Backpacker’s Blueberry Crisp ~ I ❤ TraveL

Satisfy your sweet tooth with this quick and easy backpacking blueberry crisp. At only 4 oz, this morale-boosting dessert is definitely worth the weight.

In order to reduce pack weight, backpackers sometimes adopt a purely utilitarian approach towards meal planning. For many, maximizing calories per ounce becomes the primary goal. While this straight calorie exchange makes for good science, it fails to appreciate the subtle complexity of human emotion – namely, our insatiable desire for dessert.

All we’re saying is that at the end of a long day sometimes you need a little morale boost. Something sweet to lift your spirits. And that is exactly what this blueberry crisp aims to do.

This recipe hits all the requisite categories for a backpacking dessert: lightweight, cheap, and fast & simple to make. It’s one of those barely-even-a- recipe recipes that really is just combining a couple of basic ingredients in order to pull off. Which, after a long day on the trail, is exactly what you want.

While there are a bunch of companies that make really good prepackaged backpacking desserts, what we like about this one is that you can control the ingredients. Don’t like blueberries? No problem. Swap them out for strawberries, raspberries, apples, or any other type of freeze dried fruits. You can pair it with your favorite type of store-bought granola or make your own. And to achieve your desired level of sweetness, you can include as many or as few sugar packets as you want.

So the next time you’re planning your meals for a backpacking trip and thinking about skipping dessert, think again! Future you will thank past you later.

Why It Works for Backpacking

‣ As a non-essential dessert, this one is fairly lightweight. Weighing it a just over 4 oz for two servings, this is morale-booster that’s well worth the weight.

‣ This DIY dessert gives you a lot of control over the ingredients. Mix and match your type of favorite freeze dried fruit with your favorite granola.

Ingredient Notes

‣ You can always add more water if you need to, but it takes a long time (and a lot of fuel) to evaporate too much of it. So if you’re going to eyeball the measurements out in the field, err on the side of less, rather than more water.

‣ We picked up our freeze-dried blueberries at Trader Joe’s, but you can also find them online at nuts.com and Amazon.

Equipment Notes

‣ We used our MSR Ceramic Flex Skillet for this recipe because it was easiest to show the process and it is wonderfully non-stick which makes cleanup a non- issue, but any type of backpacking pot will work as well. Just make sure to move the blueberries around once the water starts boiling to ensure they don’t stick.