How to Cook Camping Doughnuts
Like most food, doughnuts taste even better when you’re camping. Here’s a simple recipe to cook fresh doughnuts on your next outing.
WHAT YOU’LL NEED
- 1 large can refrigerated buttermilk biscuits. Pillsbury Grands! Homestyle Buttermilk Biscuits or the equivalent work well. Avoid using “flaky” type biscuits.
- Vegetable oil
- Frying pan or Dutch oven
- ½ cup sugar
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ cup confectioners or powdered sugar
- 2 lunch-size brown paper bags
WHAT YOU’LL DO
SAFETY FIRST! Hot oil can splatter, burn or catch fire, so please ask an adult for help before trying this recipe.
1. Separate the refrigerated biscuits.
2. Use a knife to cut a hole in each biscuit. You can also use the cap from the vegetable oil for perfect circles.
3. Heat about 2 inches of vegetable oil in a frying pan or Dutch oven and add as many biscuits as will fit. The hot oil can splatter, so be very careful!
4. Fry the biscuits for a few minutes, flipping them over with a fork or tongs when they are golden brown.
5. When the doughnuts are done, remove them from the pan and put them on a paper towel to soak up excess oil.
6. For cinnamon-covered doughnuts, combine the sugar and cinnamon in a paper bag. Add the doughnuts and shake well until the doughnuts are covered.
7. For powdered sugar doughnuts, put the confectioners sugar in a paper bag. Add the doughnuts and shake well until the doughnuts are covered. This works best if the doughnuts are still warm.
8. Remove doughnuts from bags and enjoy.
9. Don’t forget to cook the doughnut holes, too!
Food does not taste better when your camping.
Learned to make these when I was a scout in the late 60’s and early 70’s. On my 25th year of making these every April on our troops Great Sand Dunes campout. I do use the smaller biscuits to make smaller donuts and the cap from a small propane bottle to cut the hole. Scouts say this is one of their favorite memories of this campout.
Our troop makes these one night during our weeklong summer camp every year. We call it “Night of A Thousand Donuts” and we invite all the camp counselors to stop by. No, we wouldn’t want to eat like this all the time, but it sure is a legendary night during a week filled with exercise. Our Scouts have always looked forward to it.
I have been doing this for over 25 years. For Troop 357
Yeah no way. With most of the Scouts being far out of shape and the aim of Scouting is fitness, I will not endorse this at all. How about some recipes that are more in line with the cooking merit badge and keep myself physically strong.
I cant wait to make these!😀
All things in moderation. Including vegetables and other low calorie items. Scouts also need to make sure they’re getting plenty of calories during activities that require burning a lot of energy. You, of course, can stick to your granola if you prefer.
We just made these for scout Sunday… 520 of them… icing was used as well! The best Donut variation ons is to cut it in half, put icing in the middle and then put the two halves back together, fry it. When done, put a sugar glaze over it (powdered sugar and water), more icing, and then powdered sugar over it all. Split by this between 4 kids if you need them calm.
wow very cool ill try to get my cast iron chef
Wrap a pc of apple tossed in cinnamon sugar in the dough. Bake and toss in bag with cinnamon sugar. Great evening snack
Just a reminder: Be SUPER careful with the oil. I got a second-degree burn from it the day after my birthday.
At scouts BSA camp we made cinnamon rolls fried in a Dutch oven on a camp chef 2 burner stove. We had 15 scouts and went through 3 tubes of cinnamon rolls. The only problem is that the gas a tendency to in roll.
I can’t wait to use the recipe:):):):):):):)!!!!
I recently made these with a similar recipie with my troop and we made so many we had to burn the rest. Great recipie and I recommend it.
Awesome Recipe!
I use the cheap refrigerator biscuits, cut in quarters and fry. They look like doughnut holes (though not quite round). Toss in cinnamon sugar or powdered sugar. You can make them faster and cheaper with this method, which is needed when feeding hungry boys.
THANK YOU AWESOME BOYS’ LIFE RECIPES!
We found that our cubs liked donut holes, so we cut the biscut in 4, and everyone got their own bag to carry around with their toppings. It has been a Sunday morning tradition for the pack for a few years. Quick and easy, little mess, and any parent can do it.
When using a dutch oven (cast iron) it will tend to overheat when left on the fire. But no worry, remove it from the fire. The cast iron takes a long time to cool so you can keep cooking donuts while it’s off the fire. If it cools too much just place it back on/in the fire.
Regarding the oil, if you are not going to use it again for a long time it might be best to carefully, very carefully. pour it onto the fire to dispose of it.
I used to make these when I was a Scout in the early 60s, but I did two things differently. I just poked the hole with my finger. Then you can spin the dough on your finger to make it stretch. I mixed the powdered sugar with a little bit of water to make a glaze and poured that onto hot donuts. It cooled into a glaze.
That might not be the brightest idea the oil can flash up and cause severe burns let the oil cool down and put in a container that will also draw animals to camp areas try to use better judgement before giving bad advice especially to younger scouts .
Great receipe, been using over 35 years! Strain the (cooled) oil through a paper towel for best results.
T475
I did this on my Webelos/AoL campout last year. One of my AoLs asked “can we try some with the Hot Chocolate mix in the bag” Now hot chocolate donuts are asked for on every campout.
Great idea, thank you for sharing!!!
That sounds yummy!!
We make these every camping trip on the last day for breakfast since there’s hardly any mess to clean up. Grandkids love to shake these in a bag with powdered sugar. Try putting a spoonful of Nutella in the middle of the biscuit and roll it into a ball and fry. We buy the cheapest biscuits in the 4-pack and works great.
I am going to surprise my family in a campout that i can make doughnuts(donuts)
Delicious