Pizza over the fire or in a wood oven is all the rage. This might take some time, but the end result of Campfire Pizza is soooo worth the wait!
While this pizza may not be cooked directly over the flame for that wood-fired taste, you are cooking this baby outside on the range. Our handy camping Dutch oven, that we use for campfire brownies and braised spare ribs, works perfectly for pizza.
Split the dough up into smaller portions and use smaller pans and everyone can make their own individual pizza! It's also great when cooking in batches, such as when the hunters are coming in and out of the woods. Make the kids' pizza first so it cools while yours heats!
Key Ingredients
Flour - I'm using a mix of fresh ground wheat berries and bread flour, which gives us the perfect chew in the dough.
Yeast - Active dry yeast is activated by water, and we then give the dough a loooong proof to create some really nice flavour!
Toppings - Shred some cheese, grab some sauce, and whatever else you enjoy.
How to Make Artisan Pizza Dough
***See recipe card below for precise measurements and instructions.***
Step 1: Grind hard wheat berries and combine with bread flour. Add water and yeast and let rest til the next day.
Step 2: Add remaining dough ingredients to form a rough dough.
Step 3: Stretch and fold several times over the next few hours, before setting it aside for 2-3 days!
Step 4: Gently fold and stretch the dough into a smooth ball.
Step 5: Divide into desired amounts and cover to proof.
Step 6: Prep your fire or coals and preheat your Dutch oven.
Step 7: Assemble the pizza on parchment paper, making sure you don't make it larger than the bottom of your Dutch oven!
Step 8: Add your favourite toppings, making sure not to overload so you can transfer to the pot.
Step 9: Cook with indirect heat both below and above, until dough is baked through and cheese is melted.
Step 10: Carefully lift the pizza out and enjoy!
FAQs
Because we are using yeast, you must use hard wheat berries, not soft. Both red and white work well, but red has a stronger, heartier flavour that not everyone loves. You can always remember hard vs soft by thinking that "yeast is hard" meaning difficult, so you need hard wheat. Combined with bread flour, you have a high-protein dough which gives you that chew and perfect crumb. You can use all-purpose in place of bread dough, just being aware that your crumb will change slightly.
You can get fancy and use an infrared thermometer to check the heat emitted from your coals or wood! But I just go for it and keep an eye on things. You are aiming for a nice and hot 450-500°F to cook the pizza fast. Do not let your wood flare up or you will absolutely burn your pizza. Start cooking with the lid on but you can always finish with it off. Keeping it on and a heat source on top is how you will make sure the cheese melts.
Because we are cooking quickly, and need to make sure the crust doesn't burn, I strongly suggest you only use already cooked meats here for safety. If you don't mind some crunch to your veggies like bell peppers, you can toss them on raw. Cooking them ahead of time will create a softer end product, so it's all about personal preference.
Not quite ready for campfire cooking? You can make sausage French bread pizza in the oven at home, or some Pesto Sourdough Bread as an appetizer.
Photos by Dante from Shire by the Sea
More Pizza Night Favourites
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Campfire Pizza
Ingredients
Dough Starter:
- 70 grams freshly milled hard wheat flour
- 280 grams bread flour all-purpose flour may be used
- 350 grams water at 45°F
- ⅛ teaspoon active dry yeast
Pizza Dough:
- 350 grams water at 55°F
- ¼ teaspoon active dry yeast
- 130 grams freshly milled hard wheat flour
- 510 grams bread flour
- 20 grams fine sea salt
Pizza:
- Sauce
- Cheese
- Toppings as desired
Instructions
Day 1:
- Mill wheat berries for starter. Mix starter ingredients together in a bowl, sprinkling yeast over water. Mix until all the flour is wet and sticky.
- Cover with towel or wrap for 24 hours at room temperature.
Day 2-3:
- Starter should be ready and yeasty smelling.
- Mill dough wheat. In a mixing bowl add starter mix, dough water, and sprinkle yeast over starter mix. Then add both dough flours and salt.
- Mix by hand until everything is incorporated. Cover and let sit for 20-30 minutes to hydrate.
