Dessert on the trail - do you do it?

[FarmerChef]

So I'm looking for ways to cut back on food weight as my kids get older but not necessarily able to carry significantly more food. On our trips now, I usually pack dinner plus dessert. Dessert usually weighs as much as dinner and I pack this both for its enjoyment but also for the amp in calories. However, now I'm considering cutting them out as I expand dinner to accomodate hungrier mouths.

So I'm curious. Do you typically pack a dessert to follow dinner or is it just an occasional treat?

[illabelle]

Occasional treat, sort of. Midday meals are typically non-cook: crackers, chips, cheese, cookies, candy. For a yummy after supper treat, fry honey buns in butter. Yummmmmmy!

[Tipi Walter]

I always eat something sweet after dinner while backpacking. Raisins are good and sweet, as are good organic dates. Mix almond or cashew butter with honey or strawberry jam, etc. Avoid junk like snickers, white sugar, nutella, etc etc.

[Spirit Walker]

Cookies are my usual dessert. Oreos and fig newtons carry well, without excess packaging. Dried fruit at lunch or for snacks. I used to have an occasional pudding in a ziplock bag, but rarely do that any more. Even more rarely I'll make Jello cheesecake. I don't make the freeze dried type desserts as they are heavy, expensive and messy.

[The Kisco Kid]

I have dried pineapple after dinner. It's good.

[bigcranky]

Oreos, dark chocolate bars, sometimes instant pudding.

[treesloth]

Dark chocolate covered almonds.

[Mountain Mike]

I do an occasional treat. Popcorn is nice for the texture & crunch after days of trail food, sprinkle some butter bud, powdered cheese & maybe some garlic powder on it. An easy light weight alternative is mock fruit cobbler from Sarbar's site. http://www.backpackingchef.com/peach-cobbler.html I use it with different FD fruits & berries & no simmer is required, just do it FBC style. A real treat for the kids could be smores boiled in the bag:

Smores
3 gram crackers
½ C Choclate chips
½ C chopped walnuts
Some mini marshmellows

Mix all in bag
Drop bag in boiling water until melted

[Old Hiker]

Mountain House Blueberry Cheesecake - if you can find it still. Blueberrys never re-hydrate, so I spit them back out in my trash bag. Also makes a GREAT supper - 1.5 cups of water, 500+ calories.

[Alligator]

Another vote for cookies. The little packages--Oreos, nutter butters, etc.--are a nice treat for the kids and there is some variety as well. I bring regular smores too but you won't need the whole bag of marshmallows or the whole box of crackers, although it would depend on the number of kids/days. Or you could go with a little debbies box of something, the oatmeal cookie sandwiches are tasty. As long as it gets eaten, it's not extra weight.

[Rocket Jones]

I like the dried pineapple too. Rice crispy treats are bulky but weightless. Sometimes instant pudding. For the first night out I like to carry frozen strawberries. Let them thaw all day with crumbled dehydrated angel food cake. Good stuff.

[max patch]

Mountain House Blueberry Cheesecake - if you can find it still. Blueberrys never re-hydrate, so I spit them back out in my trash bag. Also makes a GREAT supper - 1.5 cups of water, 500+ calories.

Having some for dessert isn't gonna kill ya, but I can't let the comment that it is a "great supper" go unchallenged.

800 calories in the 4 serving bag - maybe you've found a 2 serving bag - but no matter the bag size an incredible 60% of the calories come from sugar. Nice dessert. Lousy supper.

[Another Kevin]

Since I'm a clueless weekender, I can manage to carry few ounces of dessert. I always carry dried fruit among my snacks, and I usually have some sort of candy or cookies or energy bars.. If I can find a stream to cool the freezer bag, or the weather is sufficiently cool, instant pudding is always good.

On a recent trip, I made a peach cobbler with reconstituted freeze-dried peaches and dumplings from sweetened packaged biscuit mix. It was pretty tasty (at least to my uncritical palate), but a pain to clean up after because the sugars caramelized and stuck to my pot.

I also do a nice dried-fruit muffin, steam-baked in a foil baking cup with a Fauxbaker (http://www.trailcooking.com/thefauxbaker). Pack the dry ingredients in a sandwich bag, mix with water and EVOO, cut a corner of the bag and pipe into the foil cup(s). There's very little cleanup, you just have to pack out a foil cup and the plastic bag.

