Yummy Campfire Apple Pie with a Twist!

Do you consider yourself an outdoorsy person?  If I made you a bush pie would you know what that is?  Well, I’m almost ashamed to admit that I had no idea these things even existed until a few years ago when my cousin treated us to campfire apple pies made with pie irons.

And, wow!  They were so yummy!

Since then, we’ve purchased a few campfire pie irons of our own and have been experimenting with cooking all sorts of different things in them. Pie irons are now one of our standard camping kitchen components.

Here’s one recipe we came up and it’s so ingenious, if I may say so myself!

images of making toasted apple pies while camping

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Campfire pie iron apple pie with cinnamon raisin bread!

Supplies and Ingredients

  • Campfire pie iron
  • A Campfire
  • One loaf of cinnamon raisin bread (I prefer a whole wheat brand I can find here in Canada)
  • Apple pie filling (canned is fine, but we prefer homemade, see below)
Fully cooked apple cinnamon hobo pies
Don’t these apple bush pies look yummy?

How to make campfire apple pie filling:

You can easily purchase and use a can of pre-made apple pie filling. 

Or, you can make your own and this is how we do it:

This recipe is fairly flexible.  Meaning, if you like your apples sweeter, add more sugar.  If you prefer your apples peeled, peel them (to all my Aunties’ disapprovals, I never peel apples!)  This will make enough filling for about 6-8 sandwiches.

  • Slice up about 8 apples into thin, bite-sized pieces
  • Throw them into an oiled baking dish
  • Add 1/4 to 1/2 cup brown sugar (white sugar is fine too!)
  • Add more sugar if you want your apples sweeter
  • Sprinkle with 1-2 teaspoons of cinnamon, and a few dashes of powdered ginger and nutmeg
  • Bake uncovered at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 1 hour, until apples are soft.
spooning homemade apple pie filling onto cinnamon raisin bread sitting in a iron pie iron
Spooning on the homemade campfire apple pie filling… add lots!

How to make pie iron apple pies:

  1. Open your campfire pie iron and, onto one side, press in one piece of cinnamon raisin bread
  2. Generously spoon on your apple pie filling
  3. Cover with a second piece of bread
  4. Close the pie iron while trying to tuck the bread inside
  5. Some people cut any bread off around the outside of the pie iron (we just leave this on and it gets toasty or burns off)
  6. Clamp your pie iron shut and place in the coals or hold over the flame
  7. Check periodically by opening the iron and seeing if the bread appears toasted or feels hot
  8. When you are happy with how cooked your campfire apple pie is, take it out of the fire, open the pie iron and carefully remove your pie
  9. Cut, share, and enjoy!
the inside of a toast apple pie
Fresh and hot pie iron apple pies!

Some tips on making pie iron apple pies:

We are always surprised with how long our pies take to cook.  On average, one apple pie will take about 8-10 minutes to fully heat up and get toasty.  The cooking times will vary depending on the type of campfire pie iron you’re using… and if your kiddos are holding it close enough to the heat.

You don’t have to wait to go camping to enjoy these pie iron pies… you can cook them in your backyard too! Maybe try over the firepit or even the BBQ!

These are our campfire pie irons, both aluminum and cast iron ones.  The cast iron pie iron can go directly in the flames or onto the coals.  Our aluminum pie iron’s instructions recommended to keep it away from direct flame.

Some people will use oil or butter between the pie iron and the bread slices.  We haven’t had any problems yet with our bread sticking and not coming out of the irons.  Sometimes the raisins in the bread stick, but we’re fine with that.  Omitting the butter also means our fingers don’t get all oily while eating the pies.

Filling variations: You don’t have to stick with apples inside these pies. You could easily make your own baked peaches, pears, or nectarines as a filling. Or, go ahead and buy some canned blueberry or cherry pie filling and use that instead!


Because we don’t put a lot of sugar into the apples and because we prefer to use the whole wheat bread, we love to serve these as a regular camping breakfast.  One sandwich is very filling and so welcome on a cool camping morning.  But, go ahead and eat these pie iron apple pies any time you want!


Spooning apple filling onto cinnamon raisin bread to make apple hobo pies
Adding homemade apple pie filling to the pie irons

4 thoughts on “Yummy Campfire Apple Pie with a Twist!”

  1. We are going to start our camping adventures this year!!! Pie and sandwich irons are a must for us. What a great idea to make the apple pie!

  2. We LOVE making apple pies in the pie iron (usually with a little bit of cream cheese in there too). Using cinnamon raisin bread is a fantastic idea – can’t wait to try it on our next camping trip!

    1. Oh, cream cheese! Now, that’s something I haven’t tried! And, yes, the cinnamon raisin bread is so yummy! Maybe you could do the bread and the cream cheese! Thanks for reading and happy camping:)

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