camp meals

Whole Wheat Camp Pancakes

A dry mix that only needs water and a pan. Whole wheat, so breakfast holds until lunch.

calories
420
weight
3.5 oz
cal / oz
120
protein
15 g
serves
8, scales
prep
5 min
cook
15 min
total time
20 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
  • Canister stove
  • Campfire coals
  • Grill grate
  • Car camping
  • Basecamp
  • Canoe / raft
  • Backpacking
  • Vegetarian
  • Nut free
  • One pot
  • Pre-mix at home
  • Shelf stable
  • Basic

Ingredients

Whole wheat flour 4 cups or whole wheat pancake flour
Baking powder 3 tbsp
Salt 1 tsp
Cinnamon 4 tsp
Sugar 4 tsp
Skim milk powder 1 1/3 cups
Whole egg powder 4 tbsp OvaEasy holds up best
Oil or butter for the pan
Vanilla extract a splash optional, carried in a small jar

Method

  1. At home, whisk all the dry ingredients together and bag the mix.
  2. In camp, scoop about 1/4 cup of mix per person into your pot or a wide-mouth bottle.
  3. Add cold water a little at a time and stir until it pours slowly off the spoon. Roughly equal volumes of mix and water, but go by feel.
  4. Add the vanilla if you brought it. Let the batter sit two or three minutes so the flour takes on water.
  5. Grease a hot pan over a low flame. Whole wheat scorches faster than white flour, so keep the heat down.
  6. Pour, wait for the surface to go dull and the edges to firm, then flip once. Second side is quicker.

Everything here is a powder, which is the whole point. Milk powder and egg powder do the job of the fridge ingredients in a home pancake recipe, and they weigh almost nothing once the water is gone. The mix goes together at home in five minutes and then sits in a bag until you want it.

Whole wheat is the reason this holds you past mid-morning, but it also drinks more water than white flour and browns sooner. Let the batter rest a couple of minutes before it hits the pan, and run the stove lower than feels right. Three tablespoons of baking powder across four cups of flour sounds heavy; it is what keeps a whole-grain batter from cooking flat.

Packing

Mix the whole batch at home into one bag, or split it into per-meal bags of 1/4 cup per person. A wide-mouth water bottle doubles as the mixing vessel and saves washing the pot before you cook in it.

Variations

  • Stir dried blueberries or chopped dates into the batter before pouring.
  • Swap in powdered coconut milk for the skim milk powder to make it dairy-free.
  • Skip the egg powder and add a tablespoon of ground flax per cup of mix if you would rather not carry eggs.

https://www.canoetripping.net/threads/whole-wheat-healthy-pancakes.708