Camping Food: Pizza Pie Irons

Pizza Pie Irons are our families favourite camping recipe!

I’ve been camping my whole life and spent the majority of my school age summers hanging out in tent trailers and running around campgrounds with all the other kids. As a teenager and young adult, tent camping with friends was the highlight of the summer season. My husband was practically raised at the family campground they spent each summer at so each of us had our own ideas of the best camping food when we started heading out into the provincial parks together. One thing we definitely agreed on was using the pie iron!

What is a Pie Iron?

So what is a pie iron anyway?  A pie iron is a  versatile cooking device that is mainly used for cooking over the fire and a great way to make all kinds of snacks and treats. For my family it was used for making dessert and we literally made pies with it. For my husband’s family it was for making sandwiches. There’s literally no right or wrong thing to put in your pie iron, you can use it for many things!

Today, by far our favourite recipe to use our pie irons for is making pizza pie irons. Our boys are pizza fanatics and they rave over them! They turn out like little pizza calzone sandwiches and each one is individually made so you can customize the filling for each person. We make these every time we go camping, it just wouldn’t be the same without it!

Pizza Pie Irons

You’ll Need

Pie Iron
Cooking Spray
Butter or margarine
A loaf of bread 
Cheese, shredded 
Pizza sauce

any pizza toppings you desire, think
Pepperoni
Peppers, diced
Onion, sliced

You’ll either want to assemble all of the pie irons inside a trailer and bring them all out at once on a baking sheet or platter or bring all the ingredients outside and assemble each one at the picnic table by the firepit. It will save you from running back and forth.

Prepare pie iron by spraying both sides with cooking spray.

You’ll need two pieces of bread for each pie iron. Choose a small sized bread to avoid having to cut excess off the sides. Spread butter or margarine on one side of each slice. Add your sauce, cheese and other toppings on the non buttered side. 

Place the bread with toppings into the prepared pie iron, buttered side down. Place the other piece of bread on top, buttered side out. Close the pie iron and latch. Trim off any excess bread that doesn’t fit inside. 

Place in the fire pit out of direct flame, down in the coals. 

Cook for 4-6 minutes, flipping halfway to evenly cook both sides. 

Tips:

If you don’t already own a pie iron, buy the double, you’ll be able to make two at once and save time.

Just buy a bag of shredded cheese and save yourself the time and energy.

Purchase the squeezable pizza sauce so you don’t have to bring a can opener. It’s so easy to forget the can opener! 

Do some meal prep at home and dice your peppers and slice your onions beforehand. Store them in ziploc bags and tuck them into the cooler. The process will be that much simplier when you are out at the campsite. 

Spray with cooking spray each and every time.

Don’t go crazy with sauces and toppings, you don’t want them spilling out. 

Check on the sandwich often, they can burn easily.

Keep things simple and buy a bagged salad to go with your pizza pie iron.

Filling will be hot, hot, hot! I always cut them in half and let them cool for a few minutes. 

Pie irons are such a handy cooking tool, they can make everything from a standard grilled cheese to anything your creativity allows. What would you stuff your pie iron with?

If you like camping you might also like these recipes

Campfire Cones

Egg Sandwich on the Grill