Ham and Pineapple Dutch Oven Rolls
Ham, swiss, and pineapple baked inside crescent dough over coals. Camp bread with dinner in the middle.
- calories
- 520
- weight
- 9 oz
- cal / oz
- 58
- protein
- 24 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 20 min
- total time
- 35 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
- Nut free
- Real dishes
- Grab and go
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| Refrigerated crescent roll dough | 1 tube (8 rolls) | keep it cold until the coals are ready |
|---|---|---|
| Canned pineapple spears | 1 can (15 oz) | chunks work, spears are easier to wrap |
| Thin-sliced deli ham | 8 slices | |
| Swiss cheese | 8 slices | |
| Dijon mustard | 2 tbsp | |
| Oil or a parchment round | for the oven floor |
Method
- Build a bed of coals. For a 12-inch dutch oven at 350, that is about 8 briquettes under the oven and 17 on the lid.
- Drain the pineapple into a cup or bowl. Keep the juice.
- Lay out a crescent triangle. Stack a slice of ham, a slice of swiss, and a pineapple spear on the wide end and roll it up toward the point. Tuck the ends so the cheese has somewhere to go.
- Oil the oven floor or drop in parchment, then set the rolls in a single layer, not touching.
- Lid on, coals on. Bake 20 minutes. Give the oven a quarter turn one way and the lid a quarter turn the other at the halfway mark so nothing scorches.
- Stir the mustard into the reserved juice while they bake. Pull the rolls when the tops are brown and dip.
This one is car camping only, and not by accident. Crescent dough and deli ham both need a cooler, so there is no honest way to make it shelf-stable without turning it into a different recipe. If you have the cooler anyway, the payoff is bread baked at camp for about twenty minutes of attention.
The pineapple is doing more than flavor. It releases steam inside the dough as it heats, which keeps the middle from going dry while the outside browns. Draining it matters for the same reason in reverse: pack wet fruit in there and the bottom of the roll never sets. The reserved juice plus mustard is the dip, so nothing goes in the fire pit.
Packing
Dough, ham, and cheese ride in the cooler and go in last so they stay cold. The can and the mustard live in the dry box. Bring parchment; scraping baked cheese off cast iron in the dark is its own chore.
Variations
- Swap the ham for a second slice of swiss and it is still dinner, just vegetarian.
- No dutch oven: wrap each roll in foil and set them at the edge of the coals, turning every few minutes.
- A pinch of black pepper and a smear of mustard inside the dough before rolling puts the sharpness in the bread instead of the bowl.
https://www.boyscouttrail.com/content/recipe/hawaiian_swiss_crescents-1737.asp