Pie irons can create delicious meals and great memories. Some of my favorite pie iron recipes are stuffed French toast, pulled pork sandwiches, and cream cheese croissants. Regardless of the meal, pie irons make camping a delicious experience!
Table of Contents
What is a Pie Iron and Why Should I Use It?
A pie iron, also known as a pudgy pie iron, toastie iron, or jaffle iron, is a campfire cooking appliance that consists of two hinged concave, round or square, metal plates on long handle.
Its design is simple but effective for cooking a variety of foods over an open fire, a stove burner, or campfire coals.
These sandwiches are called a variety of things, including pudgy pies (or pudgie pies), mountain pies, hobo pies, campfire pies, or jaffle pies. Regardless of what you call them, they are delicious!
With the variety of different foods that pie irons can make, how easy it is to use them due to its portability, and the delicious, toasty meals it can produce with minimal equipment and effort, it is no wonder why it is a popular tool for camping and outdoor activities.
Notes About Making the Food
Using a pie iron is super simple. For most recipes, you simply insert your desired ingredients, close and lock together the metal plates, and then cook the food until it’s golden brown and crispy.
There are very few exceptions to this, or a couple notes to mention about these recipes.
Prepping Your Iron
Prior to adding ingredients (including between each sandwich you make) make sure you either spray a small amount of cooking spray on the inside of the pie iron or butter the outside of your bread.
Although you have likely already seasoned your pie iron (and if you haven’t, then read the tips on that below), this little bit extra ensures that it does not stick to the pan and adds another layer of seasoning to your food.
Meats
Make sure you have cooked your meats all the way through prior to putting them in your pie iron. This is a safety issue because if you think food poisoning is bad? Try having it in the middle of nowhere!
Eggs
I always cook the scrambled eggs prior to adding them in to my pie iron because it always involves adding scrambled egg into a sandwich.
Conversely, if the egg is being cooked as a whole egg (think eggs in a basket), I cook it right in the pie iron.
Frozen Foods
Anything that comes frozen (like waffles, French toast, or hash browns) should be thawed out. It allows your food to cook more evenly.
Biscuits and Croissants
Make sure these are super flat because they will fluff up as you cook them, and you also want to have room for the ingredients.
Batter
Make sure you only use small amounts of batter when you add in your ingredients. Just like biscuits and croissants, the batter will fluff up and take over. If you’ve ever used a waffle iron, you already know what I’m talking about.
You can make the batter on site or you can make it ahead of time and put it in a bottle. Usually, if it is pancake batter, I make it ahead of time because I am not a morning person. Conversely, I usually make cornbread batter at the campsite.
Breakfast Recipes
On cool mornings, it is great to get the fire going bright and early and start the day off with a hearty meal.
Once the coals are nice and hot, I like to put the coffee percolator on the fire grill grate and prep delicious mountain pies to really get the morning off to a great start.
Here are some of my go-to ideas for pie-iron breakfasts:
- Breakfast Casserole: Add some hash browns (or tater tots) along with a cracked egg and some cheese
- French Toast: Use thick sliced bread like Texas toast, and dip your bread in the batter and cook one slice at a time
- Stuffed French Toast: I use premade frozen French toast for this one. I thaw it out and add it to both sides. Put a spoonful of your favorite topping of pie filling on the inside. You can even add some cream cheese to this one, too.
- Waffle Sandwiches: Again, I use frozen waffles for this one. Add a waffle to both sides, along with precooked bacon or sausage, cheese, and eggs to the inside.
- Breakfast Burritos: Use tortillas as your bread and add your precooked breakfast meat, eggs, and cheese to the inside.
- Eggs in a Basket: Cut a hole in the center of a slice of Texas toast and butter both sides of the bread. Place the bread in one side of your iron, and add a freshly cracked egg inside the hole. Close the iron and cook as usual until the bread is toasted.
- Eggs in a Nest: After spraying the inside of the iron, add a nest of thawed hashbrowns and crack an egg in the hole inside the nest. Close up the iron and cook until the egg and hashbrowns are done.
- Pancakes: Spray the inside of the pie iron and add several tablespoons of pancake batter. Close and cook until it is finished cooking.
