Kayak Cookery: Buns in the Oven

December 1999 - January 2000

This is an article from WaveLength Magazine, available in print in North America and globally on the web.

by Doug Hull

There's nothing wrong with oatmeal, but freshly-baked cinnamon rolls sure taste good a week or so into a wilderness paddling trip. Over the past three years, our Outback Oven has accompanied us on numerous canoe expeditions in BC., Yukon, Alberta, and Montana. The results of our baking efforts have always been edible, usually downright delicious. If you're considering expanding your cooking methods beyond boiling and simmering, here are some tips to get you started.

Equipment

If you already own a camp stove and basic cooking gear, the only thing you'll need to purchase is an oven. Ours is an Outback Oven Plus Ten, which has a 10 inch baking pan and costs $60 at Mountain Equipment Coop. There are larger and smaller versions and a lightweight one, but the Plus Ten is just the right size for two or three hungry paddlers or, in our case, two paddlers plus a Cairn Terrier. The oven consists of a Teflon-coated pan, a lid with knob that serves as the oven thermometer, a circular rack to raise the pan and diffuse the flame, a reflector collar, and a fiberglass dome that fits over the whole works to keep heat in. The aluminum reflector collar, which shields the fuel tank from excessive heat, has to be custom cut to fit your stove—a fiddley job. Over time, the collar can tear, so we always carry a spare (about $3). A longnosed barbecue lighter is handy for lighting the oven, so you might like to add one of these to your shopping list as well.

Read and retain the booklet that comes with the oven. It contains operating instructions, baking tips, and some foolproof recipes. One common mistake is to try to get the oven up to temperature too fast. If the fiberglass dome starts to smoke at all, the burner is too high. Cut it back a little, and let the oven get up to temperature over about a 10-minute period. You start timing the baking as soon as the oven temperature reaches 'B' of BAKE on the indicator. Don't allow the temperature to go above the 'E'; you could get scorching.

These ovens are surprisingly fuel-efficient, but if you bake something every day, you'll need to carry a bit more fuel than for non-baked alternatives. Yes, kayakers, you'll need a bit of extra space to store the oven and ingredients, but not much. Our oven weighs 730g. Components fit inside the baking pan, which doubles as a covered frying pan. Left-overs, if any, can be stored and transported in the pan.

Other than the oven and some fuel, you shouldn't need to tote any extra equipment. Saucepans are fine as mixing bowls, coffee cups and teaspoons are precise enough for measuring any ingredients not pre-mixed at home, and it's likely that your cook kit already contains a wooden spoon for mixing and a rubber spatula for scraping the bowl. An upside down kayak makes a handy surface for rolling out pie crust, pizza dough, or cinnamon rolls.

Supplies

If you bake at home, just about everything you'll need to take is already on your kitchen shelf. To keep supplies light and nonperishable, use powdered milk and powdered eggs. Powdered eggs can be hard to find; try your local health foods store. Most recipes require shortening of some type: cooking oil, margarine, or butter. We use Canola Gold in all our cooking. Not quite as tasty as butter, but Gold is all-purpose, designed to be stored at room temperature, and comes in a flip-top plastic bottle. Before leaving home, powdered eggs and shortening can be pre-blended with other recipe ingredients. However, in very damp or unpredictable weather conditions, we prefer to store powdered eggs and Gold in separate containers until ready to use.

Getting Started: Outback Oven Mixes

Just-add-water mixes, portioned to fit the Outback Oven, can be purchased from outfitting or sporting goods stores. Numerous entrees, breakfasts, breads, and desserts are available; popular choices include quiche, lasagna, pizza, apple pie, brownies, carrot cake, and scones. These mixes are easy and almost foolproof, and the quality is quite acceptable. They're a good choice for first-time bakers or those who don't want the fuss of assembling ingredients. Convenience comes at a cost, though—about $7 for a batch of fudge brownies, $11 for mushroom and olive pizza.

