Baking is easy with
the Outback Oven

It’s easy to bake while backpacking if you use the Outback Oven from Backpacker’s Pantry. The 8 inch diameter model is the best one to use, as the 10 and 12 inch sizes have less even heat distribution. The 8 inch size only weighs 12 ounces and is worth its weight in fuel savings. The Outback Oven consists of a trivet, a handle-less skillet with a pot grabber, a lid, and an insulating canopy made out of fireproof fabric. (Don’t worry, it’s woven fiberglass, not asbestos.) It sits on top of your stove and requires only the lowest of flames.

In fact, it’s hard to make the MSR Whisperlite go low enough for the Outback Oven. For this reason—and also for cooking rice—I prefer the Coleman Peak 1 550B. Its flame goes both lower and higher than the Whisperlite’s, and according to REI it’s 50% more fuel efficient at full throttle. As stated above, full throttle is much hotter with the 550B than with the Whisperlite. To the best of my knowledge, the 550B is the most fuel efficient backpacking stove on the market. It weighs 18 ounces compared to the Whisperlite’s 12, but its fuel efficiency is great enough to make for a lighter pack nonetheless. The 550B is hard to find on the retail market, but is easy to order directly from Coleman.

Most of the baking mixes at your local supermarket come in 1 pound boxes. I’m talking about things like brownies, chocolate cake and yellow cake, cornbread, gingerbread, muffins, and pound cake. One of these boxes will fill the 8 inch Outback Oven three times. If you’re making a quick bread or coffee cake with added nuts and dried fruit, you should only use a quarter of a box of mix at a time. However, a third of a box of brownie mix with walnuts is no problem.

Many baking mixes contain partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, and these are bad for your health in any amount whatsoever. If you can afford to pay more you can get mixes made with more healthful fats at natural food stores. You want to get about 30% of your calories from fat while backpacking, and healthful fats are sure to metabolize more efficiently than harmful ones.

If your baking mix of choice requires eggs, you can get Wakefield powdered eggs at the backpacking store. Be sure to get raw powdered eggs, not freeze-dried scrambled eggs. Be warned that Jiffy brand baking mixes don’t work well with powdered eggs. Follow the directions on the package label for how much egg powder and extra water to substitute for each fresh egg. Add the powdered eggs to the baking mix when you repackage it at home. Remember to include instructions for how much water to add to the mix and the estimated baking time in your packaging.

The air pressure is lower at high altitude than it is at sea level and this means that the leavening gasses generated by baking powder, baking soda, and yeast expand more. When baking from scratch at high altitude you reduce the amount of baking powder or baking soda, and when using a mix you add a little extra flour and water to dilute the same. The Outback Oven instruction manual tells how much extra flour and water to add in 1000 foot increments. I have found that if I add enough extra flour and water for 10,000 feet it’s perfectly acceptable anywhere between 8000 and 12,000 feet above sea level. I’ve successfully baked perfect cornbread at 11,500 feet with the Outback Oven.

Once you’ve put the Outback Oven on the stove it will be about 45 minutes before it’s time to turn off the heat. This would be a good time to have a second stove for preparing hot caffeine beverages or whatever else you like.

When baking at home you preheat the oven before putting the dough or batter inside it, but with the Outback Oven the preheating takes place with the batter inside the oven from the very beginning. In mild weather this will take about 15 minutes. As you may have guessed, preheating will take longer when the weather is cold. The Outback Oven has a temperature gauge in the handle of its lid. In the 8 inch model it will creep up into the low end of the burn zone, but not to worry, that’s what you want it to do. It does this because the gauge is calibrated for the 12 inch model. Once the gauge is well into the Bake zone, you can start timing the baking.

The flame on your stove should be set very, very low once the oven is warmed up. You can test your baked goods for doneness by sticking a clean knife into them. If the knife comes out clean, it’s time to turn off the heat and let the goodies cool.

Finally, you should practice with the Outback Oven on your kitchen stove at home in order to get a good feel for how to work with it. It takes some skill to keep the heat from going too high and you don’t want to be new at this when you’re in the field.