A note about Bramble & Spice Backpacking Recipes: These recipes are intended for one or two night backpacking trips. I like eating real food when I’m hiking and I’m always willing to carry a little extra weight in order to eat well. Everything really does taste better in the mountains.

I love these pancakes because they’re easy to eat on the go. We’re usually not too hungry first thing in the morning, so I love having breakfasts that I can eat on the trail once I start feeling hungry. These are hearty and very filling, especially with the nut butter on top. If a warm breakfast is important, you can reheat these in your pan.

The pancake recipe itself makes far more than you’ll need for one trip. However they freeze really well, so we portion them out with 4 pancakes per bag and freeze them. This makes it really easy for future trips – all you have to do is grab a bag from the freezer! If you’re making the pancakes the evening before a trip, they can make a pretty tasty dinner while you’re packing your gear.

Backpacking Whole Grain Pancakes

Serves 2

Ingredients weight: 14 oz

Cooking gear required: none

4 pancakes

2 single serving nut butter packets (usually 1.15 oz per packet)

At home:

Make pancakes:

Whole Grain Pancakes

Lightly adapted from the New York Times

Yield: 18 pancakes

1 cup whole wheat flour

½ cup all-purpose flour

¼ cup buckwheat flour

½ cup cornmeal

¼ cup rolled oats

2 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

3 eggs

2 ¼ cup buttermilk

¼ cup butter, melted

1 Tb honey

¾ cup dark chocolate chips

In a large bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients. Set aside. In a medium bowl, add the eggs. Use a whisk to break the yolks. Add the buttermilk, melted butter, and honey. Whisk thoroughly to bring everything together.

Add the wet ingredients to the large bowl with the dry ingredients. Use a rubber spatula to scrape down the bowl, to make sure you’re getting everything. Using the rubber spatula, fold the wet and dry ingredients together until no flour pockets remain. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Heat a large griddle, a cast iron skillet, or a large skillet over medium heat. Spray with cooking oil. When the oil is glistening and the pan is hot, add ¼ cup of the batter to the pan spreading it out slightly so that the batter is evenly distributed. Add as many pancakes as will comfortably fit. I did mine in batches of two. Cook the first side for 2-3 minutes, flip using a spatula, and cook for about 1 ½ – 2 additional minutes. Adjust the heat as necessary to keep the pancakes from browning too quickly. Repeat with the remaining batter, taking care to spray the pan with oil before each new round of batter.

Allow to cool before portioning out for future trips (we figure two pancakes per person). Freeze the portioned bags that you won’t be using right away.

At camp:

Smear pancake with some nut butter. Enjoy!