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Spare a thought for聽the campground pancake breakfast. Pancakes鈥攆lipped, stacked, and topped with butter and syrup鈥攖aste even better when you鈥檙e eating them at some picnic table out in the open air with the pine needles crunching under your feet and a whole day of hiking (or reading, or floating, or hammocking) ahead of you. But while pancakes may be a mainstay of car camping trips, they鈥檙e tougher to pull off in the backcountry, where the stoves are smaller and the titanium pans are prone to 鈥榗ake-burning hotspots. Fortunately for all of us pancake-loving, baseweight-conscious hikers, there鈥檚 a way to have your pancakes and eat them too without toting a bulky stove and pan in with you.
This recipe uses a bain-marie鈥攖hat鈥檚 a water bath, for you Anglophones鈥攖o evenly heat up a mug of pancake mix, resulting in a moist, fluffy, single-serving pancake in a cup. (Regular readers will remember this technique from聽鈥攊t鈥檚 the same principle.) Because the water surrounding the mug never heats up past its boiling point, it cooks the mix evenly with no burned spots. Best of all, you can do it with any stove, from a Jetboil to a two-burner Coleman range, or even a fire, if you want to go fully low-tech.
Ingredients
- 陆 cup just-add-water pancake mix
- Maple syrup, packed in a leak-proof container
- Butter (optional; freeze it or bring the powdered stuff and reconstitute in camp)
Preparation
1. Pour all of your mix into a single-wall steel or titanium mug. Add water as directed by the instructions, roughly 鈪 cup; the batter should be wet but still thick. You want the mug to be roughly halfway full.
2. Using three or four small flat rocks, build a platform for the mug to sit on in the bottom of the pot. (This elevates the mug so it鈥檚 not directly in contact with the pot, preventing any hot spots from forming at the bottom.)
3. Pour water into the pot until it鈥檚 roughly level with the batter. If the mug starts to float, you鈥檝e added too much. Cover the pot loosely with a lid (you can use aluminum foil if you don鈥檛 have one).
4. Light your stove and bring the water to a slow boil. Leave it for 5 to 7 minutes, or until bubbles start forming on the top of the mug. Don鈥檛 be fooled: The pancake won鈥檛 brown鈥攊t鈥檚 being cooked by steam and hot water鈥攂ut it鈥檚 still fully cooked.
5. Uncover the pot (use care; the steam can burn) and poke the pancake with a fork to check for doneness; the tines should come out clean. Top with butter and syrup and enjoy while hot.
Tip: Cooking with a small pot? Bring a mug with handles that fold in, like the聽.