.
- Stir 6 tbsp water into the egg powder in a cup. Let it sit two minutes.
- Work the butter into the dry mix bag or a bowl until no dry pockets remain. Add the egg and vanilla and keep working it. The dough will be stiff and that is right.
- Fold in the chocolate chips.
- Grease a 10-inch cast iron skillet and press the dough in flat to the edges.
- Set the skillet on a grate over the coals and cover it with foil or a lid. Shovel a few coals onto the lid if you have a dutch oven.
- Check at 20 minutes. It is done when the edges are brown and the center is just set, usually 25 to 30. Rotate the pan a quarter turn every ten minutes so one side does not scorch.
- Pull it off the heat and wait 15 minutes before cutting, or it falls apart in wedges.
This is the standard skillet cookie with two changes for camp. Fresh eggs and cold butter do not travel, so the eggs are powdered and rehydrated, and the butter is canned or replaced with refined coconut oil, which stays solid enough at camp temperatures to cream into the sugar. Everything else is dry goods that keep indefinitely.
The hard part is heat control, not the dough. Coals give you even radiant heat; open flame burns the bottom before the middle sets. Cover the skillet so the top cooks too, rotate it, and start checking early. The 15-minute rest matters more than it sounds — cut it hot and you get a pan of crumbs instead of wedges.
Packing
Combine flour, both sugars, baking soda, salt, egg powder, and vanilla powder in one gallon bag at home. Chips ride in their own bag so they do not melt into the flour. Butter goes in a sealed tin.
Variations
- Swap half the chips for chopped dried cherries to cut the sweetness.
- No cast iron: a foil pan inside a dutch oven works, with coals on the lid.
- Coconut oil in place of butter makes it dairy-free.
https://www.lodgecastiron.com/blogs/recipe/skillet-chocolate-chip-cookie