The Great British Bake Off - Motorhome Edition

Being on the road is awesome, but stereotypical motorhome cooking leaves a lot to be desired. Although, occasionally surviving predominantly on instant noodles and tins of beans is a worthy sacrifice for life on the road, one food-group remains essential in the motorhome diet - baked sweet treats!

Although granola bars and blocks of chocolate will keep your cravings at bay for a while, they are no replacement for real, home-baked desserts. There’s only one thing for it; it’s time to don the apron and put your motorhome cooking skills to the test.

Many campervans now come equipped with gas stoves, fridges, sinks, pots and pans and even microwaves (sometimes). So, you can still get your Mary Berry on - with minimal motorhome kitchen equipment.

Whatever your campervan kitchen accessories there are plenty of amazing camping recipes to keep you munching in Michelin style while on the road.

Baked Bananas (aka the banana bomb)

Banana lovers beware! This recipe may change your life. A masterful upgrade of the classic s'mores recipe, this gooey, marshmallowy, chocolatey fiasco is the next level motorhome cooking desert. Plus, it’s got fruit in, so it totally counts as healthy right?

Ingredients: (serves as many as you like)

-          Bananas (1 per person)

-          Marshmallows

-          Chocolate

-          Oat biscuits broken into bits

-           Whatever gorgeous sweet toppings you have to hand: sprinkles, honey, strawberries,   granola, crumbled up cake, it’s all good!

Equipment:

-          Tinfoil

-          Knife

-          Fire

Method:

Peel back a strip of the banana skin and slice the fruit lengthways down the middle without fully cutting it in half (you should hit but not slice through the skin on the back).

Open up the fruit down the cut like you would a jacket potato, then get stuffing!

Fill the banana with as many marshmallows, chunks of chocolate and bits of biscuit (or whatever fillings you chose) as you think you can eat without feeling sick. This is proper childhood sleepover food, so go big or go home!

Wrap your banana bomb loosely in tinfoil, making sure the seal is at the top. Pop them on the grill if you’re doing some motorhome cookies, or above the campfire if you’re planning on cooking outside. Then sit back and wait for a couple of minutes, these babies don’t take long to cook!

When done, use tongs to lift the tinfoil packages off the fire and pop them onto plates. Let them cool for a minute or two before opening and be careful not to burn your fingers. Take a second to admire the gooey, saucy, chocolatey mess you’ve created and then dig in - but careful, they’re hot!

Campfire Apple Crumble

Nothing says comfort food like an apple crumble. If you thought that scrumptious, fruity filling topped with a sweet and crunchy topping was something only possible with an oven, guess again! You can achieve apple crumble perfection with this quick campfire recipe, however basic your campervan kitchen accessories.

Ingredients: (serves two)

- Half a cup of old-fashioned oats
- 3 large or 4 small apples

- 6 tbsp plain flour
- 3 (generous) tbsp brown sugar
- 2 tbsp butter/margarine (plus extra for greasing)

- A quarter cup of granulated sugar
- Pinch of cinnamon
- Pinch of nutmeg
- Dash of lemon juice

- Yoghurt/custard/ice cream to serve (optional)

Tools:

- Chopping board
- Knife
- Mixing bowl
- Spoon
- Tin foil
- Campfire/fire/grill

Method:
Mix all of your dry ingredients together in a bowl. Cut the butter (or margarine for our vegan friends) into small bits - then add to the dry ingredients and rub together until the mixture is crumbly. Cover and put the mix to one side, ideally somewhere cool, while you prep the other ingredients.
Wash your apples, then remove the core and slice them up! Chop them however you fancy but small, thick chunks seem to work best. Stick the apple chunks in another bowl, splash a dash of lemon juice over them and give the mix a quick toss.
Cut out 2 large squares of tinfoil and grease the centre of each with some more butter. Plonk the apple mix into the centre of one of the tin foil squares, spreading it out a bit but not too much.
Sprinkle the crumble mix over the apple as evenly as you can and then place the other piece of tinfoil, butter side down, over the top. Crimp over the edges so that the package is well sealed and cover the whole thing with another sheet of (unbuttered) tinfoil). You want to keep in the moisture and prevent burning the edges so that you get a pile of gooey, sugary appley goodness!
Stick the apple packets on a BBQ, on a grill over a fire, or in the fire itself if it’s dying down and not too hot. There’s a bit of guesswork involved as to how long you let it cook for, depending on how hot your fire is but hey, that’s motorhome baking for you! As a rough estimate, a medium heat would require about 20 minutes of cooking time.
When ready, use tongs to take the silver bags of deliciousness off the fire, let them cool for a minute or two then go to town! If you have access to vanilla ice cream, tinned custard, or even plain yoghurt then dollop some on top for an even more divine dessert!

Campers Chocolate Oranges (Secret Cakey Surprises)

Sometimes we just need cake. Chocolate cake to be precise. Marvellously moist, “hidden chocolate orange surprise cake” would be even more accurate. When motorhome cooking, baking a cake, with your limited motorhome kitchen accessories, may seem like a pipe dream….. Well, thanks to this phenomenal camping recipe, you really can have your cake and eat it too.

Ingredients: (serves 4-6)

-          4-6 oranges

-          1 cup self-raising flour (sifted)

-          1/3 cup cocoa (sifted)

-          1 cup caster sugar

-          1/3 cup butter (softened)

-          2 eggs (lightly beaten)

Tools:

-          3 bowls

-          Whisk/fork

-          Chopping board

-          Knife

-          Spoon

-          Tinfoil

-          Fire/campfire/grill

Method:

First, tackle the oranges. Slice off the tops so that you have the main bulk of the orange and a lid. Scoop out the oranges’ contents into a bowl, leaving the skin whole and trying not to squish the round orange shape. Put the empty orange skins and their lids to one side, you’ll need them later.

Going back to the bowl of orange fruit, get rid of as much of the pith (the white stuff) as you can along with any pips. Mash the pulp until it is as liquidy as possible and you’ve got a bowl of orange juice and pulp.

Next the cake mix. Mix the dry ingredients together in one bowl. In another bowl combine the butter and sugar.

Add the eggs, orange juice and pulp to the butter and sugar and mix until smooth (or smooth-ish, there’ll be some lumps of orange pulp, but that’s ok). Make a well in the dry ingredients and slowly pour in the wet ingredients, stirring as you do, until everything combines and you have a smooth cake mix.

Spoon the cake mixture into the hollowed-out orange “shells”, you can fill them almost to the rim but not all the way to allow for the cake to rise. You’ll probably have some mix left over (depending on the size of your oranges and how many you have to fill), which you can either discard, get creative with, or eat with a spoon!

Pop the lids back on the oranges and wrap each orange in foil (1,2 or 3 layers of foil depending on how hot your fire is). Using tongs, pop the silver balls of cakey wonder into the coals of your campfire or pop them on a grill.

Depending on the heat of the fire and whether you’re using a grill, it’ll be 20-45 minutes before you can scoop your chocolate oranges out of the fire (use tongs!). Check the cakes are fully cooked, you’ll have a gooier cake than normal as they’ve effectively been steamed in an orange, but they should still be solid and not gloopy.

Then simply grab a fork and dive in! The cakes will be hot; they’re basically fresh out the oven. They’re also utterly divine cakey goodness and extra moreish with a squirt of whipped cream!

Move over mug cakes; campfire chocolate oranges are the next cake sensation!

So why not get the family together, and head out on a tasty adventure? No campervan? No problem! With Yescapa, you can rent a camper from anywhere in Europe and hit the road, ready for great times, great memories, and great desserts!