CAMPING DAD'S DUTCH OVEN APPLE PANCAKE

Get a cast iron Dutch oven made for camping-- three iron legs underneath, and a lipped lid that is made to hold coals. Lodge makes the most reliable. This recipe presumes an already-seasoned one.

Hardiman always used the coals left over from the dinner course, and re-used the oven the stew had been in, letting it cool just enough to handle and wiping it out inside... Re-grease the inside of the oven and the underside of the lid. Bacon grease is wonderful.

Make a sorta stiff Bisquick dough, kinda gluey. Hardiman sez it's been awhile but he thinks he recalls the dough going in first (maybe a 2-inch thick wad of dough?). Let it be as lumpy on the top as it wants to be.

Over top of the dough scatter whatever you please-- baking-type apples sliced, brown sugar, maybe some nuts if you want to be wild, maybe some butter crumbled with the sugar-- just make a mess.

On goes the lid.

The coals go on top, he says, not top and bottom. (I suppose if it cooked too slow you'd put them under next time, too.) How many coals depends on the oven diameter and depth, whether you are re-using coals, how cold the day is, etc. And if one has never dutched before, this may not be the thing to start off with. Maybe 15 coals if they were all fresh ones started just for the pancake, for a 12-inch, regular-depth oven.

Bake till it smells done, and is done when you open it up to check.

Doesn't hurt to have sour cream or whipped cream or just plain heavy cream on hand to drizzle on it. Or ice cream....

Once in awhile the contents of the dutch oven, for a quickbread type thing like this or a cake mix, will swell up so much the lid comes up. Not a problem. Let it cook and let the runny stuff burn all over the outside if it wants to. May not come out purty, but always edible unless burnt to a crisp.

Don't forget to use a lid lifter to minimize the ash falling in and to save you getting burnt. A crow bar makes a nice lid hook and lifter if you didn't get one with the oven.

Be sure to report. I'd be tempted to put a layer of apples on the bottom too-- not sure tho.

~Susan