Backpacker's Pantry Creme Brulee

Food is an area where backpackers often have to make substantial compromises, and dessert is an area where this tradeoff is especially pronounced—there aren’t too many dessert choices that won’t melt or spoil or that don’t require elaborate efforts in cooking, ingredients, and preparation.

Now you can have delicious crème brûlée on the trail with little effort and only needing to add water to dry ingredients. You’ll think you’re camping on the Champs-Élysées!

This is a review of Backpacker’s Pantry Crème Brûlée.

Food is an area where backpackers often have to make substantial compromises. Sure, there are plenty of choices to provide basic sustenance, but what about flavor and enjoyment? And dessert is an area where this tradeoff is especially pronounced—there aren’t too many dessert choices that won’t melt or spoil or squish or that don’t require elaborate efforts in cooking, ingredients, and preparation.

So what if I said you can have delicious crème brûlée on the trail with little effort and only needing to add water to dry ingredients? Yes, you’ll think you’re camping on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées! Um, well OK, no you won’t, but you will have a delicious dessert!

Crème brûlée (“burnt cream” in French) consists of a rich vanilla custard topped with a shell of burnt caramel. Backpacker’s Pantry has created an add-water-only product that gives an approximation of the flavor and texture of real crème brûlée. The package says it provides two servings, and I found this to be about right—each satisfying serving is about half a cup (4 fl oz or ~120 ml). Of course, nothing is stopping you from pigging out on the whole thing by yourself!

The package contains a powdered cream mix and a small pouch of browned sugar crystals. To prepare you add water to the cream mix and whisk with a fork. The instructions are a little confusing because it says to use two forks—does that mean one fork in each hand? Two forks in the same hand stacked one on top of the other? In any event I found that using just one plastic picnic fork works just fine. After preparing the custard you divide into portions, sprinkle on the topping and then serve after waiting a few minutes. Note: you do not actually "burn" the topping like real crème brûlée, there is no cooking or flame involved with this recipe.

The topping is good—sweet, obviously as it seems to be large, chunky sugar crystals. They melt a bit into the custard. And the custard base is very good, it has a rich texture and good flavor with notes of vanilla, and of course it is very sweet as well.

Cleanup is a breeze as everyone will want to lick their bowl clean.

In my mind this dessert gets five stars, but I’m giving it only four stars in this review because my daughter didn’t care for it, so maybe not everyone would agree with my assessment. In particular she did not like the custard. I admit that the texture is almost too creamy, a bit of an “artificial” creaminess similar to what you can get after reconstituting Nido powdered milk. It’s rich and creamy but not quite the natural texture of an unadulterated dairy product. I noticed this but didn’t mind it at all, and if my daughter doesn’t care for it then fine—more for me!

Add a real dessert and a touch of French sophistication to your next backpacking trip with this trail-ready crème brûlée.

Simple prep:

Bon appetit!

P.S. I have no connection to Backpacker's Pantry and paid retail for the product.

Sweet, creamy and tasty dessert that is a lot like the real thing. Easy to prepare and fun to share.

My son and I have always enjoyed the Mountain House Raspberry Cobbler for desserts while out camping. We are big fans of the cobbler.  ;-) 

On our most recent trip we brought a new dessert along with us as well as the cobbler. We brought BP Crème Brulee. Crème Brulee is one of my favorite desserts to begin with so I was excited about trying this one. Well, I can definitely say it didn't disappoint. 

I followed the general directions as given on the box and it turned out really good. I didn't mix the dessert in the bag, instead I mixed it in my MSR DeepDish Plate. That made it easier to mix. It is also important to note that this dessert only requires cold water. It is sweet and creamy like real Crème Brulee and the crunchy candy topping makes it just like the real thing.

Three of us shared this dessert and we couldn't eat it all. A little too much sweetness, but still really good. I highly recommend this dessert.