Apple Walnut Coffee Cake
Many people wax enthusiastic about wilderness pancake breakfasts, but I consider them to be torturous. One little serving at a time that takes four times as long to cook as it does to eat. Compound that with a group of hungry people, all waiting in line and you’ll all be wishing you had something you could just gobble down.
Enter pancake batter baked like quick bread in the Outback Oven. It’s still not suitable for a morning on which you want to hit the trail early, because it takes about 45 minutes to bake. But that’s still a lot faster than a batch of pancakes in a skillet. Further information about backcountry baking is provided elsewhere on these pages.
- 1 cup Complete Buttermilk Pancake Mix
- 1 scoop unflavored Protein Powder (equivalent to 24 grams protein)
- 2 Tablespoons Dark Brown Sugar, tightly packed
- 1 teaspoon ground Cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground Allspice
- 1/3 cup diced Dried Apples
- 1/3 cup chopped Walnuts
- Up to 4 Tablespoons extra Flour, depending on altitude
At home
The batter will rise faster at high altitude, so you may need to add some extra flour and water in order to dilute the baking powder in the Pancake Mix. The instruction manual for the Outback Oven tells how much extra to add at any given altitude. The figure of 4 Tablespoons is for an altitude of 10,000 feet. This should work just fine anywhere between 8000 and 12,000 feet. You add 1 extra Tablespoon of water for every extra Tablespoon of flour.
Combine the Pancake Mix, Protein Powder, Brown Sugar, Cinnamon, Allspice, and extra flour if needed. Put the mixture in a Zip-Loc bag and include instructions for how much water to add at baking time. That would be 1 cup + 1 Tablespoon for each Tablespoon of flour. Put the Dried Apples and Walnuts in a separate bag.
The nutritional table at the bottom of this page assumes that 4 tablespoons of extra flour has been added and that the scoop of protein powder contains 6 grams of carbs and no fat.
In camp
Grease the Outback Oven’s baking pan. Empty the baking mix into your cook pot and make a hole in the middle. Pour in the 1 cup water, plus an extra Tablespoon for each extra Tablespoon of Flour. Stir with a fork just until lightly blended. Stir in the Dried Apples and Walnuts, then pour into the Outback Oven’s baking pan.
Once you’ve put the Outback Oven on the stove, it will be a total of about 45 minutes before it’s time to turn off the heat. This includes pre-heating—which will take longer if it’s cold—plus about 25–30 minutes of baking time. You would be well advised to read further information about working with the Outback Oven before using it.
You can test the Coffee Cake for doneness by sticking a clean knife into it. If the knife comes out clean, it’s time to turn off the heat and let the Coffee Cake cool.
| Total calories: 1177 | ||||
| Fat grams | Carb grams | Protein grams | Fiber grams | Sugar grams |
| 32 | 176 | 47 | 11 | 59 |
| Fat calories | Carb calories | Protein calories | Sugar ÷ Carbs | |
| 289 | 702 | 186 | 36% | |
| Percentage of total calories | ||||
| 25% | 59% | 16% | ||
Nutritional values for Apple Walnut Coffee Cake
The above nutritional values include the extra 4 tablespoons of flour for high altitude. If you need to make any adjustments to this menu—such as removing the extra flour or adding different kinds of dried fruit and nuts—you can download the Excel spreadsheet for this recipe in order to keep track of changes in nutritional values.