Dutch Oven Tomato and Brie Galette
A free-form onion and tomato tart baked in coals. Camp cooking with a cooler and an hour to spare.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 7 oz
- cal / oz
- 89
- protein
- 18 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 25 min
- cook
- 35 min
- total time
- 60 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.
- Dinner
- Lunch
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Vegetarian
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| All-purpose flour | 1 1/2 cups | |
|---|---|---|
| Vegetable shortening | 1/2 cup | stays solid in a warm car, unlike butter |
| Grated parmesan | 1/4 cup | goes into the dough, not on top |
| Salt | 1 tsp | |
| Cold water | 4 to 5 tbsp | |
| Yellow onion | 1 large | keeps for a week without a cooler |
| Olive oil | 2 tbsp | |
| Sun-dried tomatoes in oil | 1 cup, drained and sliced | fresh tomatoes flood the crust |
| Brie | 5 oz, cut into cubes | cooler item, rind and all |
| Coarse black pepper | 1/2 tsp |
Method
- At home: cut the shortening into the flour, parmesan, and salt until it looks like gravel. Add water a spoonful at a time until it just holds together. Flatten into a disc, wrap it, and keep it cold. Use it within a day or it turns crumbly and cracks when you roll it.
- In camp, build a fire and let it burn down to coals. You want a bed under the oven and a shovelful for the lid.
- Set the dutch oven over a few coals with the oil and the sliced onion. Cook slow, stirring every couple of minutes, until the onion is soft and brown. Twenty minutes, and it will not go faster. Scrape it into a cup and wipe the pot.
- Roll the dough into a rough circle on a floured cutting board and lay it in the cold pot, letting the edges climb the sides.
- Spread the onion over the middle, scatter the tomatoes and brie on top, and grind pepper over everything. Fold the outer few inches of dough over the filling, pleating as you go. The center stays open.
- Lid on. Set the oven on a thin bed of coals and pile more on the lid, roughly twice as many above as below. Bake 30 to 35 minutes, rotating the pot and lid a quarter turn every ten minutes so it browns evenly.
- Check when the crust is set and gold. Let it sit five minutes before cutting or the cheese runs out.
The original is a summer tart built on garden tomatoes and a fridge. Two things had to change for camp. Fresh tomatoes release too much water for a crust baked in a pot you cannot see into, so sun-dried ones in oil do the job with none of the flooding. And butter in a crust means cold butter; shortening cuts in just as well and does not care how warm the car got.
The parmesan is in the dough rather than sprinkled on the filling, which keeps it from scorching under a lid full of coals. Caramelizing the onion first is the only slow part, and it is the part that matters — raw onion in a 35-minute bake stays raw and sharp.
Packing
Dough disc goes in the cooler wrapped tight, brie next to it. Flour, tomatoes, and oil ride in the food bin. Bring a cutting board that doubles as a rolling surface and a bottle for a rolling pin.
Variations
- Swap the brie for any soft cheese that melts. Camembert behaves the same way.
- Olives or capers in place of half the tomatoes if you want it sharper.
- No coals? A charcoal chimney's worth of briquettes works: seven under, fifteen on the lid.
https://www.tasteandtellblog.com/the-maine-summers-cookbook-a-review-tomato-caramelized-onion-and-brie-galette