camp meals

Walking Cherry Pie

Crushed graham bears, cherry pie filling, and a spoon. Dessert with no dish.

calories
520
weight
5.5 oz
cal / oz
95
protein
4 g
serves
1, scales
prep
3 min
cook
0 min
total time
3 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
  • Snack
  • No cook
  • Car camping
  • Basecamp
  • Day hike
  • Canoe / raft
  • Vegetarian
  • Nut free
  • Eat in the bag
  • Grab and go
  • Shelf stable
  • Dump and stir

Ingredients

Teddy Graham crackers 1 single-serving bag a heavy snack bag, not the thin kind
Cherry pie filling 1/2 cup from a can or a squeeze pouch
Maraschino cherries 2 or 3 drained, carried in a small screw-top jar
Shelf-stable whipped topping 2 tbsp aerosol can from the cooler, or powdered topping mix whisked with 2 tbsp water

Method

  1. Squeeze the closed cracker bag until the bears are mostly crumbs. Leave a few whole pieces for texture.
  2. Open the bag and spoon the pie filling straight in on top of the crumbs.
  3. Drop the cherries on the filling.
  4. Add the whipped topping last so it sits on top instead of turning the crumbs to paste.
  5. Eat out of the bag with a spoon. Pack the bag out.

Everything about this recipe is a decision to not wash anything. The cracker bag is the crust, the bowl, and the trash. A can of pie filling is the only heavy item, and a squeeze pouch removes even that.

Order matters more than it looks like it should. Crumbs first, filling second, topping last. Stir it and you get sweet mush; layer it and the crackers stay crisp long enough to finish. The whipped topping is the one part that needs thought away from a cooler, so the powdered mix is here as the real answer and the aerosol can as the car-camping shortcut.

Packing

Crush the crackers at home and the bag arrives ready. Pie filling in a squeeze pouch beats a can: no opener, no sharp lid, no leftovers to haul. Powdered topping mix and a small bottle of water make this work with no cooler at all.

Variations

  • Swap the cherry filling for apple or blueberry.
  • A drizzle of chocolate or caramel syrup from a squeeze bottle.
  • Skip the topping entirely and it is still a whole dessert, just a shorter one.

https://campfirefoodie.com/walking-cherry-pie-recipe