Baked Apples on the Campfire – Easy Camping Dessert

These campfire baked apples are stuffed with a sweet, crunchy filling of oats, pecans and cinnamon. They may quickly replace S’mores as your favorite campfire dessert!

There’s nothing better than cooking over the campfire, except when you’re cooking dessert over the fire. These baked apples have become a camping dessert staple in our family.

Campfire apples are very easy to make and fun for the kids to prepare. Plus, they can literally be thrown into the campfire to cook!

Personally, I do not love s’mores. In fact, I don’t even like s’mores, or marshmallows for that matter.

So, although I still bring s’more ingredients on every camping trip we take, I also love coming up with new dessert recipes to cook over the campfire. These baked apples are one of my personal favorites!

How to Cook Baked Apples on Campfire

Baked apples can be cooked all together in a cast iron dutch oven or individually wrapped in aluminum foil packets in hot embers.

Cook it Over Campfire Embers or Charcoal Briquets

After stuffing the apples, wrap each one in parchment paper and then aluminum foil. Place the apple in the hot coals from the campfire or on a bed of charcoal briquets.

Note: To avoid scorching, wait until your campfire has died down a bit before placing the apples on the coals.

Or, you can pull some of the coals to the side of the fire pit and cook your apples on those coals while the rest of the campfire rages.

Cook it in a Dutch Oven

Campfire apples can also be cooked all at once in a cast iron dutch oven. Place an inch of water in the bottom of the dutch oven. Set the apples in the bottom with the open side (stuffed end) facing up.

Cover and cook (approximately 10 coals on the bottom and 12 coals on top).

Ingredients in Campfire Baked Apples

• Apples: Granny Smith, Jonathan, Honeycrisp and Pink Lady are some of the best apple varieties for campfire baked apples. They have a crisp, firm texture which helps them to hold their shape and not turn into mush over the campfire. (Granny Smith and Jonathan are more tart apples while Honeycrisp and Pink Lady are sweeter.) Our personal favorite apples to use in this recipe are Granny Smith apples, but feel free to substitute with any firm apple! (If you use soft apples, they’ll quickly turn to mushy applesauce when heated up.)
• Butter: The recipe calls for salted butter so there’s no need to add any additional salt. Feel free to substitute unsalted butter and a pinch of salt instead.
• Oats: Use old fashioned oats as opposed to quick cooking oats. If you use the latter, the inside will lose its texture.
• Pecans: Pecans are my absolute favorite in this recipe, but almonds or walnuts can be used as well.
• Brown Sugar: In a pinch, you can substitute white sugar, but you’ll lose the slight bit of extra flavor from the molasses in brown sugar.
• Cinnamon: Cinnamon is amazing in this recipe, but you can also add 1/8 teaspoon of nutmeg for more flavor.

Looking for other camping dessert ideas? Try out these Chocolate Orange Cakes (cooked in an orange peel) or these dutch oven camping desserts (coming soon).

Or, if you’re cooking in the fall, here’s a ton of fall camping recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner AND dessert.

This cinnamon roll apple pie is also cooked right over the fire, but in a pie iron instead of in foil.

How to make Baked APples Over the Campfire

1. Combine oat mixture

In a small bowl, use a fork to mash together the butter and brown sugar. Add the rolled oats, pecans and cinnamon and stir to combine.

2. Core the apples

Use a knife to cut around the top part of the apple core, angling your knife slightly in towards the center. This will allow you to pop the top area of the core out.

Then, use a spoon to hollow out the rest of the core, being careful not to puncture the bottom of the apple.

3. Stuff and wrap the apples

Use a spoon to pack the filling into the cored apples. Wrap the apple into a sheet of parchment paper. Then, wrap that in a sheet of aluminum foil.

4. Cook over the campfire

Place the wrapped apples on hot campfire embers for approximately 10-15 minutes. Cook time will vary significantly depending on the heat of your coals, so be sure to check your apples while cooking.

The apple should still be in tact, but tender enough to slice with a fork. You know you’ve cooked them for too long if you open up the tin foil and find what looks like apple sauce mixed with oats and pecans.

However, even if this happens, you still should totally eat it AND enjoy it. It will just be a bit messier!

5. Enjoy!

As you can imagine, a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top of these campfire baked applies is absolutely heavenly. However, if you’re like us and never bring ice cream with you while camping, a dollop of whipped cream is still very tasty!

These apples are the perfect camping dessert, especially if you are looking for something other than s’mores.

Let me know in the ratings if you try these out or if you have other variations in the filling.