The disc from the Fauxbaker doubles as the heat reflector under my stove if I'm not steaming with it. I think the difference of fuel efficiency in using the heat reflector means that on a 4-day trip I save the weight of the reflector in fuel. The whole Fauxbaker weighs about an ounce, and the makings of the muffins, plus the fuel to steam them are no heavier than the same calories in crackers or bagels or tortillas. And there's nothing like a cup of coffee and a nice hot muffin to buck me up to pull on my frozen boots on a cold morning! In warmer weather, if I've found berries on the trail, that's even better than using the dried fruit. The only real drawback is the cooking time, but I enjoy cooking on the trail, and (clueless weekender speaking!) I'm out to have fun, not see how many miles I can make.

[max patch]

When hiking with kids I always carried dessert. And on the way home if I could find a BBQ place we had ribs. We eat pretty healthy at home, but use hiking as an excuse to eat "treats" that we wouldn't otherwise.

Last time we went hiking my kid said he didn't care where we went -- as long as we passed the Smith House in Dahlonega on the way home.

[FarmerChef]

When hiking with kids I always carried dessert. And on the way home if I could find a BBQ place we had ribs. We eat pretty healthy at home, but use hiking as an excuse to eat "treats" that we wouldn't otherwise.

Last time we went hiking my kid said he didn't care where we went -- as long as we passed the Smith House in Dahlonega on the way home.

I hear you. My kids always ask whether we are going to the Cracker Barrel or the Golden Corral on the way home. Sometimes we even have dessert for breakfast if there's a doughnut place in town on a town day. :D

[Stogie88]

I enjoy a Clif "mojo" bar after dinner.. good calorie bump and protein along with a sweetness.. if that doesnt constitute as dessert then i will also throw in that i have a swig or 2 of some good ol' JD from my flask.

[Mountain Mike]

Instant pudding is another trail treat. for something special try this:
Grasshopper Desert
1 pkg. instant pistachiopudding mix
2/3 cup instant dry milk
13 oz. cold water
1-liter Nalgene bottle
12 chocolate Oreo cookies
2-6 tsp. crème de menthe and/or crème de cacao (carry in a small plasticbottle)

Measure 13 oz of cold waterinto a Nalgene bottle. Add dry milk and shake. Add the pudding mix and shakevigorously for two minutes.
Pour individual servings into zipper-lock sandwich bags or other containers.Allow to stand 5 to 30 minutes in as cool a location as practical. Wash thebottle promptly.
To serve, break cookies into quarters and place on or in the pudding. Top withthe liqueur.

Of course virgin for the kids, but may be a nice treat for you & wife.

[AggieAl]

I like freeze dried fruit.
Target has some nice, very lightweight packaged freeze dried fruit in their nut section. I put some in warm water while I am eating dinner. I like a little sugar on the strawberries.

[Tuckahoe]

http://www.amazon.com/Walkers-Shortbread-Fingers-2-Count-Packages/dp/B001GCVLX6/ref=pd_sim_gro_2

I like these Walker's shortbread twin packs. Perfect lil size for me. I dont always necessarily have dessert, depending on what I had for supper, but I alway have a bedtime snack of the Walkers.

[Malto]

So I'm curious. Do you typically pack a dessert to follow dinner or is it just an occasional treat?

i usually don't find a need after a dinner that includes a couple of candy bars, cookies and little Debbie's brownies. Or maybe I skip dinner and go straight to the dessert.

[rocketsocks]

http://www.amazon.com/Walkers-Shortbread-Fingers-2-Count-Packages/dp/B001GCVLX6/ref=pd_sim_gro_2

I like these Walker's shortbread twin packs. Perfect lil size for me. I dont always necessarily have dessert, depending on what I had for supper, but I alway have a bedtime snack of the Walkers.
+1...my favorite cookie, good stuffs! :)

[evyck da fleet]

Peanut Butter M&Ms, jellybeans, Starburst, mini chocolate bars... anything to get the calorie counter up at the end of the day. During the day the snacks are trail mix, crackers and cliff bars b/c I don't want a sugar high and crash during the day. If you're out long enough a pint of Ben & Jerry's makes an excellent breakfast #1 when leaving town in the morning.

[rusty bumper]

Chocolate chip cookies for me. They break up in my pack as the days go by, but they still taste just fine!

[DeerPath]

i usually don't find a need after a dinner that includes a couple of candy bars, cookies and little Debbie's brownies. Or maybe I skip dinner and go straight to the dessert.

Live is unpredictable, eat dessert first.:)

[yellowsirocco]

I like to pack pastries in the lid of my pack. And I mean stuff like eclairs, not honey buns.

[max patch]

The only time a mouse ever chewed their way into my pack was when I left DWG with cinnamon rolls in my pack. Was camped close to Sunfish not anywhere near a shelter.