LightWeight Dry-Baking

[ULWalkingPhil]

Phil, you are the master of the blueberry muffin and now the chocolate cake.
They look absolutely delicious. Trouble is with a base weight of 15kg (no there isn't a decimal point missing)
how can I include such luxuries I'll just have to work on it.

This is what I been working on. To include Dry Baking into UL Backpacking.

The pot combination you see in the images that I have been using in total including the lid is less than 160grams.
The Featherfire Stove is 42 grams
The windshield is 32 grams

I am waiting on a new stove that is 20 grams. I did not purchase this stove because it is 20 grams, I purchased this stove for the fact that it does a lot better job at dry baking from what I seen on You-Tube.

The cake mixes, I divide into 4 packets. Each packet by the time I add the powdered eggs or powdered milk if required are just over 100 grams each. This appears to be an ideal size for one to two people.

I think the cake mixes are worth carrying on a bush-walk, certainly is for me. I can't imagine eating anything better for desert after a long days hike.

[Pongo]

Phil, I picked up some dehyrdated (and therefor powdered) butter from the states, fairly lousy on it's own, but would probably do a decent job for baking. I barely use it, if you'd like me to post you some up, just drop me a pm.

[ULWalkingPhil]

Thanks Pongo, The powdered butter turned up in the post today.
What's the brand of the powdered butter? and where can you purchase it?

[ULWalkingPhil]

The stove I've been waiting on, I ordered 4 weeks ago, finally turned up in the post a couple days ago, I was very keen to try this new stove out as all the youtube video's ive seen, made it look like it was a great stove for simmering and dry baking. I was wrong. this stove is the most fiddly stove I've ever dealt with, it leaks metho all over your hands and ground it sits on, The flow control is a night mare to control, it's either to fast or to slow. the featherfire Stove is far superior.

The results where still there, but you have to baby sit this stove, constantly readjusting the temp so you don't melt your pot. The featherfire stove I can set and leave it alone, returning half hour later to a perfectly cooked cake or muffin.

[ULWalkingPhil]

In the past is this what you've used? Or am I confused.
If so, is your new baking set up better?
http://www.backpackeroven.com/
http://www.backpackeroven.com/shop.php

In the pictures you incuded above is that the packafeather stove?l

Sorry Onestepmore, I missed your questions till now.

Yes, I own a couple of the Bemco Backpacking Oven you linked to. I use the ovens at home and car based camping, there a tad heavy for me to take on Overnight bushwalks. Although i will take the smaller oven on shorter overnight hikes, especially if there's a few of us.

That is the packafeather XL stove in those images your referring to. It's a total failure for this system. I've since purchased the Featherfire stove from the same manufacturers and it works great for dry baking. I like how it's all one unit and not many pieces like the Packafeather.

[ULWalkingPhil]

I reckon the Trangia Metho Stove with it's simmer lid would be a great stove for dry baking, Would love to put one to the test. Pitty I sold my pot stand for a Trangia Stove recently. I practically gave it away, I didn't think I ever would make any use for it, it was sitting in the back of the cupboard for the past year never used. I'm kicking myself that I sold it.

[ULWalkingPhil]

Anyone out there that owns a trangia stove with a simmer ring can you run some tests for me. How many mills of metho does a Trangia stove hold? and how long can it simmer with 30ml of metho?

[Pongo]

Thanks Pongo, The powdered butter turned up in the post today.
What's the brand of the powdered butter? and where can you purchase it?

Hey Phil, it was from 'The Great American Spice Company':

http://www.americanspice.com/butter-powder/

They shipped direct. I ordered this from them when I got a big batch of soy sauce power. I recon the butter would only be decent with baking as I find it a bit salty. As an aside the soy sauce powder is about as good as I could have hoped for for a fermented sauce. It's served me well:

http://www.americanspice.com/soy-sauce-powder-tamari/

[ULWalkingPhil]

Thanks Pongo, The powdered butter turned up in the post today.
What's the brand of the powdered butter? and where can you purchase it?

Hey Phil, it was from 'The Great American Spice Company':

http://www.americanspice.com/butter-powder/

They shipped direct. I ordered this from them when I got a big batch of soy sauce power. I recon the butter would only be decent with baking as I find it a bit salty. As an aside the soy sauce powder is about as good as I could have hoped for for a fermented sauce. It's served me well:

http://www.americanspice.com/soy-sauce-powder-tamari/

Thanks Pongo, I'm going to save it for some upcoming bushwalks instead of using it up at home, especially when there's butter in the fridge.

