Dutch Oven Pie Tin Pizza
Boxed dough mix, a pie tin, and a ring of coals. Pizza at a car-camping site with no oven.
- calories
- 720
- weight
- 9 oz
- cal / oz
- 80
- protein
- 31 g
- serves
- 3, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 20 min
- total time
- 35 min
- water
- 180 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
- Nut free
- Foil packet
- Grab and go
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| Pizza dough mix | 1 box | the kind that only needs water |
|---|---|---|
| Pizza sauce | 1 can | small can, about 8 oz |
| Mozzarella | 1/2 lb | low-moisture, shredded or block |
| Pepperoni | 1/2 lb | |
| Aluminum pie tin | 1 | |
| Oil | 1 tsp | for the tin |
Method
- Build your coal bed early. You want 25 coals total, split roughly 17 on the lid and 8 underneath, for a 12-inch oven at around 375F.
- Mix the dough per the box, usually a cup of water or so. Knead it in the bag to keep your hands clean.
- Oil the pie tin. Press the dough across the bottom and an inch up the sides.
- Sauce first, then cheese, then pepperoni on top so the fat renders down into everything.
- Set three or four wads of foil in the bottom of the dutch oven and rest the tin on them. The gap is what keeps the crust from scorching.
- Lid on. Bake about 20 minutes. Give the oven a quarter turn every five minutes, and the lid a quarter turn the other way, so no one spot cooks hot.
- Check at 18. The crust should be firm at the edge and the cheese fully melted.
The pie tin is the whole trick. Dough laid straight into a dutch oven sticks and burns, and scraping it out afterward ruins the evening. In the tin, on foil wads, the crust bakes in trapped air instead of frying against cast iron. Cleanup is the tin, not the oven.
Coal placement matters more than the recipe does. Most of the heat belongs on the lid, because pizza cooks from the top down; too much underneath gives you a black bottom and raw cheese. Turning the oven and lid in opposite directions cancels out the hot spot that every fire has.
Packing
Dough mix, sauce can, and the flattened pie tin travel in a dry box. Cheese and pepperoni need the cooler, so this is a first- or second-night meal.
Variations
- Swap pepperoni for a shelf-stable summer sausage and the whole thing leaves the cooler behind.
- A 10-inch oven takes about two-thirds of everything, same coals, same time.
- Sprinkle dried oregano and garlic powder over the sauce before the cheese.
https://www.boyscouttrail.com/content/recipe/dutch_oven_pizza-234.asp