Pizza

[Just-in-time]

I'm a newbe/wanabe camper. I was thinking...is it possible to cook a pizza over a campfire?

[renodesertfox]

Re: Pizza

It can be done! But it takes some preparation before you go camping. It is moderately challenging. Typically the first four pizzas I made were edible, but it just didn't look like a regular pizza! If you get into cast iron cooking pizza making even making the doe from scratch can be fun. But it will be only as big as the biggest pan you take and the bigger in diameter your pan is the more trouble you'll have. Getting the campfire to do what you want also is plenty work, if you're not use to working with campfires. Here my how to:

1. Bake your pizza crust the night before you plan to make the pizza. If you don't want to bake your own, buy ready pizza crust from a supermarket.

2. Build a small fire a half hour or an hour before your meal time. Burn several dead pine branches that are about 1-inch in diameter each, then place coals on top. Let the coals burn down.

3. Place the ready pizza crust in a frying pan and spread on tomato paste while the fire burns down. Sprinkle the crust with salt, pepper and your favorite Italian seasonings. Add shredded cheese and any toppings you want, and then cover the frying pan and crust with aluminum foil.

4. Scrape away the burning coals, making room to set the frying pan with the pizza onto the hot bed. Place a few small pieces of the burning timber on top of the aluminum foil covering the pan to cook the pizza from above.

5. Cook the pizza until the cheese melts. If the fire looses heat, put back some of the hot coals that you scraped away. Allow the pizza to cool before you eat it.

[NYCgrrl]

Re: Pizza

I haven't made a straight from scratch pizza yet like renodesertfox yet I'm considering it this camping season.

Last summer I bought Indian naan bread at a local mart, oiled it, placed a variety of toppings on it and grilled it on my Weber. Made a nice appetizer. Ahem. yes..... welllllll I cook in courses when the mood hits me:D.

This is what it looked like:

[NYCgrrl]

Re: Pizza

Sorry, hit enter too fast.

This year, I'll either use dough from a local pizzeria or try a Jacques Pepin skillet cooked flat bread, which I think is easy to adapt to either grill, Coleman stove or fire pit:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wiOtjrvXgk


HTH!

[NikieJ]

Re: Pizza

I like to bring pita bread, pizza sauce that you can get in a squeeze bottle, pepperoni (which doesn't have to be refrigerated until after the plastic wrap is opened) and some cheese and veggies (which are the only things that need to take up cooler space). Throw it all on the campfire grill just to warm through and you've got an easy meal. Or, if you're unlucky enough to be in bad enough weather that you can't get any fire to start ... it's quite decent even unwarmed.

Another option I've thought about trying but haven't yet is to buy some of the just-add-water pizza dough and cook small pizzas in those cheap aluminum pie plates you can pick up at the supermarket.

[Just-in-time]

Re: Pizza

All very great ideas...thank you! NYCgrrl...Your photo made me think that I'll need to bring a table cloth (something I wouldn't have thought of). TY!

[GlitterHiker]

Re: Pizza

NYCgrrl - your table setting is very nice. I'm inspired by it.

[NYCgrrl]

Re: Pizza

...about that tablecloth...err I think that one was sold as a shower curtain :D...
Bought it at a Dollar type store fer less than what Independence Day tablecloths were going for at the time.
One of my email addies styles me a "fabriholic" which tells the true tale.
Had a bunch of day trippers and weekend campers up that year (..about 30 peeps over 3-4 days) so decided to go "all the way".

When it's just the 2 of us I only bother w/ 2 placemats that I place runner style in the center of the table. Makes a great trivet type o thingie.
Still, any kind of tablecloth makes it easier to clean up when kiddies are around.
Shake, wipe and go...that's my 'scuse andddddd I'm sticking to it....