Today I'm baking 3 cakes, to try to sort out this Mini Heat Stove system, I've managed to get it to perform more reliable, My opinion the Mini Heat Stove with the remote feeder is a poor design in particular for dry baking. I have found it's faults and have solutions to those faults and it's now performing as I had originally expected, It's taken some modifications. I'll post some images later today from today's baking session.

[ULWalkingPhil]

Today's offerings.

Two of the cakes are new recipe's, It's amazing how one cake can cook in 25 minutes and another takes 45 minutes.

The middle is a banana Muffin Recipe where I added some sultanas. The one on the right could probably had a few more minutes. The chocolate cake, that's so far one of my favourite. YUMMY......

[icefest]

That looks incredible. It's making me hungry just looking at it.
What do you line the baking took with? Do you mix the dry stuff up and then just add water on a hike?

[ULWalkingPhil]

That looks incredible. It's making me hungry just looking at it.
What do you line the baking took with? Do you mix the dry stuff up and then just add water on a hike?

I find what works for me without fail is to cut out a piece of baking paper to cover the bottom of the Baking Pot. It's not required, i just use it to save on washing up, than coat the sides of the baking pot with oil. The dry stuff is all pre mixed at home into zippy bags, then just add water at camp. Add water into the dry mix inside the zippy bag, seal up the zippy bag and mix it together inside the zippy bag, you could also mix it inside the baking pot if you wish.

And I only use 30ml of Methylated Spirits per half hour baking.

[Davidf61]

I'm going to try out the Trangia simmer thing tonight, since it can hold a lot more than 30ml of metho I would hazard a guess and say you could get an hour or so, at least, out of a full Trangia in low simmer mode.

Have you tried tea candles?, I bought 100 of them at IKEA for $4 something, lots of experimenting coming up

Edit, wife is now wondering why a Trangia is sitting on my computer desk idling away, it's now 3 oclock.....

[Davidf61]

And it's now 4 o'clock and I'm done looking at the Trangia.

I put 60ml of meth in it, got it up to temp and then put the smmer ring on at probably the lowest usable setting. I'll take a guess and say I've used 1/2 of the fuel. Despite the fact the flame is very small it's *&%$#! hot, as putting my doubting hand near it found out! At this rate if was sheltered from the wind well enough you could probably do a leg roast in a pot! You can cook low and slow for a very long time.

I'll leave it going and see how long it is before it snuffs out.

[Davidf61]

Anyone out there that owns a trangia stove with a simmer ring can you run some tests for me. How many mills of metho does a Trangia stove hold? and how long can it simmer with 30ml of metho?

Here you go, 60ml of Bunnings metho at room temp on my computer desk, no wind, the simmer ring approx covering 2/3 of the opening went out at 1 hr and 50 minutes.

Quickly put 100ml !! of metho in still warm stove [ no simmer ring ] seemed to run ok, thought it might overheat but it's purring away [ out on the patio now! ], so in theory you could slow cook for 4 or 5 hrs....

[ULWalkingPhil]

Anyone out there that owns a trangia stove with a simmer ring can you run some tests for me. How many mills of metho does a Trangia stove hold? and how long can it simmer with 30ml of metho?

Here you go, 60ml of Bunnings metho at room temp on my computer desk, no wind, the simmer ring approx covering 2/3 of the opening went out at 1 hr and 50 minutes.

Quickly put 100ml !! of metho in still warm stove [ no simmer ring ] seemed to run ok, thought it might overheat but it's purring away [ out on the patio now! ], so in theory you could slow cook for 4 or 5 hrs....

Thanks for running those tests for me Davidf61.

The results of your tests surprise me. I remembered when I used to own a trangia kit how inefficient the stove was boiling water.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[cjkerr]

Phil

Question. Have you ever thought of baking other things than muffins? e.g. pasta bake or damper. Watched the video and think it could have other applications in baking.

[ULWalkingPhil]

Phil

Question. Have you ever thought of baking other things than muffins? e.g. pasta bake or damper. Watched the video and think it could have other applications in baking.

I've tried damper, cakes and muffins thus far. Just about anything you can bake in an oven you could bake in this cooking kit. I've been experimenting on food I can easily take with me on a bushwalk.

[ULWalkingPhil]

Numerous tests over the past week looking for an ideal alcohol stove for dry baking.

I've come to the conclusion the Smokeeater908 Mini Heat ST stove is not the stove. It's to fiddly to control, practically impossible to adjust an ideal fuel rate for my liking from that remote fuel feeder and I hate having my fingers covered in fuel everytime I turn the fuel bottle, Fuel leaks through the threads.

The Packafeather XL is a nightmare to use, the thing splatters, coughs and farts and goes out.

