Hobo pie, pudgy pie, mountain pie, campfire pie……. Regardless of what you call it, one of the simplest things you can cook on the campfire is pie iron pizza, and it’s the perfect family campfire meal. Kids love them, anybody can cook them, and it’s easy cleanup.

What you’ll need to make pie iron pizza

• Pizza ingredients
• Pie irons
• Gloves
• Flashlight

How to prep the fire

You’re going to place the pie iron right in the hot coals, so you’ll need a good coal base. Hardwoods are best for a good coal base. Start your campfire about an hour before you want to eat and throw in a bunch of logs. Keep feeding it.

Basic recipe for pie iron pizza

• Bread (Cheap white bread is your best option)
• Butter (squirt bottle is easiest) or cooking spray
• Pizza sauce (again, get the squirt bottle)
• Cheese
• Pepperoni
• Mushrooms, canned
• Onions (pre-diced at home)
• Green pepper (pre-diced at home)
• Get creative!

How to assemble your pie iron pizza

A great pie iron pizza is all about preparation and cooking time.

1. Overly butter the bread, all the way to the edges. This is very important to get it out of the pie iron cleanly. Place the butter side down on one iron and repeat for the other half.
2. Spread the pizza sauce on one or both sides of the bread.
3. Add all the toppings you want, but don’t forget the cheese.
4. Quickly close the pie irons together and use the hook to secure them.

How long to cook your pizza

Seasoned campers will tell you to put it in the coals for “60 seconds a side”. However, lots of factors affect the cooking time. If you’re the first person to use the pie iron, it will be longer, but if the family is four pies in, the cooking time will be shorter. If you’re one of the last people and the coals have cooled down, it will take longer.

After about 60 seconds, flip it and put it back on the coals. After another 60 seconds, unlatch the hook and check it with your flashlight. This is when you’ll find out if you did a good job buttering the bread. If both sides are a nice golden brown, you’re done! If you can plop it right onto your plate without resorting to scraping it free with a knife, you’ve done it right! But if half of it is still attached to the upside down pie iron, you might want to reconsider that buttering step. Just scrape it out and act like it never happened. Ugly side down.

Everything is super hot

The pizza will be very hot. In particular, the pizza sauce and cheese are hot and drippy, so let it cool for a couple minutes before you take a bite.

Also, the pie iron itself will be very hot. Take care where you set it down. Picnic tables are the best bet. Picnic table seats are too low and are asking for burned children’s fingers.

Dessert

Before you put everything away, prepare some more buttered bread, but spoon on some apple pie filling for a quick pie iron apple pie! Other options are peach pie filling, cherry pie filling, or even Nutella and bananas. There are no rules.

Clean up

Package up all the toppings, scrape off any burnt bread off the irons, reseason the cast iron, and you’re done!

STAY WARM!