Today we’re sharing our method for making pie iron cookies.
Baking cookies in a pie iron is the absolute most fun way to bake a cookie ever!
Everybody loves a hot, freshly baked cookie, but they are even more delicious when your sitting around a campfire.
I’d never heard of a pie iron before we went camping with friends, but by the end of one weekend cooking with them, I absolutely had to have my own set.
Once you start camp cooking in a pie iron, you’re never gonna want to cook any other way.
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What Is A Pie Iron?
Pie irons are called by a lot of different names like pudgie pie makers or hobo pie cookers, but they all achieve the same thing: camp cooking at it’s best.
One of the absolute best things we’ve purchased for cooking over a campfire has been pie irons.
Pie irons are a godsend when cooking over a campfire and are amazingly versatile cooking tools.
Pie irons are small, cast iron cooking utensils designed to be used over a campfire.
Two small, domed cast iron plates are hinged together creating a pocket of sorts to cook in. A clasp is attached opposite the hinge to keep the pie iron closed when in use.
The pie iron is attached to a long metal pole, usually with a wooden handle to help you not burn your hands when using them.
To use a pie iron, you put whatever food you want to cook in between the two cast iron plates. Then you close the pie iron and latch it.
Pie irons are then placed over or very near your campfire, where they will cook the food that’s inside them.
It’s that simple!
We love our Coghlan’s Cast Iron Camp Cookers. We actually have four of them, and use them every time we go camping.
Pie irons come in lots of varieties. You can get a single iron or a double cooker, a round pie iron or even a rectangle model.
They’re just the right size for sandwiches and desserts. They’re literally my favorite camping tool!
How To Make Pie Iron Cookies
Pie iron cookies are really easy to make, and are a super fun way to pass the time while you’re camping.
To make pie iron cookies, you just need a just few things.
- Cookie dough
- Parchment paper
- Pie irons
You can use any cookie dough you like, the flavor doesn’t matter. It just can’t have a runny consistency.
We usually just buy a package of Pillsbury premade cookie dough and bring it in the cooler, but you could always make up some homemade cookie dough and bring it with you.
We love this classic chocolate chip cookie recipe from Heather over at SugarDishMe.com. It’s delicious and would be great cooked this way.
Prepping Your Pie Iron Cookies
You’ll want to start by cutting your parchment to be just smaller than the size if your pie iron.
If the parchment is outside the pie iron, it will catch fire, and you definitely don’t want that. You’ll need two pieces of parchment for each cookie you want to make.
Take a small amount of cookie dough, and roll it into a ball.
Place the cookie dough ball between two pieces of parchment and squish it together a bit. You’ll want to prep all your cookies like this before you put them in the pie irons.
Next lay your pie iron open on a flat surface. We usually use a wooden picnic table for this part, but if your pie iron is hot, make sure you are doing this on something that can stand up to the heat.
Place the prepared cookies into the pie iron.
Again, if the pie iron is hot, use extreme care. When ours is hot, we use tongs or even heat proof gloves (another camping must-have) to place the prepared cookies inside the pie iron.
Carefully close the pie iron and latch it. Once again, take care if it’s hot!
Baking Your Pie Iron Cookies
Now you’ll want to take your pie iron and place the cast iron portion of it over or near your campfire.
We usually camp at a campground run by our state parks system. Each campsite is equipped with a metal fire circle that has a grate that can be placed above the campfire that’s perfect for cooking.
When we make pie iron cookies, we place our pie irons on that grate, not directly in the flames but definitely close enough to get very, very hot.
The hardest part of making pie iron cookies is figuring out your cooking time.
Depending on the heat of your fire, cooking time can vary a lot. Our pie iron cookies usually take out 8 to 12 minutes to cook.
You’ll want to check the cookies intermittently to determine if they’re done, and take care not to let them burn. There’s nothing worse than a burnt cookie.
If you’ve checked them and they seem too underdone, simply relatch the pie iron and place them back on the fire.
Once you’ve determined that your cookies are done, take care getting them out of the hot iron. We always just flip them out onto a plate.
Someone once told me that these cookies will get crispier if you let them sit a while, but ours are always devoured immediately after coming out of the pie iron.
Camping Cookie Variations
My husband is brilliant when it comes to taking something yummy and making it even better.
His favorite thing to do when we camp is to wrap a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup in chocolate chip cookie dough and use that in our pie irons.
Those cookies are out of this world!
That same concept could be used to make a lot of different variations of these cookies. Simply put your favorite candy bar in the middle and see what results you get.
It all sounds amazing!
Have you made pie iron cookies while camping? What’s your favorite cookie dough to use? Tell us in the comments!