Pie Iron Campfire Pizza
Two slices of bread, sauce, cheese, and pepperoni clamped shut over coals.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 7 oz
- cal / oz
- 89
- protein
- 26 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 10 min
- total time
- 15 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
- Lunch
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- One pot
- Grab and go
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| White sandwich bread | 4 slices | soft slices seal better than crusty bread |
|---|---|---|
| Jarred pizza sauce | 1/4 cup | shelf-stable until opened; a squeeze pouch travels better than glass |
| Shredded mozzarella | 1/2 cup | cooler item |
| Pepperoni | 16 slices | any topping works if it is already cooked |
| Butter | 2 tbsp | for the iron, not the bread |
Method
- Burn the fire down to coals. Flames scorch the outside before the cheese melts.
- Set the pie iron in the coals empty until it is hot, then open it and butter both faces.
- Lay a slice of bread on each face. Spread sauce on one slice, then pepperoni, then cheese. Keep the filling off the edges.
- Close and latch the iron. The empty side goes on top.
- Hold or rest it in the coals, flipping every two minutes. Open and look after four minutes and again after each flip. Toasted brown is done; black is two minutes late.
- Slide it out onto a plate and let it sit a minute. The filling comes out at the temperature of the coals.
A pie iron is a small cast-iron press on a long handle, and it does one thing well: it seals two slices of bread into a closed pocket so the filling steams while the outside toasts. That seal is the whole point. Anything loose at the edge leaks into the fire and welds itself to the iron.
Coals, not flames. Bread goes from pale to burnt in under a minute over open flame, and the cheese in the middle will still be cold when it does. Preheating the empty iron first matters too, because bread dropped into a cold iron sticks. This one needs a cooler for the cheese, so it stays a car camping meal unless you switch to the shelf-stable toppings in the variations.
Packing
Bread rides in a hard container or it arrives compressed. Cheese and pepperoni go in the cooler. Sauce in a squeeze bottle, not the jar.
Variations
- Swap everything for two slices of American cheese and it is a grilled cheese.
- Precooked sausage, olives, or canned mushrooms all work. Raw meat does not.
- No cooler: shelf-stable pepperoni sticks and a hard grated parmesan hold at ambient temperature.
https://camprecipes.com/classic-recipes/campfire-pizzas