Back in June I took a weekend trip to Lake Lanier with my Mom and Dad for Father’s Day to do some kayaking.  As usual I was in charge of dessert so thought I’d do something a little creative given our outdoor activities; in fact, it gave me the opportunity to try my hand at a recipe I’d been eyeballing for probably over a year now: backpacking tiramisu!

We were drive-in camping so in reality I could’ve crafted a supremely fancy, gussied-up tiramisu recipe, but I find that any time I’m sleeping on the ground and have dirt between my toes, fanciness will not do!  Unless it’s backpacking fanciness of course, as this recipe is.

“Backpacking fanciness”, for those of you who do not backpack or venture out into the woods, is a term I coined very recently (in the previous paragraph, in fact) to signify a level of fanciness one typically does not attain while out in the woods.  Traditional backpacking sustenance for me tends to comprise mainly of rice, pre-cooked packages of chicken, crackers, and spray-cheese.  You may be thinking”ew, disgusting!” but trust me when I say that everything tastes good after you’ve been carrying your gear up and down mountains for 10 miles.  Bugs in your water? WHO CARES!  Dirt in your dinner?  DELICIOUS!

Not that any of those issues arose during our Father’s Day weekend.  Even so, I wanted to try this backpacking recipe out, and being outside seemed like excuse enough to give it a try.

It seems to me that, with these fairly straight forward and easy-to-carry (as well as easy-to-access) ingredients, this would work out pretty well on a backpacking trip.  You run the risk of smooshing the lady fingers or the chocolate melting if it’s hot out, but those are pretty small issues overall.  The biggest concern I’d have would be the amount of water you need.  The instant pudding takes 2 cups of milk, which would mean 2 cups of water for powdered milk.  If you’re doing a trail where water access is a problem, you may want to try this dessert another time (because really, trail dessert is awesome, but is it worth packing in extra water for it?).

 

    

 

But water issues aside, I think I’d vouch for this as a tasty way to finish your day of hiking! Like I mentioned before, the ingredients are light and easy to carry, and as you can see above, the assembly is super straight-forward. After heating up water to dissolve the instant coffee, mix in the liquor (if you chose to add it). Layer 1 of the tiramisu is lady fingers + a drizzle of the coffee mixture. Layer 2 is pudding. Repeat!

Overall the most difficult part was probably mixing the pudding together.  And by “difficult” I mean “having to stir until your arm gets sort of tired but not really.”  That reminds me, does anyone else remember instant pudding being this easy to make?  I suppose I didn’t eat that much pudding growing up (a travesty, I know), but I don’t remember Jello boxes being as magical as simply mixing with milk to make something delicious.  Hooray, chemicals!

Typically my parents wouldn’t indulge in something as diabetes-inducing and chemical-laced as this faux-tiramisu, but because they love me (and also, delicious sweet things) they allowed themselves a few nibbles.

Definitely give this recipe a try if you’re either (a) going on a camping or backpacking trip and what to prove how fancy you are, or (b) want an easy-peasy tiramisu-y treat.  The recipe is definitely enough for 4-6 people, so bring your friends!  The instant pudding makes it a little soupy, but it’s sweet, creamy, and otherwise very good.  A sprinkle of dark chocolate on top makes it perfect.  Enjoy!

Backpacking Tiramisu

From Backpacker.com!