Camp Oven “The Governors Wife’s Dumplings” – Makes 8 Serves

These dumplings became a favourite of mine on a camping trip about 10 years ago. I can’t remember who cooked them, but I squirrelled away the recipe after much harrassing of the cook!

The original recipe was for 4 servings, but everyone comes back for more, so I’ve doubled it. Besides, once your neighbouring campers get a whiff of them cooking, you will suddenly have visitors. Please take this into account and use a large campoven, unless you are halving the mixture back to 4 serves.

For the dumplings you will need:
2 cups of self raising flour
2 eggs
1 cup of milk (use powdered made up if you are ‘out bush’)
2 tablespoons of butter or margarine A good pinch of salt

For the sauce you will need:
1 cup of white sugar
2 big cups (about 600ml) of water 1 rounded tablespoon of butter or margarine
2 generous tablespoons of golden syrup
1/2 cup of your favourite liqueur (Traditionally sweet sherry was used, but Tia Maria, Cointreau etc – is just as nice)

Method:
To make the dumplings, mix together the flour and salt, then rub in the butter or margarine. Beat the eggs lightly, beat in the milk, then stir into the flour and butter mixture. You should end up with a nice thick, soft dough. Set aside.

Put all the sauce ingredients into your camp oven, and sit it uncovered, on some nice hot coals. Wait for the sauce to come to the boil, stirring occasionally, then remove the camp oven from the coals.
Drop tablespoons of the dough into the sauce, then put the camp oven lid on. You only need to let the mixture simmer, not boil, so make sure the camp oven is placed at the edge of the fire, but surround the base with some hot coals.

Allow the dumplings to simmer for about 15 minutes, or until you have a layer of fluffy, golden, sponge-like dumplings on top of the sauce. Serve with some icecream or cream.

Note: If there are kiddies with you, just omit the liqueur and add some extra golden syrup.

Serika