We recently had a great time hosting a camp cooking workshop with a cool local group of outdoorsy folks called Adventure Scouts. We mostly stuck with tried and true recipes, but wanted to make a new dutch oven dessert, and landed on this Dutch Oven Cranberry Apple Crisp. I make different versions of this crisp at home all the time, but I was a little nervous making it in a dutch oven for the first time for a group of strangers (it’s exactly what you’re not supposed to do, I know). Luckily, it was delicious!
If you’re intimidated by dutch oven cooking, this is a great recipe to start with. It’s not super easy to burn, which is always a concern with cooking on a campfire, and even if it does burn, it will probably be salvageable if you just scoop it out from the middle.
You can vary the fruit according to the season, but I love the combination of cranberries and apples. Both are tart and add a bright element to this crisp, in contrast to the sweet topping. I love the subtle coconut flavor from virgin coconut oil, but you can use refined coconut oil if you don’t like that flavor. A good pinch of salt really makes a difference in the topping, so make sure you taste it before you bake it and add more if needed.
To avoid having to bring your entire package of flour, sugar, etc, measure and mix the dry ingredients at home. You can mix them in a ziplock bag or in a tupperware. In this case, you would have one container for the fruit and another for the topping.
Dutch Oven Cranberry Apple Crisp
Yield
6-8 servingsPrep Time / Cook Time
/Activity Guide
Car CampingIngredients
- 6 cups peeled, chopped granny smith apples
- 2 cups fresh cranberries
- zest of one orange
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons flour
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- big pinch of salt
- 1/2 cup coconut oil
Tools
- Campfire
- Cutting board
- Dutch oven
- Knife
- Medium bowl
- Microplane grater or zester
- Mixing spoon
- Small pot
- Vegetable peeler
Method
- Prepare a cooking fire.
- Combine apples, cranberries, orange zest, sugar, and 3 tablespoons of flour in the dutch oven and mix well.
- If your coconut oil is solid, then melt it in a small pot over medium heat.
- In a medium bowl, combine oats, 1/2 cup flour, brown sugar, and salt. Pour in melted coconut oil and mix well. Sprinkle this mixture over the fruit.
- Cover the dutch oven with its lid and place in a bed of hot coals. Cover with the lid, and place coals on lid (see this temperature chart to get a 350 degree oven).
- Bake until the juice from the fruit is bubbly and the topping is golden brown.
