Messed up my original post (Pictures too big) so I am reposting.

Our troop uses the Betty Crocker Warm Delights for deserts while backpacking. We use the Walmart Grease Pots and cut down the bowl to fit (and then use it for oatmeal in the morning) We put three rocks add about 1/2 water and cook using about 1 1/2 ounce of alcohol to get us a longer burn. It usually takes 15 minutes for the cake to cook all the way through.

Curtis,

You've got my attention ... what kind of alcohol stove you using for this?

Some homemade, mine is a minibull design elite. All open side burners, but probably any stove would work.

Great article! I used your yam idea combined with some ideas from Carol Crooker last year. Last weekend I made a big skillet full of grated yams, buffalo burger, fresh onion, stewed tomato, brown minute rice, canned sliced mushrooms, and spices. I tested it on my wife, which is the true test of whether it is really good or is it my wishful thinking. It passed the test. She had thirds. I dehydraded it over night and took a serving to work on Monday for lunch. It re-hydrated nicely and was almost as good as the day before. (90%). I’m adding this to my trail recipes collection.

Also a note on steam muffins. Another idea from Carol…use the little aluminum foil cup-cake thingies. I snuggle 4 of them into the bottom of my 4” diameter pan, add about one-quarter inch of water and light about 2 minutes worth of alcohol. Lid on. After the lid cools to the touch, I light another 2 minutes worth of alcohol. Usually from beginning to end is about 15 minutes of steaming, but only 4 minutes of flame. I’m going to make one of the cozies per your instructions in this article and see if this might cut down the flame time a little.

Thanks again for the great ideas and illustrations! steve

ps: Carol, I didn't notice the second and third pages of posts. I was wondering why you weren't jumping in on this...
Sorry about that!

Edited by sanderson on 01/17/2007 09:12:42 MST.

Muffins,
Baking isn't my bag, but someone might try using silicone pleated muffin cups. They are found at gormet cooking shops, and don't stick.

Hi again, cornbread is a very good muffin alternative. A store bought CORN BREAD mix works well...

Sounds so much better than the cold tortillas and pita bread I usually have.

Cooking is a trick I use to get the wife to go out in the winter....heh heh heh.

Greg, in the past 6 months I have done a lot with steam baking. Tasty stuff! And not hard at all to do. Over in the cooking/food section I have posted parts about "Faux Baker" I came up (a very, very UL DIY version of the Bakepacker).

The Betty Crocker Warm Delights mini bowl fits into a FireLite SUL-1100 pot perfectly. It holds about 3 muffin cups worth of batter. I steamed some Cache Lake latkes and it worked out great. I also tried a bean dip can and it worked well for steaming but did not clean up easily. The BC bowls cleaned up like a dream. I was cooking over a Bush Buddy and it took about 15 minutes to cook the batter through.

I bought a SnowPeak bowl like the one pictured in the article.

I mixed up a batch of corn muffin batter. Oiled the inside of the bowl and set my pot on my kitchen stove with 4 pebbles in the bottom to elevate the bowl.

Timing started from the time steam was visible escaping from under the lid.

6 minutes - muffin was about half done. Into the trash.
8 minutes - muffin was 3/4 done. I picked at the edges - not bad.

I'm trying 10 minutes next but this is pushing it for alcohol or Esbit stove use.

I'm at 7800 ft but I doubt this is a problem. I'm thinking the batter is too thick. The only batter I'm familiar with (I'm not a baker) is pancake batter.

Should the muffin batter look runny like a pancake batter or is lumpy OK?

Any help is appreciated.....

I thinned the batter to pancake consistency with the following results.

6 Minutes - worst muffin EVER, raw batter in a shell.

With only enough batter left for 1 more test I cranked the time up to 10 minutes.

10 minutes - not good. Similar to 8 minutes with the thicker batter.

Maybe the steam environment calls for less moisture?

Just to be clear I'm filling the SnowPeak bowl to about half it's height.

Greg, I know when I do my muffins and stuff, I steam them for 15 minutes (I based this on the suggestions from the actual Bakepacker website btw).

Try a muffin baking cup worth of batter. That should be done in about 6 minutes - or one esbit tab worth. The snow peak bowl holds a lot of batter. Probably 3 muffin cups worth like the Betty Crocker Warm Delights mini - which takes about 15 minutes to steam.

I use a thicker batter, guessing that the steam will add moisture.

Wow - I'm glad to see that this article has generated so much cool chatting.

About steam baking. THe batter needs to be THICK! And, you can't over fill the vessel (the snow peak titanium bowl is perfect) About 1/2 way is good. The batter should rize and fill it up.

Also - i am gunna praise the esbit tab. It has a built in timer, about 12 minutes.

AND - Just a TINY bit of water in the bottom of the pot. About a 1/4 inch deep MAX!

Bon Apitite

Carol,

Your suggested times are correct. Thanks!

I went to a Kmart and found a Silicone 6 muffin pan. Took it home and cut out 2 individual muffin cups (leaving a slight rim and leaving 2 "ears" to grab them).

I can easily cook 2 of these at one time in my Evernew 1.3L pot.

I also got the SnowPeak bowl to work by increasing the time to 14-15 minutes.

I like the idea of the silicone muffin cups because I don't have to baby them and the food pops right out.

I just heard about these from Mike C! Is there any problem cleaning them in the field so they can be reused on another night? (Wondering about the folds.)

Don't get the ones with the ruffled sides. Too many edges to clean. But there are ones with smooth sides which clean up very well. I carried one on the JMT this summer and loved having hot black and whites (chocolate cake with white chocolate chips).

Silicone is about as nonstick as it gets. Also doubles as a pot grabber/hot pad.

Double as hot pads - great idea!
I didn't know they came ruffle-less - I'll be on the lookout for some. Cool!

Also, you can pop/invert/flip most of the silicone muffin cups inside out to make it real easy to clean off (lick the crumbs clean)... however I"m talking about the smooth sided ones, not the ruffled ones as Nia mentioned