- With wet hand, reach under the dough grabbing one quarter of it and stretching and folding it over the other side. Repeat this step 3 or 4 more times.
- Cover dough and repeat fold process 2x over the next hour.
- Cover tightly overnight to develop more flavour until doubled or tripled in size in refrigerator. If you are wanting to use dough sooner, leave at room temperature for 4-5 hours before shaping.
Shaping:
- Lightly flour your hands, work surface, and bench scraper, but don’t flour the dough to keep it soft.
- With your hands, gently scrape the dough onto work surface large enough to work dough. Pick up and ease down dough into workable shape.
- With your bench scraper, divide the dough into either large sections of 3-4 or smaller ones of 5-6. You could weigh for consistency but eyeballing works fine too.
- As above for the shaping of the dough mass, except with lightly floured hands, reach under the dough grabbing one quarter of it and stretching and folding it over the other side. Repeat this step 3 more times and then cup hand around the dough ball and pull it across the surface of the work surface with no flour, tightening the ball.
- Repeat the pulling and tightening action another 2-3 more times to get a well formed ball with gasses intact.
- On a lightly floured tray or baking dish, place balls seam side down, lightly flouring or oiling tops and allowing enough room for expansion during proofing, cover with a tea towel or plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 6 hours.
- Over the next day dough will develop more flavour. Dough will keep for 2-3 days. You can also bring your dough camping by keeping them cold in a cooler.
To Cook:
- Start your fire and make a nice bed of hot coals. Keep fire going on the side once coals are ready for more heat to add to your Dutch oven. You can also use charcoal (24-30) or a combination of both.
- Make sure your dough is removed from fridge for at least an hour or two before shaping pizza.
- Preheat Dutch oven, lid on with fire, as coals are prepping to 450-500°Fahrenheit (your Dutch oven will heat in the fire for at least 30 minutes as you shape and prepare your pizza).
- Grate cheeses and prep all your ingredients.
- On parchment paper cut to size of your Dutch oven with enough length to lift pizza in and out, take your first dough ball and on a lightly floured cutting board start shaping it out with your fingers to the approximate size of the bottom of the Dutch oven. If you like more crust, leave a large edge of pizza disk.
- If you need to shape your pizza more, pick up the dough and rotating it let the pull of it downward help stretch it out and keep carefully rotating it while being careful not to tear it. It takes practice! Do this until you have about a round flat dough and then lay back down on your floured pizza paper
- Gently stretch the dough to the edges without tearing and making too thin. If holes appear, fold over a bit of dough and work out till thin but not torn. Make sure dough is not larger than the Dutch oven!
- When you are satisfied with the size and shape of the disk, carefully pull Dutch oven off the fire with heavy gloves and take lid off.
- Add sauce (leaving at least ½ inch around the edges), cheese, and toppings to the dough, being careful not to overload it on the paper. Lift cutting board with pizza carefully and gently slide or more carefully lift assembled pizza into pre-heated Dutch oven. Place the lid back on.
- Position the Dutch oven on a prepared bed of coals with mitts on, and add coals to the top of the Dutch oven and sides as well if you are cooking with wood. Be careful the wood doesn’t flare up! Fire will quickly burn your pizza so you have to stay vigilant by your pizza.
- Check fire/coals regularly that they are not flaring or fizzling out. Fire cooking is a more involved process than throwing something into the oven and putting on a timer. If you are cooking multiple pizzas, you will need to keep extra fire and coals going on the side.
- Bake until cheese is satisfactorily melted and crust baked…use lid lifter or gloves at all times to check on pizza. Final cooking can be done with lid off.
- When finished, pull Dutch oven off coals with oven mitts and carefully place to the side. Pull out pizza extra carefully and put on a cutting board for slicing.
- If you’re baking more than one pizza, repeat steps above, but Dutch oven should be sufficiently heated after each round.
Notes
- Will make 6 medium or 3 large pizzas. You can adjust to any size you like.
- Use cooked meats to ensure they are safe to consume.
- Use cooked veggies if you prefer softer toppings.
- Nutrition facts are for artisan pizza dough only.
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