Looking for a simple way to cook a simple meal that tastes great when you’re camping? You have to try a pie iron pizza – AKA the “Campfire Calzone”!

As you may have noticed here on Beyond The Tent, we love our double pie irons . We love them so much that we don’t just use them for car camping, but we will use them to cook pie iron pizza and other meals at home in our indoor fireplace during the winter and over a nice bonfire during the summer.

We love them for a few different reasons. First, it slows the meal down. Instead of rushing to create a meal with the stress of 7 kids running around, with pie iron pizza we prepare a food setup station and can spend a good hour or more together as a family cooking our food. Second, it is delicious and easy. Everything we cook in our pie irons has a wonderful smokey flavor and it actually quite easy to cook.

You can purchase a Double Pie Iron from Amazon here or the smaller single model.

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Pie Iron Pizza – The Campfire Calzone

One of the easiest and most fun things to make in our pie iron is pie iron pizza – aka “Campfire Calzones”. Yeah, this isn’t exactly an earth-shattering idea, but the kids love it (and the crust tastes smokey and amazing). It is also quick, cheap and you really can’t screw it up.

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The Ingredients:

• Pre-Made Pizza Crust Dough (I used Pillsbury Pizza Crust in a roll)
• Hunt’s Pizza Sauce
• Mozzarella Cheese
• Can of Diced Tomatoes
• Pepperoni

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The Process

1. Start by lining your pie iron with a healthy dose of cooking spray to make sure you can get your calzone out of your iron when it’s done (we use olive oil for all of our cast iron pie irons).
2. Line both sides of the pie iron with your pizza dough. Remember that the dough will rise quite a bit so make sure not to put it in too thick, I did about 1/8 thick or less and it rose perfectly.
3. Place all of your ingredients on only one side of the iron, such as the sauce, pepperoni, and cheese. Remember that you will have to place one side of the iron down onto the other side and you don’t want your food falling out.
4. Lock up your pie iron and place it over a low-flame coal bed in your fire pit. I lay mine directly in the coals.
5. Flip the iron often and even take it out of the coals for a few minutes to make sure you don’t develop hot spots in the pie iron and burn your crust.
6. Cook for 5-10 minutes depending on your fire. Check often, after about 3-4 minutes you should be able to crack the iron open to check your campfire calzone. I like to cook mine to a golden-brown like a marsh mellow.

Enjoy!

These Pie Iron Pizzas are quick, easy, cheap, and fun for the whole family. And who doesn’t like pizza?

You can purchase a single Rome brand cast iron pie iron from Amazon, or the double iron costs a bit more than the single. Rome also has a great pie iron recipe book worth taking a look at as well.

Did you enjoy your campire calzone? Want to make something other than a pie iron pizza? Check out our other pie iron recipes:
Pie Iron Recipes: Philly Cheese Steak Quesadilla
21 Pie Iron Recipes For Your Next Camping Trip

Pie Iron Pizza Calzones

Yield: Makes 2-3

Pie Irons are incredibly versatile and allow you to cook a lot of different foods over a campfire or grill. With this recipe, you can enjoy the great taste of pizza while out camping, the enjoyment of a campfire, and the satisfaction of cooking your own food.

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Ingredients

• Pre-Made Pizza Dough
• Pizza Sauce
• Mozarella Cheese
• Diced Tomatoes (1 can)
• Pepperoni

Instructions

1. Grease your pie iron with cooking spray, butter or oil.
2. Stretch out your pizza dough and cover both sides of the pie iron.
3. On only one side of the iron, apply your sauce, pepperonis and cheese. Fill slightly over the top of the iron.
4. Close and lock your pie iron, cleaning off any dough that has escaped the sides of the iron (this will just burn).
5. Cooking Time is going to completely depend on your campfire and how close you are holding the iron to the heat source. Try to get the iron close to a nice bed of coals while continually rotating the iron. This will help the dough to cook slowly and evenly. Typical cooking time is 5-10 minutes.

Notes

Be patient while cooking. The hardest part of Pie Iron cooking is getting the timing down right. Remember to use a calm fire and continually rotate your iron to avoid hot spots.