Dutch Oven Apple Oatmeal Cookie Crisp
Two cans of pie filling, a bag of cookie mix, and a stick of butter. Coals do the rest.
- calories
- 480
- weight
- 6 oz
- cal / oz
- 80
- protein
- 4 g
- serves
- 9, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 50 min
- total time
- 60 min
- water
- none
- 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
- One pot
- Grab and go
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| Canned apple pie filling | 2 cans | any pie filling works; mixing two kinds is fine |
|---|---|---|
| Oatmeal cookie mix | 1 bag (17.5 oz) | the dry pouch, not refrigerated dough |
| Butter | 1/2 cup (1 stick) | cut into cubes, kept cold in the cooler until you need it |
Method
- Line a 12-inch Dutch oven with foil or grease it well.
- In a bowl, cut the cubed butter into the dry cookie mix with a pastry cutter or your fingers. Stop when the largest pieces are about the size of a pea.
- Scrape both cans of pie filling into the Dutch oven and level it out.
- Scatter the butter-and-mix crumble over the fruit in an even layer. Do not pack it down.
- Set 8 coals under the oven and 17 on the lid. That is about 350°F.
- Bake 50 minutes, refreshing coals as they burn down. It is done when the fruit bubbles at the edges and the top has gone brown and crisp.
- Pull the oven off the coals and let it sit 10 minutes before serving.
This is a dump crisp, so the only technique in it is the butter. Cutting cold butter into the dry cookie mix leaves solid pieces that melt in the oven and steam the crumble apart. That is what turns a bag of cookie mix into a crunchy, granola-like top instead of one flat cookie sheet sitting on wet fruit. Warm butter smears and you lose that.
Heat management matters more than the recipe does. Roughly twice as many coals on the lid as underneath keeps the bottom from scorching while the top browns. Charcoal loses heat over 50 minutes, so plan on refreshing partway through. Foil lining is not optional if you want to leave the site without scrubbing caramelized fruit sugar out of cast iron.
Packing
Cookie mix and the cans need no cooler. Butter rides in the cooler and should stay cold until it hits the bowl. Bring foil for the liner and cleanup is close to nothing.
Variations
- A third can of pie filling makes it fruit-heavy and less crunchy.
- Peach or cherry filling in place of apple, or one can of each.
- Leftovers eat fine cold the next morning.
https://chuckwagoneer.wordpress.com/2020/07/29/apple-oatmeal-cookie-dump-crisp