Lunch and Dinner Recipes
Once your campfire is going strong, it is time to make a delicious lunch and filling dinner over the hot coals. No matter what you like, there is a cast iron pie sandwich for you!
- Grilled Ham and Cheese: Add ham (or any other meat for that matter) and cheese of your choice between the slices of bread
- Mediterranean Sandwich: Put feta cheese, olives, and sun-dried-tomatoes between your bread slices
- Pulled Pork Sandwich: Add cooked shredded pork, BBQ sauce, and premade coleslaw between the bread slices
- Campfire Cornbread: Spray the inside of the pan with your cooking spray and a few tablespoons of cornbread batter in the pan. Then add your pulled pork and a spoonful of canned green chilies, a spoonful of Rotel tomatoes, and a little bit of cheese into the pan and cook until the cornbread is done. We usually serve these with a dollop of sour cream.
- BBQ Chicken Sandwich: Add cooked shredded chicken and some BBQ sauce inside your slices of bread.
- Chicken Philly: Between your bread slices, put some cooked chicken along with some grilled onions, peppers, and mushrooms, and some shredded mozzarella cheese.
- Pizza Pockets: Add squeeze marinara sauce, mozzarella cheese, and any pizza toppings of your choice. We use mini-pepperoni for these. Also, if you add veggie toppings they will still be a little crunchy if you don’t pre-cook them.
- Cuban Sandwich: Use thin sliced Cuban bread along with seasoned pork roast, sliced ham, Swiss cheese and sour pickles. Switch up the bread to make it a media noche (midnight) sandwich.
- Caprese Sandwich: Between the bread slices, add tomatoes, fresh mozzarella cheese, and basil. Serve it with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar.
- Sloppy Joes: Add your premade sloppy Joe meat into the inside of your bread. Cheese is definitely a bonus with this one.
- Spaghetti and Garlic Bread Sandwich: This is my all time favorite way to use leftovers! Butter your bread and sprinkle a little garlic over the butter. Add the leftover spaghetti with marinara sauce on the inside and cook until the bread is golden and crunchy.
- Quesadillas: Spray the inside of the pans, add tortillas to both sides, and add the quesadilla toppings of your choice. Don’t forget cheese!
- Grilled Taco Pockets: This is just like the quesadillas, except you make sure you add taco meat inside, too.
- Chicken Pot Pie: This one requires that you pre-make the pot pie filling, but it is worth it. To do the pot pie filling, the easiest way I do it is to combine a bag of mixed veggies (thaw out a frozen bag), one can of cream soup, and some rotisserie chicken that I’ve pulled apart into a bowl along with some seasonings. Then you spray the inside of the pan, smoosh down two small biscuits (or a big one cut in half), add your filling, and cook until the biscuit is done. The trick with this is to make sure your biscuits are really flat.
- Reuben Sandwich: Use buttered rye bread along with corned beef, Swiss cheese, and sourcrout. We dip it in the thousand island dressing once they’re done.
- Classic Grilled Cheese: This one is a classic. All you do is butter your bread and add the cheese of your choice in the center.
- Hamburgers: Season your meat and add it to the pie iron. I also like to add some diced onion pressed into the meat for this one, but this is only to cook the meat, so don’t add any bread to your uncooked meats.
- Fried Spam: This is similar to the hamburgers as in you only cook the meat by itself. Slice the Spam into slices and put it in the cooker until it is finished on both sides. Again, do not add any bread until the meat is completely cooked.
Dessert Recipes
When people think of pie irons, they usually think of yummy desserts like hot apple pies. Fortunately, the fire is usually best after the sun has set and everyone is ready for dessert.
- Smores: Assemble all your ingredients right inside your pie iron and toast them all together
- Apple Pie (or Any Other Fruit Pie): Use canned apple pie filling along with a sprinkle of cinnamon inside your bread slices. For any other fruit pie, just add in your favorite fruit pie filling instead.
- Cherries and Cream Pie: Use canned cherry pie filling along and a little bit of cream cheese inside the bread slices
- Peanut Butter and Banana: Add peanut butter, banana slices, and a drizzle of honey in your bread slices
- Monkey Bread: Take biscuit chunks and roll them in cinnamon sugar. Then, stack the rolled biscuit chunks inside a sprayed pie iron and cook until the biscuit chunks are cooked all the way through.
