Skillet Pecan Pie Bars
Corn syrup, sugar, butter, and three cups of pecans, baked in a Dutch oven over coals.
- calories
- 720
- weight
- 5.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 131
- protein
- 8 g
- serves
- 8
- prep
- 20 min
- cook
- 50 min
- total time
- 70 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.
- Dessert
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Real dishes
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Light corn syrup | 1 cup | decanted into a leakproof bottle |
|---|---|---|
| Granulated sugar | 1 cup | |
| Unsalted butter | 1/2 cup | one stick, cooler |
| Vanilla extract | 1 tsp | |
| Egg yolks | 4 | separate at home, carry in a jar in the cooler |
| Pecan halves | 3 cups | toasted in a dry pan before the trip |
| Refrigerated pie dough | 1 round | store-bought, kept cold |
| Salt | 1/4 tsp |
Method
- Build a fire and let it burn down. You want coals, not flame. Plan on about 8 under the oven and 16 on the lid.
- Press the pie dough into the bottom and an inch up the sides of a 10-inch Dutch oven. Patch tears with your thumb.
- In a pot at the fire edge, melt the butter with the sugar and corn syrup. Stir until the sugar grit is gone, then pull it off and let it cool until you can hold a finger in it.
- Whisk in the yolks one at a time, then the vanilla and salt. Add the yolks to hot syrup and you get scrambled egg.
- Pour over the crust and spread the pecans across the top. They will float into an even layer on their own.
- Lid on, coals on top and under. Bake 45 to 55 minutes. The center should wobble as one piece, not slosh.
- Pull the oven off the coals and leave it lidded and alone for at least an hour. Cutting early gives you soup.
This is a car-camping dessert, not a trail one. It needs a cooler for the butter, yolks, and dough, and it needs a real bed of coals. Nothing here substitutes cleanly into a stove pot, so it stays what it is.
The custard is the part that fails. Corn syrup and sugar carry it, but four yolks set it, and yolks curdle the second they hit hot syrup. Cool the syrup first and add them slowly. Coal placement does the rest: twice as many on the lid as underneath, or the crust burns before the middle sets.
Packing
Sugar and salt premixed in one bag. Corn syrup in a squeeze bottle, yolks in a sealed jar, butter and dough in the cooler. Toasted pecans in a hard container so they do not turn to dust in the bin.
Variations
- Swap half the pecans for walnuts if pecans are expensive.
- A tablespoon of bourbon in place of half the vanilla.
- No Dutch oven: bake it in a foil pan inside a covered grill over indirect coals.
https://www.lodgecastiron.com/blogs/recipe/cast-iron-pecan-pie