DIY Outback Oven - Intro

I was heading into Algonquin park with my son during a fire ban and looking for ways to add flair to the trip -- I came across the Outback Oven but it has been discontinued for a while now. I set about a DIY version. This isn't a detailed instruction, but it's a pretty simple creation. I can say it worked really well. I never had an outback oven to compare how close it came to the original though.

Final supplies list

• - (3) silicon baking sheets, sized 38 x 27.5 cm (15" x 10.3/4"). $5 on sale, $10 CDN regular. What I used: here or here
• - (1) 9" x 9" silicon backing pan (if a 10" x 10" existed that might have been better but for my pot the 9" x 9" worked)
• - Cheap rivet tool plus rivets - I used 1/8" diameter rivets plus two washers (one on each side of the joint) to hopefully help the rivets no pull through the silicon. In total I used 20 rivets and 40 washers

Other items needed:

• Heat diffuser - I used this, the removable and folding handle was great for packing
• Risers. The original oven used a bar that offset the pot from the diffuser. I had a set of angle brackets in my garage that worked well

My rough plan was to recreate the dome lid as shown on the rough plan - at Canadian Tire when I came across the 9" x 9" pan it was a no brainer to use that as a top.

- Construction was done using rivets to attach the sheets together. I used two full sheets and didn't trim them at all. Then I propped them up inside the 9"x9" pan to test fit and measure where to cut the 3rd sheet.

- I used an overlap on the sheets of about 1"

- One washer on each side of the joined material to help avoid the rivets pulling through the material

- The collar was then riveted into the 9 x 9" as shown, two rivets per side

- A small 1" diameter hole cut on top

It worked really well! For packing I folded the collar down, added the risers (angle brackets) and rolled it up. It survived crammed into an equipment pack for 3 days and 13 portages. I wonder if heavy duty foil work work as well but this oven was reliable and it definitely coming tripping again with us.

We made two recipes :

Waffle candy bowls

1. Add mini marshmallows, chocolate and candy to a waffle cone bowl
2. Set up oven with heat diffuser and risers. We also used a layer of parchment paper for each of clean up
3. Bake at very low flame for ~ 20 to 30 minutes (I used a MSR Dragonfly on it's lowest setting

Cinnamon Roles (proud of this one and happy the recipe worked!)

- At home in one zip lock bag mix 1 cup of white flour, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 1/2 tsp baking power, 1 tbsp white sugar. In another bag mix equal parts white sugar and cinnamon. I think we had about 1/2 cup total in the end.

- At camp -

1. Add 2 tbsp soft butter and a bit of water to the flour mixture.
2. Knead as you can in the bag, we ended up with quite a stiff dough.
3. Roll out on cutting board to 1/4" thick (no thicker or it doesn't cook).
4. Spread another thin layer of butter across the top and most of the sugar cinnanom.
5. Roll into a large tub and cut into approx 1.5" inch high role
6. Set up oven with heat diffuser and risers
7. Add parchment paper to oven, add roles, sprinkle more sugar mix
8. Bake on low for 30 mins. For last 5 to 10 mins we turned up the heat a bit

I haven't tried them yet, but other sites list lots of other recipes too like these

• ttps://www.trail.recipes/recipe-collection/outbac...
• https://www.backpackingchef.com/outback-oven.html