Campfire Apples in a Dutch Oven

These baked campfire apples are stuffed with a sweet, crunchy filling of oats, pecans and cinnamon.

You can feed your entire camping crew a healthy dessert with stuffed baked apples made over campfire coals in a Dutch oven.

How to Cook Baked Apples on Campfire

Although this recipe describes how to make baked apples in a Dutch oven, you can also cook them individually in campfire embers. You can find the exact steps on cooking individual baked apples in this post.

Cook it in a Dutch Oven

The fastest and easiest way to cook campfire apples is to cook them all at once in a cast iron Dutch oven. Cover the bottom of the Dutch oven with a half an inch of water and set the apples in the bottom with the open side (stuffed end) facing up.

Place Dutch oven over hot pieces of charcoal (about 8-10 pieces) and then add double that number of coals on top of the lid (about 16-20 pieces).

There are more details provided on these steps in the recipe below.

Ingredients in Campfire 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.) 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 get mushy and 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 that’s 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 sweet camping dessert ideas? I’ve pulled together my family’s favorite camping desserts that can be cooked in aluminum foil, in a pie iron, in a Dutch oven, and even on a stick!

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.

(Complete this step at home before your trip for even easier prep when you’re camping! Just store the filling in the cooler under you’re ready to stuff the apples.)

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 apples and place in Dutch Oven

Fill dutch oven with a half an inch of water.

Use a spoon to pack the filling into the cored apples. Place the cored apples in the dutch oven.

4. Cook over charcoal

Place the covered Dutch oven over 10 pieces of hot charcoal. Add about 20 pieces of charcoal on top and cook for about 30 minutes. (This number of coals is for a 12″ Dutch oven. If yours is smaller, lower the number of coals but keep a 1:2 ratio of coals underneath to coal on the top. For example, 8 coals under the Dutch oven to 16 coals on top.)

The apples are ready when they are still in tact, but tender enough to slice with a fork. You know you’ve cooked them for too long if the apples turn to mush. However, even if this happens, it will still taste delicious, but it will be more of a applesauce crisp instead.

5. Enjoy!

As you can imagine, a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top of these campfire baked apples 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.