Camp Deep Dish in a Dutch Oven
A cornmeal crust pressed into a 12-inch Dutch oven, loaded, and baked under coals.
- calories
- 780
- weight
- 9 oz
- cal / oz
- 87
- protein
- 31 g
- serves
- 4
- prep
- 90 min
- cook
- 45 min
- total time
- 135 min
- water
- 300 ml cold
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Dough mix, premixed at home | 1 bag | 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, 1/2 cup yellow cornmeal, 1 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tbsp sugar, 2 1/4 tsp instant yeast |
|---|---|---|
| Water | 1 1/4 cups | lukewarm, not hot enough to kill the yeast |
| Butter | 7 tbsp | 3 melted into the dough, 4 softened and smeared through the fold |
| Olive oil | 3 tbsp | 1 for the dough, 1 for the sauce, 1 for the pot |
| Canned tomato sauce | 15 oz | |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp | |
| Kosher salt | 1 tsp | |
| Black pepper | 1 tsp | |
| Garlic powder | 1/2 tsp | |
| Dried parsley | 1/2 tsp | |
| Red pepper flakes | 1/2 tsp | |
| Low-moisture mozzarella | 12 oz | sliced; the block keeps far better in a cooler than fresh |
| Asiago | 1 cup grated | grate at home |
| Dry-cured sausage or pepperoni | 8 oz | shelf-stable stand-in for raw Italian sausage |
| Bell pepper and sweet onion | 1/2 pepper, 1/4 onion | sliced thin, or use dried flakes |
Method
- Build a fire early and let it burn down. You want coals, not flame, and you want them an hour before you want dinner.
- Dump the dough mix in a bowl. Work in the water, 3 tbsp melted butter, and 1 tbsp oil until it holds together as one ball. Knead a few minutes.
- Cover and let it rise somewhere warm, 45 minutes to an hour. Near the fire, not in it.
- While it rises, stir the tomato sauce with 1 tbsp oil, sugar, salt, pepper, garlic powder, parsley, and flakes. No cooking needed.
- Roll or press the dough flat, smear the softened butter over it, roll it into a log, then coil the log and press it out again. That fold is what makes the crust layered instead of bready.
- Oil the Dutch oven and press the dough up the sides about two inches. Line the bottom with mozzarella, then sausage and vegetables, then sauce, then the asiago. Cheese under sauce keeps the crust from going wet.
- Lid on. Roughly 8 coals underneath, 16 on the lid. Bake 40 to 45 minutes, rotating the pot and lid a quarter turn every 10 minutes so it does not scorch on one side.
- Pull it when the crust edge is brown and firm. Let it sit 10 minutes or the first slice takes the whole pizza with it.
Deep dish is a bread recipe wearing a pizza costume, which is why it works in a Dutch oven and not in a skillet over a burner. The pot is a small oven with heat above and below. Coals on the lid brown the top; the few underneath cook the crust without burning it. Get that ratio backwards and you get a scorched base and raw cheese.
Two swaps off the original. Raw Italian sausage is a cooler liability, so dry-cured sausage does the job with no food-safety math. Low-moisture mozzarella in a block travels better than anything fresh and releases less water, which matters when you cannot drain a Dutch oven mid-bake. The rise is the long pole here, not the bake, so start the dough before you start being hungry.
Packing
Premix the dry dough ingredients into one bag at home and grate the asiago at home. Butter, both cheeses, and the vegetables ride in the cooler. Sauce and seasonings can be premixed into a jar.
Variations
- Skip the meat and it is vegetarian, but check the cheese for animal rennet before you call it that.
- No coals? A propane fire ring will not do this. It needs top heat.
- Dried onion and pepper flakes replace the fresh vegetables and cut the cooler load.
https://www.lodgecastiron.com/blogs/recipe/cast-iron-deep-dish-pizza-pan-recipe