Although baking while camping might sound impossible, it’s surprisingly easy to make a delicious camping breakfast, dinner, or snack over a campfire for a truly rustic and authentic camping experience. 

For the most delicious camp biscuits from scratch (although we won’t tell if you cheat and use a biscuit mix!), all you’ll need are a few simple ingredients, a Dutch oven and/or pie iron, and a roaring campfire. 

Campfire Biscuits - How to Make a Tasty Batch on Your Next Trip

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Servings

8

Prep Time

10 minutes

Cook Time

20 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 cups self-raising flour (plus ½ cup for rolling)

• ½ tsp. salt

• 1 ½ tbsp sugar

• 2 tbsp shortening

• 2 tbsp softened butter

• 1 ½ tbsp melted butter

• 1 ¼ cup buttermilk

Directions

1. Mix together the 2 cups of self-raising flour with the salt and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Add the shortening and softened butter and cut in until the mixture forms pea-sized crumbs.

2. Slowly pour in the buttermilk, stirring as you go, until thoroughly incorporated. Be careful not to over-mix.

3. Leave the dough to rest for 2-3 mins.

4. Once rested, roll the biscuit dough out on a flat surface to approximately ⅓-inch thick and use a biscuit/cookie cutter or knife to shape the biscuits.

5. Place the biscuits into a storage container if cooking later, or move onto the Dutch oven biscuit recipes below for cooking instructions:

Dutch Oven Campfire Biscuits

1. Heat your coals until grey-hot. Lay 7 hot coals in a circle beneath your Dutch oven, retaining around 19 to put on the lid.

2. Lightly grease the inside of your cast-iron Dutch oven and place biscuits along the bottom of the pan. The biscuits can be touching but should not be too close that they’re prevented from rising.

3. Place the Dutch oven on top of the hot coals and cover with the lid, arranging the remaining hot coals evenly on top of the lid.

4. Bake biscuits for approximately 20-30 mins, turning the Dutch oven regularly to avoid burning (see below FAQs for tips on getting the perfect heat distribution).

5. The biscuits are ready when they’re golden brown and well-risen. Remember, the biscuits will keep cooking for a while inside the Dutch oven, even once removed from the heat.

6. Serve warm with your favorite toppings.

Pie Iron Camping Biscuits

1. Prepare your campfire and lightly oil the inside of your pie iron (or use cooking spray).

2. Place 2+ biscuits inside the pie iron at a time.

3. Close the pie iron and hold it carefully over the fire.

4. Cook biscuits for approximately 15-20 mins, frequently checking to ensure they don’t burn.

5. Remove from the heat and serve warm.

Dutch oven campfire biscuits 

Making Dutch oven buttermilk biscuits is one of the easiest ways to impress at your next campout. They take minimum prep, and the even heat distribution from the cast-iron Dutch oven ensures every biscuit is beautifully fluffy and perfectly cooked every time. 

Baking biscuits in Dutch oven pans is brilliant because it allows you to cook biscuits without oven constraints, so you can prep your treats at home and efficiently cook them wherever and whenever the mood hits you.

Whether you love them with dollops of butter and jam or prefer Dutch oven biscuits and gravy, this delicious Dutch oven biscuit recipe is sure to become your all-time favorite. 

You Will Need… 

• Approximately 26 pieces of charcoal for the fire
• A cast-iron Dutch oven or Pie Iron
• A biscuit cutter (or knife, if you’re not married to the idea of round biscuits)
• A large mixing bowl
• A flat, floured surface for rolling out the biscuits
• A rolling pin

Campfire biscuits - FAQs

How long to cook biscuits for?

Cooking biscuits over a campfire isn’t an exact science, and the length of time your biscuits need to cook will depend on how hot your coals are before you start cooking. 

That said, we usually find around 20-30 minutes produces delicious, fluffy, well-baked biscuits. 

How hot should the campfire be?

For the best results, you should be looking for a temperature of around 350 degrees Fahrenheit to cook your biscuits. 

How to tell how hot your campfire is?

A great tip for checking how hot your fire is burning is to place your hand around 6-8 inches above the fire and see how long you can hold it there. If you can comfortably keep your hand at this distance for over 8 seconds, the fire needs more heat. If you need to move your hand after 4-5 seconds, then it’s a good indication that your campfire is burning at around 350-450 degrees Fahrenheit: perfect for biscuits! 

How to get the perfect heat distribution when cooking with a Dutch oven?

To ensure your biscuits cook evenly in the Dutch oven, rotate the pan 90 degrees clockwise, and the lid 90 degrees counter-clockwise, approximately every 7 minutes. 

Because the biscuits will be cooking from the top and bottom, it’s essential to rotate both the pan and lid to avoid any hotspots causing burns or undercooked biscuits. 

Can you cook frozen biscuits on a campfire? 

If you would prefer to pre-make your biscuit dough at home, ready for baking when you reach the campsite, then you might want to freeze the dough in small batches to bring in container bags and bake on arrival. This is absolutely fine to do and your biscuits will still cook beautifully even if they’ve been frozen!

It’s a good idea to let the biscuit dough defrost before placing on the fire to enable them to cook evenly, but you could pop them straight into your lightly greased Dutch oven. Just be sure to keep a close eye on them as they bake. 

Other Dutch oven camping recipes

If you’re heading on an exciting camping trip, you’ll be pleased to know that there are several super-easy and delicious recipes you can make on the campfire with your Dutch oven! From pie iron pizza to pudgy pie, the only limit to the potential camping cuisine you can enjoy is your imagination!