Pie Iron Cooking Ideas (Great for Camping)
Does your family love camping and/or bonfires?
If so, check out this creative and simple method of outdoor cooking using a pie iron to make delicious toasted treats! My family went camping recently and we took along these cast iron campfire cooking tools that grill, toast, and bake. Start with some buttered bread and any type of filling (either savory or sweet!) and you’ve got a great sandwich or pie! 🙂
Use pie irons to make pudgie pies, hot sandwiches, calzones, fruit pies, biscuits, cookies, hamburgers, and more all over a fire – choose from different shapes and either cast aluminum or cast iron. We tried this particular Rome brand Cast Iron – it worked great and came already seasoned. Here are some easy and yummy cooking ideas for you:
Nutella Pies
Gooey nutella pies that are perfect for your next camping trip or to roast at home.
Ingredients
- Sandwich Bread
- Nutella
- Marshmallows
- Butter
Directions
1
Butter 2 slices of sandwich bread. Place inside pie iron with buttered sides facing out.
2
Spread Nutella on the inside of bread and add a couple marshmallows.
3
Close iron and grill until golden. Be sure to check after a few minutes because we burned one the first time. The result is a sweet gooey pie! So good!
Pie Iron Quesadillas– Fill the center of a tortilla with a little shredded cheese and cooked chicken if desired. Fold tortilla to fit inside iron. Overlap edges so there’s no leakage. Cook until melted and top with salsa.
Campfire Sopapillas – Butter two pieces of cinnamon swirl bread. Place inside pie iron, buttered sides out. Spread insides with a little cream cheese. Close and grill until golden and toasted.
Pesto Grilled Cheese Sandwich– Butter two pieces of sandwich bread and place inside pie iron with buttered sides facing out. Spread prepared pesto on bread and add a slice of provolone cheese. Close and grill until golden and toasted.
Classic Pie Iron Fruit Pies– Butter two pieces of sandwich bread and place inside pie iron with buttered sides facing out. Fill with a little of your favorite homemade or store-bought pie filling. Close and grill until melted and golden. Sprinkle with cinnamon & sugar if desired.
Although I haven’t personally tried it, you can even use homemade or prepackaged dough and biscuits to make calzones and baked treats. The possibilities are endless! 🙂 Visit pieiron.com for more info and recipes.
We use these every time we go camping!! We make apple pies..pizza pockets..grilled cheese..cheesy sloppy Joes..breakfast sandwiches and list goes on!these are a must have!!
So fun! Love the sloppy joes idea!!
We use two pieces of bread. Butter them, and fill the inside with cherry or apple pie filling and then sprinkle with powdered sugar after they are cooked.
I grew up making pizza sandwiches on camping trips. A little pizza sauce, shredded mozzarella and pepperoni with bread. If you grease and heat the irons first you don’t need to butter the bread. Also the square irons are great because sliced bread fits perfectly!
I have the one I grew up using but never outdoors, we always used it on the stove to make what we called “banana fritters”. We butter the bread and fill it with thinly sliced bananas and a little bit of sugar. My brother was none too happy when he found out I have it now, and he will REALLY be upset when I tell him I found some really great recipes! 😂😂😋😋
Wow! How cool!!!
Mountain Pies!! 2 pieces of bread buttered, inside is cheese, pizza sauce and pepperoni! So good, you have to try it;)
Love this idea!
Every summer my family gets together for a pie iron dinner. We all bring a variety of things to cook. Anything from ham sandwiches to desserts with pie filling. It’s so much fun. We use breads and crescent dough.
What a great tradition!
How do you clean these afterwards ? I love camping and would love to try cooking in cast iron utensils or even boiling water on the fire but I always wonder how to clean the soot from outside afterwards.. Any tips?
Spray with Pam when it was cold. Wipe it out with a damp paper towel then wipe dry.
if you have cast iron ones, treat them like your cast iron pans, do not use soap, and keep them seasoned with oil; if you get aluminum ones, wash in soapy water.
Pizza mountain pies for dinner and apple pie filling mountain pies for dessert. I can’t wait for summer!
Love these! We even do breakfast ones with ham, egg and cheese…. Super easy and kids love them!
Growing up, we would use pie irons to makes pizzas over the campfire in the summer. Then in winter, we would use them to make pizzas or pies inside with our wood burning fireplace!
This is a great idea, I own a camper rental business in Nashville. We go camping all the time, I’m always looking for new camping recipes!
I am too! So fun – thanks for stopping by Ashley. 😀
I bought one of these for my parents as an emergency tool assuming the power would go out at their house last winter as it usually does. The plan was they could make hot sandwiches on their fireplace. Of course, it barely got below freezing here last winter and they never lost power! I might have to “borrow” it for camping this summer.
