Since our son has become proficient, and confident, at making campfires, he has been bugging us to make pizza pies in our pie irons for dinner. We decided last night was the night. I ran to the store to purchase the ingredients and we had a great time making the pies.

Our son did a great job in building and starting the camp fire in our fire pit. He used scrap standard construction wood (from our college teen’s summer lumberyard job) but the coals didn’t last as long as we wanted it too. (I took too long taking pictures for my blog). We were able to cook 3 pizza pies but then the coals started to die off.

We had a bag of charcoal for back up just in case and it worked quite well. My husband added about a fourth of a small bag of charcoal to the already established wood coals and, with just a few well-placed breaths, he soon had the charcoal blazing.  We were able to finish cooking the rest of pizza and dessert pies after the coals were ready.

It took about 20-30 minutes for the wood to burn down to coals. Charcoal burns down much more quickly.  The wood coals also may not last as long as charcoal depending on the type of wood that you use.  Hardwoods burn hotter and longer than soft woods.

Start cooking your pies as soon as the coals are ready. You do not want to put your pies in the fit pit while there are big flames. The flames will cause your pies to burn. You can add more wood to increase the coals as you go along, but you’ll need to wait for the big flames to die down before you can start cooking your pies again.

Here are some ingredients you will want ready for some fun pie making.

• Loaf of bread
• Softened butter
• Pizza sauce
• Shredded Mozzarella cheese
• Pepperoni
• Sliced olives
• Cherry or Apple Pie filling
• Cream Cheese Spread (for cherry pie)

As soon as your coals are ready you’ll want to prep your pies.

1 – Add butter to the insides of your pie iron or to your bread. Place butter side of bread down on the bottom piece of your pie iron.  (Make sure the bread position matches)

2 – Place your preferred ingredients on the bread then cover with another buttered slice of bread. Ensure that the butter side is up

3 – Close up your pie iron with the provided clip and scrape away any bread sticking out of the pie iron. What is left out of the pie iron will burn and will not taste well.

4 – Place your pie iron onto the coals. Let it cook for 3-5 minutes then flip the pie iron. Let it cook for 3-5 minutes more.  It will take longer as the coals burn down.0

5 – Remove the pie iron very carefully (using the wooden handles) and place it on a non-flammable, heat resistance surface (ideally a wooden cutting board).

6 – Unclip the clasp and open up the pie iron. Very carefully remove your pie with utensils or by removing the top piece of the pie iron and flipping the food from the bottom iron onto a plate.

The pie and its contents will be very hot. My suggestion is to cut the pie in half and let cool before giving it to any small child. I even like cutting mine and letting it cool just to be on the safe side. I have to admit that my son and I were not fans of the pizza pies that we made but we did love the fruit pies. I’d love to try cooking tuna melts in the pie irons next. Here is a link to other recipes.

http://www.pieiron.com/recipes.htm

Have you tried cooking in pie irons? If so, what are your favorite pies to make?

Here is the link to purchase the pie irons we have.

https://www.amazon.com/Rome-Industries-1705-Sandwich-Cooker/dp/B000FNLXWG