By: Blonde Two

DofE camp is an unpredictable affair, when the weather is poor and teams are late in, it is all hands to the deck (grass) to help make sure that everyone has eaten, warmed up and got themselves ready for the next day before going to bed. When the weather is fair, however and the teams arrive on time, occasionally a DofE leader can find themselves with time to fill with such exciting occupations as putting her own tent up while it is still daylight, talking to her colleagues and eating. It is often a combination of eating and chatting moments that brings about great (or sometimes odd) ideas for camping recipes. Our favourite breakfast recipe, the Frazzle and boiled egg wrap, is now well documented (more recently with the addition of sandwich spread) but last week’s venture into deep fried, sweet treats in the form of churros was new to me. It all came about because the day-before-doughnuts had turned hard enough, in the Exmoor heat, to use on the tent pegs in place of a mallet. One staff member (let us call him Mr Churros) had some pancake mixture… and so the plan for a camping churros recipe was hatched.

Ingredients – Camping Churros

Pancake mixture

Sugar

Water (from a tap if possible but a puddle will do)

Oil (the older the better)

Stove

Pan (one you aren’t too precious about)

Mug (for mixing – never drink pancake mixture)

Squirty water bottle (no single use here!)

  

Method – Camping Churros

  1. Mix together the pancake mixture and water (warning – pancake soup is not recommended)
  2. Insert a proportion of the mixture into the bottle (you may also anoint the camping table)
  3. Prepare a bowl of sugar
  4. Gently heat about 3cm of oil
  5. Squirt a swirl of pancake mixture into the oil
  6. Watch your beautiful shape morph into something from the underworld
  7. Lift the camp churros out of the oil and plonk it into the sugar (we are unsure of the melting points of most sporks so be careful here)
  8. Toss the churros in the sugar (but not on the grass)
  9. Enjoy… it will taste much better than it looks

Excellent chef skills Mr Churros… we also enjoyed the pancakes, which were not made with churros mix!