A Campfire Skillet Dessert That Will Have You Saying Goodbye To S’mores. Camping is a great way to commune with nature and to connect with family or friends. There are a couple of niggling things about camping that a dire hard camping enthusiast will not like the lack of bathrooms and the food.
Whilst it takes some skill and experience to cook a gourmet meal over a campfire there are things that you can still make that are nice like desserts for instance.
Gearing up for campfire meals should not take much. All you need is a pretty good skillet and a portable grill. Believe it or not, campfire meals do not have to come from cans; you can cook a decent meal with your skillet.
Most people think that when it comes to after dinner dessert s’mores or some kind of sweet thing on a stick is all you can make on a campfire. This isn’t true. Yes, it’s easy to simply sit in your tent and roast marshmallows over an open fire but if you are not 12 you’ve probably outgrown the whole novelty of s’mores.
There are a lot of good campfire skillet dessert recipe over the internet. There are dozens of them posted by various people ranging from celebrated cooks and chefs to ordinary folk. There are simple ones like campfire skillet cinnamon buns and pound cakes and more elaborate recipes like Pecan pie to peach sponge cake.
Somehow things like sponge cakes seem too far fetched for making in a skillet on a campfire but it can be done.
Making a peach campfire skillet dessert sponge cake
The first challenge is taking the ingredients to the campsite. If you are a baker you probably know the cardinal rule for making a sponge cake: Never open the oven. There are a couple of hacks that you can employ to make easy food for camping.
A sponge cake can be easy to make in a skillet over a campfire. Let’s look at a recipe first and then we’ll go on to how you can make sure your cake comes out as soft and moist as you would expect it to if you had baked it in a conventional oven,
Campfire skillet dessert recipe for a Peach Sponge cake
This is a simple recipe for a peach recipe. You can substitute some ingredients and even substitute the peaches themselves with other fruit like strawberries.
- 150g of self-raising flour
- 190g of butter
- 220gg of castor sugar
- 2 medium sized eggs
- 75 g of ground almonds
- 2 tsp of vanilla paste
- 190 ml of buttermilk
- 1 white peach, or a nectarine or half a cup of berries, thinly sliced
- Yogurt or cream to serve
Pay attention to your fire, in particular, the coals; they need to be white hot with no visible flame. Place a couple of rocks to cover the coals. Use butter to grease a 9 inch cast iron skillet and then dust with flour.
Mix all your ingredients into a smooth batter and then pour into the skillet and level the surface off. Place the fruit on top and cover with tin foil and put the lid of the skillet on and set the skillet on your coal bed.
Leave it to bake for 30 to 60 minutes. You can also check by inserting a skewer in the middle, if the skewer comes out clean then the cake is done. This cake can be served straight from the skillet and enjoyed on its own or with yogurt or cream.