So far the Featherfire Stove, same manufacturer as the Packafeather XL stove is the pick, this is one excellent stove, I can light this stove, walk away and come back half hour later and it's exactly the same as I left, no need to readjust all the time like the Mini Heat Stove.

For the last few days I've been in contact with Tinny from Minibulldesigns in the states, emails back and forth between us, I think his come up with a great little stove, a slightly modified original Bongo stove, One is on it's way to me. I'm looking forward to receiving this stove for further tests.

Here's an image of the flame on the Featherfire, this stove maintains this flame till the fuel has run out, No splattering like the Packafeather XL stove.

[ULWalkingPhil]

The original slightly modified Bongo stove from Mini Bull Designs turned up in the post today, For the past couple of hours I been running some dry baking tests.

Just as I thought the setting that Tinny has is a bit to high a heat output, The first bake came out a bit burnt on the sides. I cut the wick down just under the top of the stove, much better, but still a tad to high an heat output, so I cut the wick down well under the top of the stove, and it now looks great, if anything it could be a tad to low a heat. Somewhere in between the two I think will be spot on, Luckily Tinny supplied lot's of extra carbon wicks for me to experiment with.

I'm really excited with this stove, it's extremely fuel efficient. I baked the muffin shown in this image using only 15ml of Metho (half ounce).

I've included some images showing the flame with the 3 different size wicks.

The best thing with this stove, it's very reliable, I don't need to baby sit it. The stove maintains the flame shown for the whole cooking process, at no stage have I had to readjust the stove. Tinny is on a winner here.

[DannyS]

The original slightly modified Bongo stove from Mini Bull Designs turned up in the post today, For the past couple of hours I been running some dry baking tests.

Just as I thought the setting that Tinny has is a bit to high a heat output, The first bake came out a bit burnt on the sides. I cut the wick down just under the top of the stove, much better, but still a tad to high an heat output, so I cut the wick down well under the top of the stove, and it now looks great, if anything it could be a tad to low a heat. Somewhere in between the two I think will be spot on, Luckily Tinny supplied lot's of extra carbon wicks for me to experiment with.

I'm really excited with this stove, it's extremely fuel efficient. I baked the muffin shown in this image using only 15ml of Metho (half ounce).

I've included some images showing the flame with the 3 different size wicks.

The best thing with this stove, it's very reliable, I don't need to baby sit it. The stove maintains the flame shown for the whole cooking process, at no stage have I had to readjust the stove. Tinny is on a winner here.

Phil this question is not to do with this stove but with your wish to utilise a TriTi cone for baking, it seems counter intuitive, the cone is designed to increase the available heat while baking requires slow steady heat, how do you intend to control this and what stove will you be using within the cone? I'm late to this post so apologies if you've already answered my question, just direct me to that post?

[DannyS]

Phil once you get this dry baking down pat I'm going to plagiarise it It'll save me a lot of time and money, I do appreciate you sharing this journey with us, very helpful.

Cheers

[ULWalkingPhil]

The original slightly modified Bongo stove from Mini Bull Designs turned up in the post today, For the past couple of hours I been running some dry baking tests.

Just as I thought the setting that Tinny has is a bit to high a heat output, The first bake came out a bit burnt on the sides. I cut the wick down just under the top of the stove, much better, but still a tad to high an heat output, so I cut the wick down well under the top of the stove, and it now looks great, if anything it could be a tad to low a heat. Somewhere in between the two I think will be spot on, Luckily Tinny supplied lot's of extra carbon wicks for me to experiment with.

I'm really excited with this stove, it's extremely fuel efficient. I baked the muffin shown in this image using only 15ml of Metho (half ounce).

I've included some images showing the flame with the 3 different size wicks.

The best thing with this stove, it's very reliable, I don't need to baby sit it. The stove maintains the flame shown for the whole cooking process, at no stage have I had to readjust the stove. Tinny is on a winner here.

Phil this question is not to do with this stove but with your wish to utilise a TriTi cone for baking, it seems counter intuitive, the cone is designed to increase the available heat while baking requires slow steady heat, how do you intend to control this and what stove will you be using within the cone? I'm late to this post so apologies if you've already answered my question, just direct me to that post?

I have no idea thus far how dry baking would be with the Sidewinder TiTri cooking kit. I know someone in the states that dry bakes with the sidewinder kit and gets great results, but he uses esbit tablets.

I'm not to far away from a perfect system. I think i might have found it with the mini bull design stove, but it's early days, I've only just received the stove today. Further tests are warranted. I had the wick cut to short on the last test I just completed, I think a wick apx 2 to 3mm under the top of the stove should be ideal, Bit tired now, I will test further tomorrow.

