No matter how hard you try, some people just aren’t good at some things. “You can’t teach eagles to swim” my dad used to say. And true enough in the outdoors there are trampers who are gifted naturalists, scintillating conversationalists and Magellanesque navigators… but they can’t pack a backpack to save themselves.
This is a recipe made with these people in mind, almost all of the ingredients will either tolerate being crushed – or actually require it. So if they end up stuffed under the tent and the sleeping bag (and those couple of rocks you snuck in while they weren’t looking), crushed in the car and sat-on at lunchtime – it’ll still work nicely. But you might want to put the Baileys in someone else’s pack… just in case.

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Serves: 4 people
Weight: 1.5kg
Volume: 2.5L
Calories: 2500 kcal
Cost: $12.50
Cooking time: 20min
Fuel: 165ml of white spirit or 60g of gas.*

*Based on an MSR Whisperlite or Primus Classic operating at sea level.

Ingredients

• ½ cup dried bananas
• ¼ cup dried cranberries and/or sultanas
• ½ loaf of white bread (flattened, crusts removed)
• 4 shots of Baileys (bring a bit extra in case some of it ‘evaporates’)
• ¼ cup flaked almonds
• 15g butter
• 2 ½ cups of milk (from powder)
• ¼ cup of brown sugar
• 2 cups custard (from powder)
• ¼ cup vanilla essence if you’re really feeling gourmet.

Special utensils

• Two pots, one small enough to fit inside the other with a bit of room for boiling water.

Method

Pop the bananas and cranberries in some water to rehydrate, then if your bread isn’t well flattened after the hike in, give it a last bash to finish it off, remove the crusts and butter and chop into triangles, keeping a bit of the butter to grease the cooking (smaller) pot.

Mix up the milk powder, Baileys and vanilla then dip the bread triangles in the mixture and layer the bread, custard, sugar, bananas and cranberries in the small pot.

Lastly half-fill* the large pot with water and bring to the boil. Add in the smaller pot and simmer for 15 minutes. Sprinkle with the flaked almonds and serve with a shot of baileys. Bon apetit!

*Depending on the size difference between your pots you might need to adjust the amount of water.