Camp Fruit Pizza
A shortbread slab, whipped frosting from powder, and berries. Dessert for a group at a picnic table.
- calories
- 430
- weight
- 4.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 96
- protein
- 4 g
- serves
- 10, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 18 min
- total time
- 33 min
- water
- 60 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.
- Dessert
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Vegetarian
- Nut free
- Real dishes
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| Sugar cookie mix | 1 pouch (about 17 oz) | Betty Crocker or any dry mix |
|---|---|---|
| Butter | 1/2 cup | softened; stays solid enough in a cooler |
| Cream cheese | 4 oz | for the dough |
| Egg | 1 | |
| Lemon | 1 | zest goes in the dough, juice in the frosting |
| Cream cheese | 8 oz | for the frosting |
| Butter | 4 tbsp | softened, for the frosting |
| Powdered sugar | 1/2 cup | |
| Blueberries | 1 cup | |
| Strawberries or raspberries | 2 cups | strawberries sliced |
Method
- Build a fire and burn it down to coals. You want a bed of them, not flames.
- Mix the cookie pouch, 1/2 cup butter, 4 oz cream cheese, the egg, and the lemon zest in a bowl until there is no dry powder left.
- Line the dutch oven with parchment or foil and press the dough in flat, about a half inch thick. Thicker than that and the middle stays raw.
- Set the oven on a ring of coals and shovel more coals onto the lid, roughly twice as many on top as underneath. That is about 350 degrees.
- Bake 15 to 20 minutes. It is done when the edges brown and the center stops looking wet. Pull the lid coals off and let it cool all the way, or the frosting slides off.
- Beat the 8 oz cream cheese, 4 tbsp butter, powdered sugar, and the juice of half the lemon together with a fork or spoon until smooth. Loosen with a splash of cold water if it fights you.
- Spread the frosting over the cooled crust and cover it with berries. Cut it in the pan.
This is a home dessert dragged out to a fire pit. The original bakes on a sheet pan at 350; a dutch oven with coals top and bottom hits close enough, and the coal ratio is the only real technique here. Cream cheese in the dough is not decoration. It keeps the crust soft after it cools, which matters when you are eating it an hour after it comes off the fire instead of warm from an oven.
Everything perishable stays perishable, so this is a cooler recipe and a day-one-or-two recipe. Butter and cream cheese need to be soft to mix and cold enough not to have separated, which is a narrow window on a hot afternoon. Pull them out twenty minutes before you start. The lemon juice in the frosting cuts the sugar and keeps it from tasting like straight fat.
Packing
Dry cookie mix, powdered sugar, and lemon travel in the food bin. Butter, both blocks of cream cheese, the egg, and the berries live in the cooler. Bring parchment; scraping baked sugar out of cast iron is the worst part of this recipe.
Variations
- No dutch oven: press the dough into a foil pan, tent it with more foil, and set it on a grill grate over low coals. Watch it, the bottom burns first.
- Swap the berries for whatever is ripe. Sliced peaches or halved grapes work the same way.
- Freeze the frosting in a zip bag at home, thaw it in the cooler, and snip a corner to pipe it on.
https://homeandkind.com/blogs/food-recipes/patriotic-fruit-pizza-easy-recipe