Hi fellow trampers
Sometimes it is nice to have a bit of fun and frivolity with food you take into the hills. Dessert is the perfect time to give your fun muscles a work out because even if the dish doesn’t quite work out everyone should be reasonably full after the main course. When looking to have fun with desserts you can’t really do any better than take a leaf out of Geoff Keey’s book and seek inspiration from the traditional Kiwi kids birthday party. When Aunty Rata did Bushcraft with Geoff he “cooked” us Chocolate Crackles for dessert. The assembly of these sweet treats is not as tricky as you might imagine and they will be a big hit with anyone who has a sweet tooth.
You can use real chocolate instead of cocoa but I don’t recommend it as chocolate is a hassle to melt on a tramp – you need to put water in a billy then heat the chocolate in a separate container sitting in the water. Aunty Rata does not normally bother with the coconut but if you like macaroons you will love this variation on the Chocolate Crackle. If you really want to impress your group take a packet of hundreds and thousands along as well and sprinkle them on the finished product – very colourful, any 5 year old would be proud!
Bushcraft Chocolate Crackles (serves 4-6)
Ingredients
250g Kremelta *
4 cups rice bubbles (or cornflakes if you prefer)
1 cup icing sugar
3 T cocoa
1 cup coconut (optional)
Paper cupcake wrappers#
*this is vegetable shortening found in the baking section of supermarkets. It looks like margarine but is white and not as soft.
#also available in the baking section of supermarkets, a packet of them should do.
Method
Melt Kremelta in a billy, add remaining ingredients and mix well. Turn off heat.
Place a spoon full of mixture into each paper cupcake wrapper and leave somewhere cold so they set.
If chocolate is not your thing then you could go for Honey Crackles.
Honey Crackles (serves 4-6)
Ingredients
1T honey
4c rice bubbles or cornflakes 90g butter or margarine
One third of a cup of sugar
Cupcake wrappers
Method
Place all the ingredients in a billy and heat to melt and combine.
Spoon mixture into cupcake wrappers, 1 spoonful per wrapper. Set aside to cool then serve.