- Grilled Fluffernutters: A good fluffy white bread works best for this one. Butter the outsides of the bread, and on the inside of the sandwich, put a layer of peanut butter and a layer of marshmallow fluff. Perfect gooey goodness!
- Turnovers: Use a croissant or crescent roll inside your greased pie iron. inside the bread dough, add your pie filling or chocolate of choice. Close it up and cook until the dough is cooked thoroughly.
- Cookies: Pick your favorite cookie dough, and place a one inch ball in each side of the pie iron and cook it with the pie iron open.
Best Pie Irons
If you don’t already own a good pie iron, I’m sure looking at these choices has your mouth watering and searching the web for your best options. Here are some of my top picks.
All Around Best Pie Irons
The number one leading brand when I think of pie irons is Rome. They are so synonymous, in fact, that they are pieiron.com.
Of all the different types of cast iron cookers they have on their site, the best choices for every dish on this post is the square pie iron and the double iron (here’s an affiliate link for the double pie iron since they’re sold out on their site–plus a couple more affiliate links will be included below).
Because the pie irons get really hot, I definitely recommend a kickstand for your pie iron so you don’t burn yourself or any of the campground equipment.
Believe me when I say these kickstands are way easier than figuring out a safe place to put these hot cast iron and aluminum irons down. For as much as I like these pies, I definitely don’t want to be branded, and I’m guessing you don’t either.
Economy Brand Pie Irons
Coghlan Brand pie irons are a close second in quality to Rome pie irons, but they are much less pricey. In general, I think they are cheaper because they hold less inside the containers.
You can get these at your local Walmart, or you can pick up this single Coghlan pie iron or double Coghlan cast iron cooker from Amazon and have it delivered straight to you.
How to properly use a Pie Iron
To use your cast iron or aluminum cooker, you need to make sure you, first and foremost, follow the manufacturers recommendations.
Although aluminum pie makers exist, I personally prefer cast iron for a couple reasons. For starters, aluminum has a much lower melting point than iron, so if you accidently leave yours in the coals (even though you should never leave your fire unattended), it can warp the aluminum.
The biggest reason, for me however, is that cast iron gets seasoned and is less likely to have your sandwich stick in it.
What Type of Bread Can Be Used in a Pie Iron?
Several different types of bread can be used in a pie iron. Here are some examples of what breads to use and types of recipes they go well with:
Breads and Doughs
- Thick Texas toast
- Sandwich sliced bread
- Rye
- Sourdough
- Pizza dough
- Frozen (and thawed) breakfast breads
- Waffles
- Croissants
- Crescent rolls
Flatbreads
- Flour tortillas
- Corn tortillas
- Pita breads
Cookie Dough
- Peanut butter cookies
- Chocolate chip cookies
- Sugar cookies
- Cookies…Just cookies…all of them
Non-Breads
- Potatoes
- Hashbrowns
- Veggies (think cauliflower bread)
- Keto “bread”
What Side Dishes Should I Serve with Mountain Pies?
The possibilities are limitless! Basically, if you would eat it as a side dish, you can have it with a pudgy pie!
In case you’re stuck, here are some classic favorites that we have on hand to make sure things go smoothly:
- Fruit
- Veggie tray
- Chips
- Bagged salad mix
- Corn on the cob (wrapped in aluminum foil and thrown on the fire grill)
- Fireside baked beans
- Any side you will eat
How do I clean and season a Pie Iron?
I know its considered a major no-no to clean your pie iron with soap and water, but I always do it. I just also make sure to add back a layer of grease to keep the seasoning going.
If you want to be true to form, however, here is Coghlan’s official instructions on how to season a pie iron.
Final Thoughts
Pie irons create a super delicious meal around any campfire, and they are my go-to meal when we’re out camping.
If you still don’t think these mountain pies are for you, maybe you’d have better luck checking out my favorite canned food meals.
If you have any other recipes for these yummy little pockets of joy, though, please let me know!
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