Carrot Cake Pancakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Delicious, high powered calorie goodness. 

Flavor: 9/10

Ease at home: 6/10

Ease at camp: 3/10 (depends on your stove/cook system)
Heat level: 0/10

Times made: 1

On morning 4 of Evolution Loop, we were looking forward (and upward) to a 750 foot ascent, Evolution Meadow ahead. Our little campsite was deep in the valley and unlikely to receive sun for a few hours, so we had plenty of time to kill while the laundry and tent eventually dried. So I decided to spend that time preparing the most time consuming breakfast I had planned, and coincidentally the most caloric, to fuel the challenge.

I knew I wanted to fool around with pancakes or bannock this trip, but I ran out of time preparing my own mix and decided instead to pick up a pack of Bob's Red Mill whole grain pancake mix. If you choose to follow this recipe, feel free to sub with your favorite mix: vegan, gluten free, gluten full, or otherwise. 

I adapted this pancakes from Thomas Keller's carrot cake recipe in the Ad Hoc cookbook, and made the cream cheese frosting exactly to recipe, vacuum sealing then freezing it in a half cup portion. After 4 days without refrigeration on the trail (temperature varied between 30 and 75 degrees) it was still in great shape and tasted delicious. 

Next time, I want to work on a vegan version of this recipe in order to improve its shelf stability. I'll probably use flax eggs and a little extra leavening in lieu of dried eggs, and see about a frosting made from sugar, vanilla, maple syrup, cashew butter and coconut butter.

Dehydrated components, shown without the frosting

Recipe (2 servings)

Mix together in a freezer bag:

• 1 cup pancake mix (I was very happy with Bob's)
• 1 egg's worth of dehydrated egg or your preferred egg replacer (I made homemade dehydrated eggs- check youtube for instructions)
• 1 T neutral vegetable oil
• 1 T brown sugar
• 1/2 t cinnamon
• pinch of clove
• 1/2 vanilla bean, scraped. (Keep the scraped bean in the bag to perfume the contents, and remove it at camp before preparing.)
• 1/4 c toasted chopped walnuts
• 2 T dried milk or dried almond/soy milk (nonfat or full fat, I use Peak- choose a quantity that reconstitutes to .75c )

Keep in a separate freezer bag:

• 1.5 c grated carrot, dehydrated (around 1/2c dehydrated carrot)

Prepare, package, and freeze:

• 2 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 oz unsalted butter, at room temperature
• .25 c confectioners' sugar
• .25 t vanilla extract

Beat together the above ingredients. Since it's a small quantity, you'll probably need to do it the old fashioned way, with a wooden spoon. Adjust everything to taste- you may want a little less vanilla, or a little more or less sugar. I packaged the stuff by plopping it in a lump on some cellophane, froze the lump solid, then vacuum sealed it, holding in the freezer until we departed for the trailhead.

It might look like a poopy lump, but it's a damn delicious poopy lump.

At Camp

Boil 2 cups of water. While the water is boiling, pull out the grated carrot baggie and put it in a cozy. To the carrots, add around 1 cup boiling water (carrots should be submerged completely) and reserve the rest.

Let the carrots sit and rehydrate fully, should take around 15 minutes. Allow the remaining water to cool in the meantime. Once the carrots are rehydrated, pour the contents of the bag, including any carrot water, into the pancake mix. Mix it around and assess consistency. Add reserved boiled water until it's the right batter consistency. It will of course be lumpy with carrot and walnut. 

Cook the pancakes in your pan with a little oil and great caution (unless you have a diffuser). Our stove scorches pans easily, so I cooked the cakes very slowly and carefully, holding the pan above the burner and moving it regularly. I stuck with small pancakes to allow for easy flipping. 

In the meantime, smoosh the frosting around in the frosting packet until it's nice and soft and ready for pancakes. Splooge it on to the cakes, and enjoy!

Oh, and watch out, this breakfast is high powered. I was running on a major sugar high the duration of the ascent and barely needed to take a breather, it was great!