Dutch Oven Monkey Bread
Canned biscuit dough torn up, shaken in cinnamon sugar, and baked in coals until it pulls apart.
- calories
- 520
- weight
- 5 oz
- cal / oz
- 104
- protein
- 7 g
- serves
- 8, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 40 min
- total time
- 50 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.
- Breakfast
- Dessert
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Nut free
- Vegetarian
- One pot
- Grab and go
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| Refrigerated biscuit dough | 2 cans | Pillsbury or store brand, keep cold until it goes in |
|---|---|---|
| Salted butter | 1/2 cup | |
| Granulated sugar | 1/2 cup | |
| Brown sugar | 1/2 cup | |
| Ground cinnamon | 2 tsp |
Method
- Burn a fire down to coals well before you want to eat. You need coals, not flames.
- Line a 12-inch Dutch oven with parchment. It is optional but it is the difference between rinsing a pot and scrubbing one.
- Set the oven over a few coals and melt the butter in the bottom.
- Shake both sugars and the cinnamon together in a freezer bag.
- Tear each biscuit into quarters and drop them into the bag in batches. Shake until coated.
- Tip the coated dough into the butter and stir once. Overlapping pieces are fine.
- Lid on. Roughly 8 coals underneath and 16 on the lid. Bake about 40 minutes.
- Rotate the oven a quarter turn every 10 minutes, and the lid the other way, or one side burns.
- Check the middle with a knife. Doughy centers are the usual failure. Give it another 10 minutes if needed.
This one is a cooler recipe, not a pack recipe. Canned biscuit dough needs to stay cold, so it belongs in car camping and basecamp kitchens and nowhere near a backpack. There is no trail version worth writing: dry mixes make a pancake, not pull-apart bread.
The method matters more than the ingredients. Heat from below browns the bottom fast and does almost nothing for the middle, which is why most of the coals go on the lid. Rotating both the pot and the lid every ten minutes evens out the hot spots a fire always has. Butter in the bottom first means the sugar coating melts into a syrup instead of scorching dry against the iron.
Packing
Biscuit cans ride in the cooler. Premix the cinnamon sugar at home in the freezer bag you will shake in. Butter and parchment go in the chuck box.
Variations
- Coat the torn dough at home and keep the bag in the cooler. In camp you dump and bake.
- A drizzle of caramel or a spoon of cream cheese frosting over the hot top.
- Chopped pecans between the layers, but then it is no longer nut-free.
https://campfirefoodie.com/dutch-oven-monkey-bread-recipe