Dutch Oven Basics Part Five: Desserts

When you hear the words, “Dutch oven,” what’s the first thing that comes to mind? For me, it’s images of peach cobbler and pineapple upside-down cake (Dutch ovens are famous for making excellent desserts). Dutch ovens are versatile and durable, making them a great choice for cooking food while camping or in a survival situation when it may be the only oven you have! When making desserts, follow the instructions outlined in our article “Dutch oven Basics—Prepping and Cooking with your oven” to bake desserts in your oven without burning them. Remember to either create a foil ring to place on the bottom of the inside of your Dutch oven or you can also purchase Dutch oven baking racks to place under your oven to stop your desserts from being burned. If you cook your dessert directly on the bottom of the oven, be sure you don’t have too many charcoal briquettes beneath it—slower cooking times are better than scorched dessert! Here are some delicious Dutch oven desserts you can try (but don’t blame us if everyone starts begging for more): Apple Cake 2 Eggs (4 Tbsp Provident Pantry Whole Egg Powder + 6 Tbsp water) 2 C Provident Pantry White Sugar 2 tsp Vanilla Extract or MyChoice™ Pure Vanilla Powder 2 tsp Provident Pantry Iodized Salt 1 ½ Tbsp. Provident Pantry Baking Soda ½ C Provident Pantry Shortening Powder 2 C Provident Pantry White Flour 1 Tbsp MyChoice™ Premium Korintji Cinnamon 4 C Provident Pantry Freeze Dried Apple Dices ½ C Chopped Nuts (optional) Reconstitute apple dices and drain excess water. Cream together eggs, sugar, vanilla, salt, baking soda, and shortening powder. Add water, flour, and cinnamon; Mix well. Stir in apples and nuts. Pour into greased, floured cake pan (that can fit in your Dutch oven). Place cake pan in Dutch oven on top of foil coil or flattened foil ball. Use 17 briquettes on top and 8 on bottom to raise temperature of Dutch a 12 inch oven to 350 degrees. Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes. Chocolate Upside Down Cake 3 Tbsp Provident Pantry Butter Powder 1 C Provident Pantry White Flour 2 tsp. Provident Pantry Baking Powder ¼ tsp. Provident Pantry Iodized Salt 5 tsp. Provident Pantry Dutch Process Baking cocoa ½ C Provident Pantry Dry Milk 1 C chopped pecans or walnuts (optional) 1 C water ½ C Provident Pantry white sugar ½ C Provident Pantry Brown Sugar ¼ cup Provident Pantry Dutch Process Baking cocoa Melt 3 Tbsp butter in dutch oven and swirl around to cover sides. In zip-loc, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cocoa. (Could do this beforehand) In a bowl, combine flour mix with milk and vanilla. Pour in melted butter from dutch oven. (Just take what pours out, leaving the oven well-coated.) Add nuts and stir well. Pour batter into dutch oven. Mix sugar, brown sugar, and cocoa in a zip-loc. (Could prepare beforehand) Sprinkle sugar over top of batter. Pour 1 cup of water over batter. Use 17 briquettes on top and 8 briquettes on bottom of a 12 inch oven (using this many briquettes on top and bottom will heat your oven to 350 degrees). Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes with more heat on top than under. Check for doneness by inserting toothpick or similar into center of cake - if it comes out clean, it is done. When done, remove from heat and remove lid for about 5-10 minutes to cool. Then, put lid on and turn cake over onto lid. If all goes well, it will fall onto lid, but you may loosen the cake with a knife before flipping. Serves 6. Cobbler From Don’t be Afraid of Your Food Storage . . . Just Dutch It! By Archie and Linda Dixon 10 inch or 12 inch Dutch oven, 24 briquettes: all on bottom to start, then 8 bottom, 16 top; Cook 30 to 60 min.; serves 10-12 Good: 3-5 cups Provident Pantry freeze-dried fruit, soaked 1 hour; drain 1 cup Provident Pantry white sugar 3 Tbsp Provident Pantry corn starch 1 tsp. MyChoice™ Premium Korintiji cinnamon (optional) 1 ½ cups water (use water used to soak fruit) 1 cup Provident Pantry whole wheat flour ½-1 cup Provident Pantry white sugar (depending on how sweet you want it) 1 ½ tsp. Provident Pantry baking powder ¼ tsp. Provident Pantry Iodized salt ¼ cup oil ¼ cup reconstituted Provident Pantry dry milk, ½ cup if making a cake-like batter Mix together sugar, corn starch and cinnamon in Dutch oven. Add water (use water fuit soaked in) and stir until sugar dissolves. Add drained fruit and cook and stir over colas until fruit is partly cooked and mixture is thick. Make Topping: Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add oil and milk. Mix. Turn out on lightly floured surface and roll out to ½ inch thick or just press with hnads. Cut into 1 inch strips and lay these over fruit mixture. If you want moister dough just add more milk until desired consistency (make either drop biscuits or add more milk to make a thick cake-like batter you would pour over fruit). Bake 30 minutes, then check. Cobbler is done when topping is golden and fruit is bubbly. Better: Use canned fruit; drain first, saving 1 cup juice to mix with 2 Tbsp. cornstarch. Mix together sugar and cinnamon, then mix everything together in Dutch oven. Cover with topping. Use fresh fruit in place of dried. Replace whole wheat flour with white flour. Best: Replace powdered milk with evaporated milk for a richer batter. Replace oil with melted butter. Note: for easier clean-up, line oven with heavy duty foil. If you like nuts, sprinkle ½ cup chopped walnuts over fruit mixture and on top. Be careful it doesn’t burn on bottom.

Dutch Oven Apple (or any dried fruit) Pie 1 double 9-inch pie crust 3 cups Provident Pantry freeze-dried apple slices or apple dices 2-3 cups water for reconstituting (Soaking fruit for 30 minutes will save on baking time.) ¾ cup Provident Pantry White sugar 2 Tbsp. Provident Pantry cornstarch, or ¼ cup Provident Pantry White flour 1 tsp. MyChoice™ Premium Korintiji cinnamon (unless your apples were dried with cinnamon) Dash nutmeg 1 tablespoon Provident Pantry butter powder, shortening powder or oil Dash Provident Pantry Iodized salt Drain the soaked fruit, reserving the liquid. Put fruit and 1 ¾ cups of the liquid into smaller Dutch oven (or other heavy pot) on a bed of coals. (If you’re using anything other than a Dutch oven, support your pot over the coals on bricks or rocks so that the bottom won’t burn.) Mix spices with sugar and either cornstarch or flour, and add to fruit; Stir until dissolved and liquid is bubbling. Add butter, oil, or shortening and salt. Juices should have thickened somewhat, and will thicken more as pie bakes and cools. Pour hot fruit mixture into pie shell. Moisten edge of pastry; add top crust and fold edges under edges of bottom crust. Crimp together with fork or fingers. Cut several slits in top crust. Sprinkle with a little sugar if desired. Place pie on rolled foil rack in clean 12-inch Dutch oven which has been preheated for five minutes, using 4 coals between each leg of oven and 2 rings of coals on lid. Check after 30 minutes to see if pie is getting too browned, and adjust coals as needed. Bake 10 to 20 more minutes. Pie is done when juices are bubbling in the slits. Tip: experiment with dried fruits according to what you have. You might try apple, cherry and raisin, or apricot with dried pineapple, or peach with raspberries. What about cherry, blueberry and raspberry? This is the final installment of our Dutch Oven Basics Series. We hope that you’ve enjoyed learning about how to care for your Dutch oven and getting some new recipes to try out! Can’t get enough of our Dutch oven series? Click the links below to read the rest of the series Dutch Oven Basics Part One: Picking Your Oven Dutch Oven Basics Part Two: Prepping and Cooking with Your Oven Dutch Oven Basics Part Three: Breakfast Recipes Dutch Oven Basics Part Four: Sides and Main Dishes