Favo(u)rite Pastries While Wilderness Canoeing

[PaddlingPitt]

Kathleen and I went on our last wilderness canoe trip in 2022. We thoroughly enjoyed sharing silence with our friend the Barren Grounds. But age caught us, and we sold our 565 acre property in Saskatchewan, and moved to 0.39 acres on Pender Island, about halfway by ferry between Vancouver and Victoria.

Our life is physically less demanding, but what should we do with all our spare time? Well, we make nearly daily trips to the bakery. I have coffee and a savoury scone. Kathleen, a.k.a. “Cupcake,” enjoys a latte accompanied by a sweet scone. As soon as we stroll leisurely through the door, the staff begins preparing our usual mid-morning cuisine. Not an exciting life, but oh how I can’t wait for 10:30 to arrive.

It got me thinking why Kathleen and I never once, I mean not a single time, ever packaged up delightful snacks to take with us as we tripped. Nor did we ever prepare mid-morning or post-supper treats on the beach.

It wondered, while nibbling my scone this morning, what other paddlers feature(d) for snacks while tripping. Do you purposefully plan them? Do you have one special snack per trip? Do you head to shore everyday for a must have goodie? Or, like Cupcake and me, do you relish a spartan life, looking forward to stepping on the scales back home, pleased with how much weight you’ve lost after a month of dessert denial?

 

[PaddlingPitt]

Glenn or Alan,

I meant to post this in “Food, Meals & Recipes.” Can you change for me, please?

 

[recped]

Dessert and snacks, two completely different things in my opinion, Since you started by mentioning bakery I'll stick with dessert.

First off, I see no reason to ever have dessert denial.

First to go is the pie, usually dutch apple but sometimes strawberry-rhubarb (I will not discuss the infamous peach pie incident on the Pukaskwa in 2004). Next up is a 10" loaf cake, usually Cranberry Orange (or lemon) and pecans. When those are gone I have to resort to oatmeal raisin cookies (not crappy little cheap ones). Finally in reserve I often carry a small well aged fruit cake a friend of my mother makes. Some of the "well aged" are now 10+ years old, they only get better.

When all of that is done with I have to turn to chocolate, dark chocolate of course as that milk chocolate crap doesn't travel well.

As far as weight loss, on longer trips, especially solo I usually shed about 5% although there have been a couple of trips where it's been as much as 10%. In the past I could regain this fairly quickly but this is becoming more and more difficult.

 

[lowangle al]

I used to take Costco blueberry muffins. I would individually wrap and freeze them. They worked well for a quick breakfast with a coffee before fishing or a snack at night. I really liked the muffins but didn't eat them when not camping so they gave me one more reason to go.

 

[yknpdlr]

"Fresh" baked muffins in various flavors are always stacked near the entry of the local (the only) grocery market in my town (TOPS). $7.99 for a 4 pack is a little steep for the belly bombs, but I often fall for them when they go on sale for $4.99, sometimes at buy one, get on free. I like to get them on the way to my lake cabin where I go to work and paddle for a few days. They keep for weeks in the fridge between visits which makes me wonder how much chemical preservatives I am consuming, but they make a tasty quick microwave heated breakfast snack with juice or coffee. I'm sure freezing them for a distant trip outing would work too.

 

[Alan Gage]

I tended to be fairly spartan in the food department but I did have a couple treats.

The first was a daily treat and that was a lemon drop after lunch every day. I wouldn't put it in my mouth until I'd packed up after lunch and shoved off from shore. On particularly gloomy days I'd put a 2nd in my pocket to extend my sweet sucking pleasure.

The second was a good bar of dark chocolate that I would save for the halfway point of the trip as a little celebration.

Alan

 

[scoutergriz]

I usually bring along some pound cake or cookies as well as about a half pound of (real) fruitcake made with lard and suet, not shortening. on trips where my dutch oven is coming along, about 1/2 way through I'll make a dump cake with rehydrated fruit and either baking soda or, if I can find someone crazy enough to carry it- a can of sprite, ginger ale, or coke. Dutch oven black forest cake is to die for after a couple of days of hard slogging. Then there's usually a box of almost indestructible Vachon pastries waiting in the truck for the ride home.
real fruit cake (not the commercial versions which use shortening instead of lard) is the ultimate survival food- it's packed with carbs, proteins, fats, and fiber, and even has some vitamins and minerals (it's high in iron and potassium, good for hydrating), the rum it's soaked in is an added benefit...

 

[paddler123]

Not quite what you asked for, but here are some tasty reflector oven confections I've made over the years. The little bits of ash on top give it that extra pizzazz that you just can't replicate at home.

 

[MichaelMerry]

We tend to prefer traveling light, but my indulgence that might qualify as a pastry is the humble Lorna doone cookie. I can’t have my morning cup of wilderness coffee without finding that packet. As soon as the water is on the stove, I’m off to get the food bags and digging for my cookies.

 

[tketcham]

Not pastries, but I usually bring a package of Fig Newtons along, which travel well and go good with a cup of coffee or tea for breakfast.

 

[Boatman53]

I always bring the reflector oven so I am baking something. Here is a blueberry crumble that we had for dessert and then finished it for breakfast.


And this was a package of Martha Whites blueberry muffin mix (just add milk) done as one giant muffin, no need to bring a muffin tin.


Jim

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

Or, like Cupcake and me, do you relish a spartan life, looking forward to stepping on the scales back home, pleased with how much weight you’ve lost after a month of dessert denial?

Hating to cook at home and certainly in the bush, and usually appreciating the opportunity to force-unfeed myself to lose a few pounds, all my meals on canoe trips were Spartan. Just the lowest carb freeze dried meals I could find plus a bunch of "protein" bars for lunch and snacks. Some of those bars are kind of sweet and candy-like, so they are sort of like a pastry.

But after the trip, my will power would immediately revert to nil and I inevitably would stop for pizza, hot dogs, or some other SAD diet food . . . plus deserts. I have favorite after-trip/on-the-way-home eating establishments in various parts of the U.S. I've paddled in. Once, when base camping around the shores of Georgian Bay in Ontario, I fell in gastronomic love with a soft and chewy cheese bread that a little store/bakery sold, and I ate it at camp and while paddling every day. Soft, chewy, cheesy, yummy. I still think about it.