French Bread Pizza, Foil-Wrapped
Split bread, shelf-stable sauce, hard cheese, foil, coals. Pizza without an oven.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 6 oz
- cal / oz
- 103
- protein
- 24 g
- serves
- 6, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 12 min
- total time
- 22 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
- Campfire coals
- Grill grate
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Foil packet
- Grab and go
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| French bread | 1 loaf | day-old is better, it holds the sauce |
|---|---|---|
| Pizza sauce | 1 cup | shelf-stable jar or pouch |
| Low-moisture mozzarella | 8 oz | block, not fresh; shred at home |
| Pepperoni | 4 oz | or any cured salami |
| Garlic powder | 1 tsp | |
| Olive oil | 2 tbsp | |
| Red pepper flakes and grated parmesan | to taste |
Method
- Burn the fire down to coals. Flames scorch bread before the cheese melts.
- Split the loaf lengthwise and cut it into pieces that fit your foil.
- Brush the cut faces with oil and dust with garlic powder. This is the barrier that keeps the sauce from soaking in.
- Spread sauce thin, then cheese, then pepperoni.
- Wrap each piece loosely in foil, cheese side up. Leave headroom so the foil does not sit on the toppings.
- Set on a grate over coals for 10 to 12 minutes. Rake a few coals aside and set the packets on the edge if you have no grate.
- Open one to check. Cheese should be fully melted and the bottom crust firm. Finish with flakes and parmesan.
Home versions of this go in a 400-degree oven. A fire has no thermostat, so the fix is foil and coals rather than flame. The packet traps steam long enough to melt the cheese, and the coal bed heats the bottom crust evenly instead of blackening it in one spot.
Oil and garlic powder on the cut face are doing structural work, not seasoning work. Bread wicks sauce fast, and a wet crust in a foil packet turns to paste. Low-moisture mozzarella matters for the same reason: fresh mozzarella releases water with nowhere to go. This one wants a cooler for the cheese and pepperoni, so it is a car-camping or basecamp dinner, not a multi-day carry.
Packing
Shred the cheese at home and bag it with a pinch of cornstarch so it does not clump. Sauce goes in a squeeze bottle, not a jar. Pre-cut the foil sheets and stack them flat in the bin.
Variations
- Skip the pepperoni and the cheese and it works with dried mushrooms rehydrated in the sauce.
- Split the loaf into a single long packet and cut it after cooking. Fewer packets, faster.
- Foil-packet toppings from the cooler: bell pepper, onion, leftover chicken.
https://mealswithmaria.site/french-bread-pizza-recipe