Three Square
Fall comfort food for the campfire: pumpkin spice pancakes, bacon grilled cheese, and Dutch oven chili cornbread
Pumpkin Spice Pancakes
Labor Day might be the unofficial end of summer, but it’s also the beginning of Pumpkin Spiced Everything season. There’s no question that this autumn craze can—and often is—taken to great excess (pumpkin spiced Greek yogurt just shouldn’t exist). But when done properly and responsibly, a little pumpkin flavor can enhance a meal.
In terms of camping foods, pancakes are excellent candidates to be Pumpkin Spice-ified. After all, pancakes mostly serve as vessels with which to transport other delicious flavors to our mouths (namely, maple syrup and butter). Depending on how much of a pumpkin fix you need, there are three ways to accomplish this. The first is to add a little pumpkin spice to the batter. The second is to add some pumpkin spice into your maple syrup. Finally, if you really want to crank the pumpkin flavor up to 11, you can do both: batter and syrup.
- 1 cup flour
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin spice
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1¼ cups milk
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- Butter, ghee, or oil
- Spiced Maple Syrup
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin spice
- Combine the flour, sugar, pumpkin spice, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Add the milk and egg to the dry ingredients. Using a fork, whisk to combine, making sure not to over-mix.
- Heat a skillet over your campfire or camp stove over medium low heat. Add a teaspoon of butter, ghee, or oil to the skillet and swirl to coat the pan. Pour ⅓ cup of the pancake batter into the center of the skillet and cook for a few minutes until the top begins to bubble and the sides are set (2–3 minutes). Using a spatula, flip the pancake and cook the other side until golden.
- Repeat with the rest of the batter, adding more fat to the skillet as needed.
- Spiced Maple Syrup: Combine the syrup and pumpkin spice in a small saucepan and gently heat, stirring frequently, until the syrup is warm and the spices have been incorporated. Serve with the pancakes.
Apple, Bacon, and Cheddar Grilled Cheese
In the summer, a campfire during the day seems crazy. It’s usually hot enough as it is without having to make it any hotter. But as cooler temperatures arrive in autumn, a campfire during the day starts to sound like a pretty good idea. It’s also great if you want to cook yourself a hot lunch.
One of the most annoying parts of making grilled cheese is getting the butter to the right semi-soft temperature so it spreads evenly on the bread. But this grilled cheese recipe is different. It doesn’t use any butter (crowd raises pitchforks)! Instead, it uses rendered bacon grease to toast the bread and imbue it with savory bacon flavor (crowd lowers pitchforks).
- 4 slices bread
- 2 slices bacon, cut in half
- 4 ounces sharp white cheddar cheese, sliced
- ½ apple, thinly sliced
- Set a cast-iron skillet over medium-low heat and add the bacon. Cook, flipping as needed, until some of the fat has rendered out and the bacon is cooked to your liking. Remove and place on a paper towel-lined plate.
- Move the skillet to medium heat and add two slices of bread. On each slice of bread, layer half the cheese, apples, and bacon, and then top with the second slices of bread.
- Cook until the bottom of the sandwich is golden brown and the cheese begins to melt, then flip to cook the other side.
- Serve and enjoy!
Dutch Oven Chili Cornbread
Two of the biggest names in comfort food join forces in this Dutch oven chili and cornbread combo. True, chili and cornbread can be made in two separate pans. But by using a Dutch oven it becomes a one-pot meal. Light and fluffy cornbread layered on top of spicy chili with half the mess? Sign us up.
Start by making your chili over the campfire. We sautéed our onions with a little olive oil before adding our beans, tomatoes, green chiles, tomato paste, and spices. While that simmered away, we turned our attention to making our cornbread batter. Our “from scratch” recipe uses cornmeal, flour, milk, an egg, baking powder, and honey, but if it’s late in the season and you want to cut some corners, nobody will hold it against you if you use a store-bought mix.
- Chili
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 4 cloves garlic, minced (or 2 teaspoons garlic powder)
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1–2 teaspoons chili powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 14.5-ounce can black beans, drained
- 1 14.5-ounce can kidney beans, drained
- 1 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes
- 1 4-ounce can green chiles
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- Cornbread Topper
- 1 cup cornmeal
- ½ cup flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1½ teaspoons salt
- 1 cup milk
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- 2 tablespoons honey
- In a 10-inch or 4-quart Dutch oven, sauté the onion in oil over medium heat until soft and just beginning to turn golden, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and spices and sauté for 1 minute. Add the beans, tomatoes, chiles, and tomato paste, stir to combine. Simmer for 10 minutes until thickened.
- In the meantime, prepare the cornbread batter. Mix all the dry ingredients in a medium bowl and stir to combine. Add the milk, egg, and honey and mix until a batter forms.
- Move Dutch oven over indirect heat to reduce bubbling. Pour the batter over the chili as evenly as possible, then cover the Dutch oven with a lid and shovel embers or coals onto the top. You’re going for a temperature of approximately 400° to 425° Fahrenheit.
- Bake until the cornbread has cooked through and is no longer wet in the center, about 20 minutes.
- Serve with your favorite chili toppings and enjoy!
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