Reader Recipe: Pecan Pancakes with Fruit Compote

Tastiest breakfast

Chefs Mai-yan Kwan and Emily and Aimee Trudeau, cocreators of the outdoor-cooking blog Dirty Gourmet (dirtygourmet.com)

Cooking secret “Clean dishes using snow, since it acts as both a scrubber and rinser,” says Kwan. “To leave no trace, remove big scraps first and scatter the snow afterward.”



Dried Fruit Compote

1/2 cup dried fruit mix (such as cranberries and apricots, or strawberries, blueberries, and cherries), chopped

1/8 cup brown sugar

Pancakes

1/2 cup old-fashioned oats or 1 packet of instant oatmeal

3/4 cup “add water only” pancake mix (like Aunt Jemima’s Complete Pancake and Waffle Mix)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 cup chopped pecans

2 tablespoons oil for skillet

At home

Combine dried fruit and sugar in a small zip-top bag. In a large zip-top, combine oats, pancake mix, cinnamon, and pecans (you’ll need the extra room to mix the batter).

In camp

Pour 2 1/2 cups of water in a pot along with the fruit compote ingredients. Simmer on medium-low heat (with the pot semi-covered so steam can escape) until the mixture becomes thick and syrupy (about 20 to 30 minutes). Cover and set aside. While the fruit compote is simmering, pour one cup of water inside the bag containing the pancake ingredients. Seal bag and mix batter by gently kneading it. When the compote is ready, heat a lightly oiled skillet on medium-high. Cut one corner off the bottom of the pancake-batter bag, and squeeze one-sixth of the contents onto pan. Let cook until the batter bubbles on top. Flip and cook until golden brown. Repeat with the rest of the batter. Top the pancakes with fruit compote and dig in. Makes about six to seven four-inch pancakes.