Skillet Pie Dough, Camp Version
Butter, flour, salt, and cold water, worked in a bag and baked in a dutch oven.
- calories
- 420
- weight
- 3.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 120
- protein
- 5 g
- serves
- 6, scales
- prep
- 20 min
- cook
- 30 min
- total time
- 50 min
- water
- 150 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.
- Dessert
- 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 | 2 cups | plus a small bag extra for rolling |
|---|---|---|
| Kosher salt | 1 tsp | |
| Sugar | 1 tsp | |
| Unsalted butter | 1/2 lb | cold, straight from the cooler |
| Cold water | 1/2 to 3/4 cup | from the bottom of the cooler, not the tap |
Method
- At home, mix the flour, salt, and sugar in a gallon freezer bag. That is the whole dry side of the recipe.
- In camp, cut the cold butter into rough half-inch cubes and drop them into the bag. Squeeze and pinch through the plastic until the butter is broken into pieces no bigger than a pea. Stop while it still looks lumpy.
- Add 1/3 cup of cold water. Fold it in through the bag, then add more a tablespoon at a time until the dough holds together when pressed. It should not be smooth.
- Split the dough in two, one piece about twice the size of the other. Press each into a flat disc and seal in the bag.
- Set the discs back in the cooler for at least an hour. Cold butter is the whole point.
- Roll the large disc out on a floured cutting board or a flat rock covered in foil. Line a 10-inch dutch oven, fill it, and lay the smaller disc over the top.
- Bake with coals: about 8 on the bottom, 17 on the lid, for 30 minutes. Rotate the oven a quarter turn every 10 minutes so it does not scorch on one side.
This is a cooler recipe, not a backpacking one. Pie dough is butter suspended in flour, and butter that has gone soft smears instead of layering. There is no substitute worth carrying, so the butter dictates the trip: car camping or a basecamp with real ice.
The bag does the work a pastry cutter would do at home, and it keeps hand heat off the butter. Leave the mix shaggy. Visible chunks of butter turn to steam in the dutch oven and push the layers apart; dough worked until it looks uniform bakes into a cracker. The rest in the cooler is not optional either, it lets the flour take up the water so the dough rolls without tearing.
Packing
Dry mix in one freezer bag, measured at home. Butter stays in its wrapper deep in the cooler. Carry a foot of foil for the rolling surface and a smooth bottle to roll with if you skip the pin.
Variations
- Cut the butter in half and add 4 oz of shortening. Shortening does not need a cooler and makes the dough more forgiving in heat.
- Skip the sugar and it works for a savory pie.
- Use the same dough for hand pies on a grill grate if hauling a dutch oven is too much.
https://www.lodgecastiron.com/blogs/recipe/basic-pie-dough