Hiking, biking, and paddling sure work up an appetite, and baked treats stand high in my list of favorites to help satisfy that hunger when camping. Luckily, bannock is a camp staple. It’s relatively easy to make, and it certainly fills the bill. Bannock has tradition on its side, too. But there are days when I crave something a little less “outdoorsy.” Like chocolate chip cookies, say. See the problem? Baking cookies may be pretty straightforward in a home kitchen, but it’s a big deal in camp. Of course, a cook who has a reflector oven in her bag of tricks is ahead of the game. Still, you need a pretty good‑sized fire to make a reflector oven work, and I don’t always bother to light so much as a small blaze, even when open fires are both safe and legal. Are there any other options? Well, Dutch ovens can also be used for backcountry baking, but these need coals, and that means you have to — you guessed it — make a fire first. So I’m back where I started. Don’t get me wrong. I like cooking over wood fires. I really do. That said, there are plenty of good reasons to keep things simple, and portable stoves certainly make the backcountry cook’s life easier. I don’t have much use for stove‑top ovens, however. Yes, I’ve seen some mighty clever designs, but they’re all a little fussy for my liking. The bottom line? If I can’t do my backcountry baking in a skillet, then I probably won’t bake at all. I do love the idea of filling up on fresh‑baked cookies right at the river’s edge, though. And I’ll bet you do, too.

I could stow a bag of chocolate chip cookies in my food pack before I leave for the put‑in, I suppose, but that’s a long way from enjoying the gooey, melted‑chocolate toothsomeness of a warm, fresh‑from‑the‑oven cookie, isn’t it? Yet for a long time it looked like the only realistic alternative. Until I had a Bright Idea. After my successes with skillet pizza, skillet journey cakes, and bannock, I wondered if I could use the same approach to bake skillet cookies… Read more…

 
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