Moving Up: Mixes from the Grocery Store

When you're ready to graduate from Outback Oven mixes, you can try commercially-available mixes from your local supermarket. Cakes, brownies, muffins, and quick breads are a good place to start, either on their own or dressed up. When assembling food for your trip, check the package directions and bring along any ingredients you will need to add to the mixes, such as powdered eggs, cooking oil, or powdered milk. Some examples: Cake. Before your trip, buy a pouch of cake mix (the size that makes a one-layer cake; often on sale for about 59 cents) and some goodies from the bulk foods section to put on top in lieu of icing. Some combinations we like are chocolate chips on top of chocolate cake, Smarties on yellow or white cake, and peanut butter cups on spice cake. At supper time, mix the cake mix with any required ingredients, and pour it into the greased baking pan. Sprinkle on the chocolate chips or other topping. Bake about 15 minutes.

Muffins. Buy a pouch of muffin mix (the size that makes 8-12 muffins). Bring along some dried fruit or nuts to add. If you can arrange for freshly-picked wild blueberries, that's even better—just watch for bears. Mix the package with any required ingredients, and pour into greased baking pan. Bake about 15 minutes. Never mind that the package says 'spoon into 12 muffin cups'; it works just fine as one big muffin.

Advanced Baking: Recipes "From Scratch"

Any of your favourite recipes will work in the Outback, although you may need to scale down the volume so that ingredients fit into a 10-inch pan. All that's required is some advance preparation. Here are recipes for two of our favourites: tamale pie and pizza.

TAMALE PIE

1 1/2 cup bean flakes (black beans or refried)
2 cups boiling water (to rehydrate the bean flakes in camp)
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 T. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
2 T. powdered egg
1/3 cup powdered milk
dried chilies or chili powder (optional)
1/4 cup oil, Canola Gold, or equivalent
1/2 cup water (approximate)

Before your trip: Get two zip-lock bags. Put the bean flakes into one bag, and put the remaining dry ingredients for the cornbread into the other. Bring along a plastic bottle of cooking oil or equivalent. Tip: Put the recipe for rehydrating the bean flakes into the bag with the flakes. On one trip, we forgot to bring the recipe for mashed potato flakes, with surprising results.

In camp: Prepare beans according to recipe for 2 cups cooked beans. Meanwhile, put dry cornmeal ingredients into a saucepan and mix with oil and water. Pour into greased baking pan. Spoon beans over cornbread batter. Bake about 20 minutes or until centre is firm.

PIZZA

Crust
2 cups flour
1-1/2 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 packet (1 envelope or 1 T.) yeast
2 T. oil
2/3 cup warm water

Sauce
1/4 cup finely chopped sun dried tomatoes (bulk bin at the grocery store)
1 pkg. spaghetti sauce mix (or your own mix of pizza spices)

Toppings
Pepperoni, dry salami, or Fantastic Foods sausage mix
Dried (or freshly picked, if you know what you're doing) mushrooms
3-4 Mozzarella string cheese sticks, Parmesan cheese, or both

Before your trip: Put flour, sugar, salt, and yeast packet into a zip-lock bag. Put the oil and other ingredients into your food bag.

In camp: Sprinkle yeast on warm (not hot) water. When dissolved, add the flour mix and the oil. Knead about 5 minutes. Let dough rise for about 45 minutes in a warm place. This first rising can be shortened or omitted if you're too hungry to wait. Pat and stretch dough to fill greased baking pan. Let rise 10 minutes or so while preparing sauce and toppings. If using the sausage mix, prepare according to package directions. If using the spaghetti sauce mix, don't add the full amount of water called for, because the sauce needs to be fairly thick. Cook the dried tomatoes in with the sauce. Arrange toppings on pizza. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Although baking is more labour-intensive than boil-in-a-bag, it's worth the effort. If an error occurs, you can always cut the scorched bottom off. It's camping, after all!