Dutch Oven Campfire Pizza
Store dough pressed into cast iron, baked on coals until the crust firms up.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 8 oz
- cal / oz
- 78
- protein
- 26 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 35 min
- total time
- 45 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.
- Dinner
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- One pot
- Grab and go
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| Refrigerated pizza crust dough | 1 tube | keep it cold in the cooler until it goes in the pot |
|---|---|---|
| Jarred pizza sauce | 3/4 cup | |
| Shredded mozzarella | 2 cups | |
| Sliced pepperoni | 4 oz | |
| Cooking spray or parchment | as needed | skip it if the oven is well seasoned |
| Dried oregano | 1 tsp | optional |
Method
- Burn a fire down to coals well before dinner. You want steady heat, not flame.
- Spray the inside of the Dutch oven or lay in a parchment round.
- Unroll the dough and press it flat across the bottom, working it up the sides an inch or so.
- Spread the sauce, cover with cheese, then shingle the pepperoni over the top. Sprinkle oregano if you brought it.
- Set the lid on and rest the oven on a bed of coals. Shovel a dozen or so coals onto the lid so the top cooks too.
- Bake 30 to 40 minutes, turning the oven a quarter turn every ten minutes and turning the lid the other way. Check at 30 by lifting an edge of the crust with a knife.
- Pull it off the heat when the bottom is browned and the cheese has gone slack. Cut in the pot.
This is car camp cooking, not trail cooking. Refrigerated dough, shredded cheese, and cured pepperoni all need a cooler, so the recipe stays where a cooler goes. The trade is that you get real bread out of a fire, which nothing dehydrated will give you.
The heat management is the whole recipe. Coals under and coals on the lid means the crust and the cheese finish around the same time; flame under the pot alone will scorch the bottom while the top is still raw. Rotating the oven and the lid in opposite directions evens out the hot spots that build up wherever the coals bank up.
Packing
Dough and cheese ride in the cooler, sauce and pepperoni in the food bin. A shelf-stable jar of sauce opened at camp will not keep overnight, so plan on using it or icing it down.
Variations
- Swap the pepperoni for a foil pouch of chicken and skip the cooler for that ingredient.
- Sliced bell pepper or mushroom on top adds bulk, but pat them dry or the crust goes soggy.
- A tortilla or two pressed in place of the dough turns this into a much faster flatbread version.
https://campfirefoodie.com/campfire-dutch-oven-pizza-recipe