Cooking Outdoors Grilling, Camp and Dutch oven Cooking!

Four Easy Holiday Pie Recipes

Just recently I released my “Four Easy Holiday Pies” video using the Camp Chef Smoke Vault and the Camp Chef 10″ Premium Cast Iron Pie Pan. These recipes are designed to be easy with minimum ingredients and maximum flavor. Baking your pies outdoors will free up a lot of kitchen space and give you another excuse to stay outside on a beautiful fall day.

Four pies cooked at once may seem to be a daunting task but using the Camp Chef Smoke Vault you will have no issues at all. All four of these pies were baked at 350°F for about 1 1/2 hours. Your time may vary depending on the outside temp and weather conditions.

Mixed Berry Crisp

Recipe type: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Author: Gary House

Prep time: 20 mins

Cook time: 45 mins

Total time: 1 hour 5 mins

Ingredients

For the crisp topping:

1 cup quick oats
½ cup brown sugar
⅓ cup flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 stick soften butter

For the berries:

4 cups fresh blackberries or 2 bags frozen (thawed)
1 cup sugar
½ cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
1 pie crust
1 cast iron pie pan greased

Instructions

Mix dry ingredients for the crisp topping together until blended
Add butter and mix till crumbly
Set aside crisp topping
Drain berries
Mix berries, sugar, brown sugar, vanilla and cinnamon together
Set aside berry mixture
Grease a 10″ Cast iron pie pan
Place pie crust on pie pan
Fill with berry mixture
Cover berry mixture with crisp topping
Bake at 350 F for 45 minutes

Pumpkin Pie

Recipe type: Dessert

Cuisine: Amer

Author: Gary House

Prep time: 25 mins

Cook time: 45 mins

Total time: 1 hour 10 mins

Pumpkin pie recipe from a friend.

Ingredients

3 cups pureed pumpkin
1 can evaporated milk
4 eggs
½ cup packed brown sugar
1 cup sugar
1 tsp ground sugar
1 tsp ground clove
1 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 pie crust
10″ Cast iron pie pan

Instructions

Prepare 3 cups of pumpkin puree (fresh or canned)
Mix 4 eggs together till blended
Grease 10″ Cast iron pie pan
Place pie crust in pie pan
Mix all ingredients together
Pour onto pie crust
Bake 1 hour at 350 F for 45 minutes or filling has firmed

Cranberry Apple Crumble

Recipe type: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Author: Epicurious.com

Prep time: 20 mins

Cook time: 45 mins

Total time: 1 hour 5 mins

Adding cranberries to the filling evokes a familiar fall color and provides pleasant tartness to balance the sweetness.

Ingredients

For crumble topping

¾ cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup packed light brown sugar
½ tsp cinnamon
⅛ tsp salt
½ stick unsalted butter, cut into ½ pieces
½ cup pecans, coarsely chopped

For fruit filling

2 pds Gala apples (about 5), peeled, cored and thinly sliced
8 oz fresh or frozen (not thawed) cranberries
½ cup packed light brown sugar
3 tbs all-purpose flour
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp salt
2½ tbs fresh lemon juice
½ stick unsalted butter, cut into ½ inch pieces
1 pre-made pie crust

Instructions

Make crumble topping:

Stir together flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt in a bowl.
Blend in butter with your fingertips until large clumps form, then stir in pecans.

Make fruit filling:

Stir together apples, cranberries, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, salt, and lemon juice in a large bowl.
Sprinkle crumble topping over filling
Bake, uncovered, 350 F until crumble is browned, filling is bubbling, and apples are tender, 45 minutes to 1 hour more.

Caramel Apple Crisp

Recipe type: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Author: Gary House

Prep time: 35 mins

Cook time: 45 mins

Total time: 1 hour 20 mins

Ingredients

5 Gravenstein apples, thinly sliced peeled
2 cups Quick oats
1 cup flour
1 cup brown sugar packed
1½ tsp cinnamon
1 stick unsalted butter
½ cup apple cider
20 soft caramel candy pieces cut in thirds
1 pie crust

Instructions

Combine oats, flour, brown sugar and cinnamon
Mix in butter until mixture is crumbly
Combine apple slices, caramel and ⅓ of crisp mixture together
Grease 10″ Cast iron pie pan
Place pie crust in pie pan
Pour apple mixture onto pie crust
Drizzle apple cider over apple mixture
Pour remaining crisp mixture over top of filling
Bake uncovered at 350 F for 45 minutes or until filling is bubbling

I hope these recipes find a place at your table during the holidays or any other day!

Grilled Strawberry, Chocolate and Brie Sandwich

This simple recipe was the week #2 winner of the Island Grillstone contest over on Facebook. Just goes to show you that grilling on the Island Grillstone produces beautiful results. Bobbi Gallegos entered this grilled recipe idea, here is her entry:

Roasted Strawberries, Brie & Chocolate Grilled Cheese YUMZZ

makes 2 sandwiches

6 strawberries, quartered

2 tablespoons of olive oil

pinch of salt

2 tablespoons butter

4 thick-cut slices french bread

2-3 ounces of brie cheese, sliced

1-2 ounces high-quality dark chocolate

Grill set to medium Toss strawberries with oil and salt, then spread on a grillstone and roast for 12-15 minutes. Remove & set aside.

