Beggar's Pudding [camp fire]
From:	Nicole, Quebec, Canada
Comments:	A recipe that we like to prepare year after year. Serve this pudding hot, along with a little light cream or milk. The scent that will escape is unique... and everyone who walks by the fire and smell it will envy you to eat someting this good. We spend approximately 2 weeks camping and I can assure you that our neighbors are astonished to see what we cook over an open fire. They only light their fire in the evening but I prepare some food at any time, even when it rains; my husband makes sure that there always is some embers underneath. I also prepare spaghetti sauces, pancakes, French toasts, toasts, eggs, bacon, coffee, tea, boiled corn-on-the-cob over the open fire; I even warm-up some dish washing water over the open fire. What I need, according to the season, is a heavy cast-iron casserole, a frypan and a saucepan, the same ones that I use in my oven at home during the winter, that I wash and then dry using paper toweling or any old clean cloth that I will throw away before leaving. It is REALLY IMPORTANT to have a heavy black cast-iron casserole with a lid, BBQ utensils and thick mits or pot holders. A cast-iron frypan are what you need to cook pancakes or French toasts and even some homemade French fries; a small cast-iron saucepan is perfect to boil vegetables and prepare a sauce, to reheat or prepare some oatmeal, to poach eggs.... As a rolling pin, you can use any clean empty bottle or any other round container such a clean can, label removed of course. To cook over an open fire : Prepare and light a wood log and briquet fire. Wait until fire is burned to embers. Using a metal shovel, shape a hole into the embers and lay some regular bricks over the bottom to be able to sit a casserole so that embers do not the bottom of the casserole. Note : the intense heat that emanates will cook a meat pie, a pouding, even beans in approximately 1 hour [always check to see that the food does not stick to the bottom, nor burn; it is sometimes necessary to remove the casserole and arrange a wire rack in the fire before returning the casserole over the fire, after waiting for approximately 5 to 10 minutes - it will continue cooking]. If needed, add some briquets or wod logs to the fire. Remove cooled bricks using a camping shovel or any other on-hand tool; leave to cool completely onto a wire rack. If desired a cast-iron frypan or small saucepan, wrapped into al foil, can be used as a support to keep-warm or reheat. Back home, clean and wrap frypan and saucepan for the next camping trip.
Ingredients	Preparation
1 cup [225 g] soft butter or margarine 1 cup [200 g] sugar or brown sugar [250 mL] 2 cups [280 g] all-purpose or prepared [with baking powder] flour 2 teaspoons [10 mL] baking powder [if using regular all-purpose flour] 1 teaspoon [5 mL] salt 1 cup [250 mL] milk 1 teaspoon [5 mL] vanilla Syrup 2 cups [500 mL] boiling water 2 cups [500 mL] packed brown sugar 1 teaspoon [5 mL] vanilla	Into a bowl, cream together soft butter or margarine and sugar or brown sugar; whip vigousously. Sift together flour, baking powder if using, and salt; mix into first mixture, alternately with already mixed together milk and vanilla. Beat well and pour dough into a casserole. To prepare syrup, bring water to a boil. Pour boiling syrup into brown sugar, stirring to completely melt brown sugar. Mix in vanilla, then pour syrup all around dough into casserole, lifting dough for syrup to flow underneath dough. Cover then transfer casserole into the centre of the fire, over really hot bricks. Cook until top of dough is golden and dough resembles cake dough. It is really important to check as, as soon as steam starts to escape, we must transfer covered casserole over a wire rack or cold bricks, away from the fire [do not uncover or you will loose some heat]. Leave pudding to stand for 5 to 6 minutes and then transfer casserole back over the hot bricks, into the centre of the fire. Transfer the casserole once more over the wire rack or cold bricks as soon as steam starts to escape. Check to see if pudding is done lowering the tip of a knife or a wooden skewer into the centre of the pudding [if it comes out clean, pudding is done]. Cooking time should be of approximately 30 minutes, according to the intensity of the fire. If you do not follow these proceedings, syrup will overflow and a burning scent will spread [from experience], and even your pudding could burn.