[ULWalkingPhil]

In the image above, look in the background of the muffin and you'll see another muffin that was practically cremated on the sides, this is the first time I've had a muffin burn like this on the side, that was the results from the first bake test with the Mini Bull design Bongo stove today at the recommended wick height as suggested by Tinny from Mini Bull Designs. Clearly to high a heat for my liking, outside gets burnt before inside of cake or muffin is cooked, This is why I suggest a much lower heat than what they recommend in the states. I think they cremate there muffins in the states.

The image of the moist muffin is the 2nd bake test, That muffin only went through 15mm of Metho to cook. It's a vast improvement, the flame for that muffin is the 2nd image I posted above.

The last image with the very small flame is way to small. that muffin turned out great, but taken an hour and a half to cook and went through 35mm of metho. I need to cut a wick slightly longer and try that. That's another day, maybe tomorrow.

[DannyS]

Does the Mini Bull have any flame control other than the wick height, this is probably a stupid question? I would have thought the featherfire was very good due it's adjustability and steady output? Is there a reason why you went beyond the featherfire stove, I hear they're very good? Especially for this kind of application!

[ULWalkingPhil]

Does the Mini Bull have any flame control other than the wick height, this is probably a stupid question? I would have thought the featherfire was very good due it's adjustability and steady output? Is there a reason why you went beyond the featherfire stove, I hear they're very good? Especially for this kind of application!

The featherfire is an excellent stove, it does a great job. It's hard to pick between the two. Both do a great job. One think I like more with the Mini Bull Design Bongo Stove is the fuel feeding system. All the fuel remains in your main fuel bottle, with the Featherfire stove it's very difficult to remove the excess fuel out of the stove when completed, that's why I recommended the fuel kit they sell, You can use it to siphon the fuel out.

[Onestepmore]

My mate and I have begun experimenting using plastic egg boilers as a means to make muffins, cheap and easy. The theory is that you don't have any risk of burning the dough as the heat convects via boiling water as opposed to the bottom of a ti pot. I'll pop back here in a few weeks to report our results.

I'll be sure to point out your kit too Phil. My mate was a patisserie chef in years gone by, and he's very very keen on on-trail baking. Thanks for the posts.

This package arrived from China yesterday (you can't rush these things, you know)
But instead of one pack with six egg cooker things in it (which i will try out to cook individual muffins or whatever) I was sent six boxes.
So I have 36 of them. If anyone wants to buy them from me I'll sell a box for the cost of the postage only. Just PM me and I'll see how much that'd be etc.

Might be best to wait until we hear from Pongo or myself to see if this method actually works
I'll grab a pack of cake mix and see how I go next week when I'm out camping

Phil's baking experiences look to be more reliable

[DannyS]

My mate and I have begun experimenting using plastic egg boilers as a means to make muffins, cheap and easy. The theory is that you don't have any risk of burning the dough as the heat convects via boiling water as opposed to the bottom of a ti pot. I'll pop back here in a few weeks to report our results.

I'll be sure to point out your kit too Phil. My mate was a patisserie chef in years gone by, and he's very very keen on on-trail baking. Thanks for the posts.

This package arrived from China yesterday (you can't rush these things, you know)
But instead of one pack with six egg cooker things in it (which i will try out to cook individual muffins or whatever) I was sent six boxes.
So I have 36 of them. If anyone wants to buy them from me I'll sell a box for the cost of the postage only. Just PM me and I'll see how much that'd be etc.

Might be best to wait until we hear from Pongo or myself to see if this method actually works
I'll grab a pack of cake mix and see how I go next week when I'm out camping

Phil's baking experiences look to be more reliable

I'm keen to have a go at this Onestepmore, where can I get some info on how this works?

[Onestepmore]

Phil is this modified MiniBullStove from Tinny similar to the Mini Heat one where there is a continuous feed line from the stove to a remote metho bottle?
I've seen pics of this and it makes me a bit worried that something will go wrong, or of there's a leak in the metho through a seal or connection it could run down the tubing and the whole bottle will go 'whoosh'
I've not used them or seen them (only briefly looked at a couple ofvids), so I'd be interested in your comment

Danny, I'll have a fiddle on the weekend and see what i come up with. They are designed to boil an egg, so I'll try putting premixed muffin mix in one after oiling it, and dropping it in boiling water. It may end up a horrible gluggy boiled mess of stodge, but who knows! Possibly mini boiled plum puddings may be the result with some recipe tweaks!

[GPSGuided]

Search Eggies on Youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Cre4xVzFqo

Can certainly see other uses for them.