Butter the sides of two slices of bread, place them on the grill buttered-side down, then layer on a few slices of cheese, chocolate and strawberries. Top with a few more slices of cheese, then butter one side of the other bread slices, and place on top of the cheese. Cook for 2-3 minutes or until the cheese has started to melt, then gently flip the sandwich and cook until golden. Serve immediately! … Perfect recipe for an Island grillstone!! ♡♡ I would love one!!

Here is how I grilled it:

Pre-heat your Island Grillstone for 20 minutes. Here I am using the round grillstone with charcoal. Stay away from additional smoke as this is a very light flavored recipe. Grill temperature was at 375 degrees after warm-up.

I sliced the strawberries into fourths to get flat pieces instead of quarters. Drizzle with olive oil and salt or perhaps sugar if you really have a sweet tooth. Grill for about 5 minutes if you sliced your strawberries the way I did, longer if you slice them into quarters.

If I was to change anything in this recipe it would have been the step above. My taste buds would have preferred fresh uncooked strawberries on the sandwich. I think the strawberry flavor would have come through better.

Cut some nice thick slices of french bread, I used Dutch Crust for the texture. Spread butter on one side and place on the Island Grillstone to grill. I waited for about 5 minutes before I started to add the remaining ingredients.

Add a layer of brie and chocolate to the uncooked side of the french bread. At this point I could hear the gardeners next door making comments about how good the BBQ from somewhere was smelling.

Add grilled strawberries and more slices of cheese to your grilled french bread sandwich.

Add grilled french bread to complete sandwich. Notice the golden brown color of the grilled french bread? Everything will be melting at this point so there is no need to flip the sandwich. I pulled mine as soon as I placed the other piece of french bread on top.

Beautifully grilled sandwich!

We are half way through the contest over at the Island Grillstone Facebook page. With two weeks to go you have a great chance to win your own Island Grillstone. All you need to do is submit a recipe or a recipe idea that can be cooked on the Island Grillstone and “like” their Facebook page to enter.

Great recipe Bobbi! Enjoy your new Grillstone!!

Fresh Blackberry Cobbler Dutch oven Style!

Fresh blackberries are in season and that is a good thing! Berries and cobblers are what I would call a match made in heaven; this heaven is nirvana when both are cooked in a cast iron Dutch oven. Cast-iron and certainly Dutch ovens are some of the best baking implements you can find. Cast-iron Dutch ovens distribute the heat so perfectly that your dessert turns out perfect virtually every time (unless you of course decide to burn it).

With fresh blackberries in hand and an easy cobbler recipe, I decided that it was a great time to try baking in my Char-Broil Big Easy SRG. The Big Easy SRG (smoker roaster griller) makes for great outdoor oven with its cooking technology. The temperatures is easy to control and very stable, this in turn gives you oven like qualities that added with a Dutch ovens even heat distribution almost guarantees you the perfect bake.

My Dutch oven is a 10 inch indoor Dutch oven, no legs and no rim on the top that you would normally find on an outdoor version. The advantage to using this Dutch oven in the Char-Broil Big Easy SRG is that it allows the Dutch oven to sit safely on the racks that come with the Char-Broil Big Easy SRG. The base Char-Broil Big Easy SRG is deep enough that you could cook with multiple Dutch ovens inside (Stacked). Infrared cooking system allows for the heat to go up the walls of the Char-Broil Big Easy SRG heating all surfaces evenly at the same time very similar to your indoor oven.

Here is the recipe:

Blackberry Cobbler

Ingredients

For the cake mix:

1 stick butter

2 cups flour

2 cups sugar

1 tbs baking powder

1tsp salt

1 1/2 cups milk

For the berries:

4 cups fresh or frozen blackberries or 2 bags frozen (thawed)

½ cup sugar

1 ½ tsp fresh grated lemon zest

¼ cup water

1 tsp cinnamon

First things first, preheat your Char-Broil Big Easy SRG on high with your Dutch oven set on the top of the basket. You could very easily place your Dutch oven on the bottom of the Char-Broil Big Easy SRG; I didn’t because I was concerned about there being too much bottom heat.

While your Dutch oven is heating up you need to start preparing your blackberries. Rinse your fresh blackberries and drain, place them in a bowl with your sugar, lemon zest, water and cinnamon; mix well and set aside.

Now you can mix your cobbler batter. In separate bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt; stir to mix. Add milk and beat until batter is smooth.

Take one stick of butter in place in hot Dutch oven, stir till melted. Add your Blackberry mixture to the melted butter and pour your cobbler batter over the top. Replace lid on Dutch oven, close the lid to the Char-Broil Big Easy SRG and turn the control knob down to low. Bake for approximately 45 minutes.

A different variation of this would be to take your batter and pour that in first place your blackberries on top. The advantage to this, would I think, be that the blackberries will retain their shape and form better if you are concerned about aesthetics and not eating. I have no preference so therefore I dumped blackberries first and then poured the batter on top of that.

My Char-Broil Big Easy SRG worked perfectly! Nothing better than fresh Blackberry cobbler cooked in a Dutch oven and of course a little vanilla cream!