There’s something undeniably luxurious yet comforting about eating pancakes for breakfast. It’s basically cake that you drizzle with more sweetness – who can deny the beauty of that!
Making pancakes while backpacking is easy and just what you need to fuel you up for another day on the trail. We made these Cornmeal Blueberry Pancakes on our last day of a short 2-night trip. It was perfect for a leisurely morning while enjoying the tranquility and immensity of White Chief Dome in Mineral King, Sequoia National Park.
All the batter ingredients where pre-measured at home and put into a gallon-size zip-top bag. At camp, the only thing left to do was to add water directly in the bag and mix. Tip: write how much water to add on the bag before you leave.
The Trader Joe’s dried blueberries we used are moist and naturally sweet. They melted in the batter and made for delicious sweet and tart bites against the earthiness of the cornmeal. If you don’t care for a sweet breakfast or want to save the weight of maple syrup, these pancakes are perfectly good without syrup as well.
Blueberry Cornmeal Pancakes
Yield
About 12 Small PancakesPrep Time / Cook Time
/Activity Guide
BackpackingIngredients
- 3/4 cup cornmeal
- 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
- 1/2 cup dried blueberries
- 1/2 cup raw wheat germ
- 1/2 cup milk powder
- 2 teaspoons baking power
- 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 1 1/2 cups water
- Cooking oil
- Maple syrup
Tools
- Skillet
- Spatula
- Stove with simmer control
- Nalgene bottle
- Long handle spoon
Method
At Home:
- Combine all ingredients (except water, cooking oil and maple syrup) in a gallon-size ziptop bag. Press all the extra air out and seal well. Use a permanent marker to write recipe and amount of water required on top of the bag.
At Camp:
- Add 1 1/2 cups of water to ingredients in ziptop bag. Seal well and gently mix dry ingredients with water by massaging contents.
- Heat up skillet with a bit of oil. Scoop batter out of bag with spoon into hot skillet. Make a small circle – about 3 inches in diameter.
- Wait until batter has air bubbles and then flip. Keep an eye on the flame and adjust so skillet doesn’t get too hot.
- Look for a golden brown pancake finish. Re-flip if necessary. Use first pancake as a taste tester (chef’s privilege).
- Repeat until you run out of batter. Add oil to skillet as necessary to prevent pancakes from sticking.
- Stack impressively and drizzle with maple syrup.
- If you have extras, pack them up. They are great as a snack as well.
Looks yummy! Did this recipe feed two? I am going with a group of 3 and wondering how to adjust the recipe. Thanks!
The recipe did feed two but it was pretty filling. Maybe 1.5x the recipe for three, make sure you have ample fuel and take turns making them 🙂 Have fun!
Do you add the 2tbsp oil to the batter or is it the cooking oil?
The 2 tablespoons of oil was added right into the batter. We brought a little food grade silicone container for the cooking oil.
Does the oil in the batter keep well? We are doing the jmt this summer and plan for things to be packaged for a week or more. Would that oil make the mix go bad? And do you have recommendations on oil types?
@hillary Wow, JMT! I’m excited for you. The oil is mainly to prevent the pancakes to stick to your skillet. I’m not sure that adding it to the batter would yield the same results. As for oil recommendations, we love to use coconut oil (Artisana Organics or Vita Coco). You can find small individual packets sold in stores like Cost Plus World Market, Trader Joe’s, maybe Sprouts. Otherwise, you can certainly find it online. Good luck on the trail!
have you experimented with soy milk powder? or just using water instead of the milk powder? I’m vegan and trying to figure out this whole backpacking pancake thing.
I think it’s fine to completely omit the milk powder in this case. Add the water in slowly to double check texture, but I think it’s not significant enough of an amount to affect the consistency of the batter. I haven’t experimented with soy milk powder, but it’s on my radar now! Enjoy ;D
Great recipe! We are planning our first backpacking trip in a decade or more, and I am on the hunt for good recipes.
Consider cutting a small part of one corner of the gallon bag and using that as a sort of “pastry bag”. You can avoid having to scoop the batter…and dirty one less dish!
I was wondering what equipment you used. What pan?