You’ll love it!
These are great and so much fun to experiment with different recipes. I do prefer the square ones since they fit sliced bread perfectly. I’ve also used pie dough and made fruit pies in them. So yummy and the entire campground is usually jealous because they smell so good. 🙂
Yes! So fun, I agree 😀
Instead of pie dough, use refrigerated biscuits in a roll; our family loves these biscuits for homemade pizzas too!
I’ve been wanting to try a pie iron for a couple years now and this post was a good reminder, also the Rome 1705 pie iron is $12 right now on Amazon! Seems like a great price to try one out. Getting 2 for my family of 6
Awesome! Have fun! 😀
You can also get double size pie irons to cook 2 sandwiches at a time. Also you can use them for cooking lager items such as knockworst or sausages with onions and peppers.
We would have a pudgy pie gathering each year at the campground. Everyone brought different items. we would have fruit pudgies(apple, cherry and blueberry pie fillings, pizza pudgies( boiled hamburger, pizza sauce, cheese, pepperoni, mushrooms), ham and cheese, hot dog and coney sauce, The list is endless.
I love this idea!! Thanks Elaine
I live in Australia and don’t know what a “pudgy” pie is? Can you explain. Thank You
I live in Australia and don’t know what a “pudgy” pie is? Can you explain. Thank You
We have the pie makers here so is Pudgy just another name for it?
We call them pudgy pies! My favorite is a cake donut, sliced in half like a bagel. Butter the insides and face those outward in the iron. Place a pineapple ring and sprinkle with brown sugar. Like pineapple upside down cake! Sooo good. The brown sugar gets all gooey and caramel-y. Deeelish!
Wow! That sounds amazing! Thanks Val
What is a cake donut?? I LOVE this idea.
Cake donuts are just baked, not fried.
We usually do calzones or stuffed quesadillas. Quesadillas are our favorite, using up the leftovers from tacos the night before. We will also take them out at home and use them over our fire pit in the backyard with the kids during the summer.
Yum sounds good!
We also have used crescent roll dough and the sheets of phyllo dough to make the various recipes mentioned above. Rueben sandwiches are great in the pie irons as well!
Yum! Thanks Jill 😀
We have discovered Reuben sandwiches in them…just don’t put the sauerkraut next to the bread….I usually put the meat by the bread then everything else in between the bread and meat! YUMMM!
To the previously mentioned breakfast/dessert pies, we add cream cheese. These are especially yummy with any flavor fruit pie filling or, shockingly, peanut butter & bananas. Truly anything that sounds interesting. We’ve never been disappointed. We do find the square ones to be more convenient.
I couldn’t believe it took me 66 years to discover Pudgie Pies! That was 2 years ago and I lost no time in introducing them to my camping lovin’ family. At our annual Easter campout, there were 18 of us and we had loads of fun experimenting with the endless culinary possibilities. My favorite in the pie iron was a Rueben. A close second was a Turtle pie with yummy caramel, chocolate chips and pecans in a crescent roll crust. Yowza!
Wow! That sounds AMAZING!
Shreded roasted chicken, Bbq sauce, cheese between bread.. mmmmm pulled chicken sammiches
We make little pizzas with them. We either pizza dough from the tube or we use croissant dough. We also like to make paninis. We just use deli meats and cheese along with our favorite dough. I want a waffle iron next!
So great!
We’ve done these since I was a kid.
-Pizzas: bread, sauce, cheese, meat/veggies of choice
-PB&J
-Peanut butter & chocolate
-Grilled cheese and ham
-Chicken, bacon and cheese
We do these in our indoor fireplace now too sometimes for something different
I grew up camping with these irons. We liked the square irons best. And always made pizza pudgy pies. The best!!!!
I enjoy experimenting with out cooking techniques. Naturally, I found pie irons. I’ve made stuffed French toast with sugared sliced strawberries, sliced bananas, and mascarpone cheese; huckleberries and mascarpone. Stuff grilled cheese with sliced fresh mushrooms and a little thousand island. Grilled cheese with green chili sliced. I have a waffle iron as well. The grands were pretty impressed with refrigerated cinnamon rolls and bacon. Enjoy!
We recently started making tuna melts in our pie irons. They are yummy.
Ruebens, pizza, pb &j, pies. Anything and everything you can put between bead.
Pierogi’s are a must try. Mashed potatoes and cheese between bread. Sour cream dollop. Yummo
2 slices of French bread, butter the bread sprinkle garlic salt stuff with leftover spaghetti then top with 2nd piece of bead.