Wait… You Can Make THAT on a Campfire?

There are certain things you expect people to cook over a bushfire like sausages, steak, damper, maybe even a potato wrapped in foil, but caramel slice isn’t one of them…. or cherry pie, berry cobbler or freshly baked scones.

But we’ve fallen down into a bit of an Instagram rabbit hole recently watching people turn campfires into makeshift bakeries, and it turns out there’s almost no limit to what people will attempt to cook over hot coals.

So if you’re travelling around Australia, doing a harvest season somewhere regional, or you’ve just got a few days off and a campsite to disappear to, we’ve collected some of our favourite sweet things we’ve seen people make over a fire.

Most require very little equipment, use very few ingredients you can grab from pretty much any Australian supermarket and none require you to carry an oven around Australia.

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1. Bushfire Scones

We’ll start with the most traditionally Australian one. Fresh scones cooked in the bush might sound ambitious, but they’re actually pretty perfect camp food. The ingredients are cheap, the dough is simple and you don’t need an oven if you know how to use the heat from your fire.

You’ll only need

• Self-raising flour
• Lemonade
• Whipped cream (canned)
• Jam and whipped cream to serve

How they do it

The flour goes straight into a large pan, followed by the other ingredients. It’s mixed by hand until everything comes together into a soft dough.

The dough is then divided and shaped into individual scones.

Rather than putting them over a grill, the scones go into a camp oven. A hole is dug beside the fire, hot coals are moved into it, the camp oven goes in and more hot coals are piled around and over the lid. Basically, they’ve built an oven in the ground.

Once they’re cooked and golden, they’re split open and served exactly as a scone should be: jam and cream… and somehow they’ve just made a proper Devonshire tea beside a river.

Watch the original Bush Scones video: Instagram Reel

2. Bushfire Caramel Slice

This was the point where we realised people are taking campfire dessert considerably more seriously than we thought. It’s a proper layered caramel slice made from scratch in the bush.

You’ll need

• Self-raising flour
• Coconut
• Brown sugar
• Butter
• Condensed milk
• Golden syrup
• Chocolate
• Milk

How to make it

Combine the self-raising flour, coconut and brown sugar then add the melted to create the base. Bake on the fire for 15 minutes.

Make your caramel from condensed milk, brown sugar and golden syrup, then layer it over the biscuit base.

Next, combine the chocolate and a dash or milk and cover it with melted chocolate and allow that to set in the camp fridge.

This one’s some worked, but boy oh boy is it delish!

Watch the original Campfire Caramel Slice video: Instagram

3. Bushfire Cookies

Potentially the greatest discovery of this entire exercise. Cookie dough does not require an oven.

This one is so stupidly simple that we’re annoyed we didn’t think of it ourselves – there is no pan and no camp oven. You literally put cookie dough on a stick.

You’ll only need

• Ready made cookie dough

How to make it

Shape the cookie dough around the end of your stick, and hold over like you would a marshmallow. Just like a marshmallow, turn and reposition it as it cooks so you don’t end up with one side raw and the other side indistinguishable from charcoal.

You’re looking for cooked and golden around the outside while remaining soft and gooey through the middle.

Eat warm. That’s it. This may permanently change the amount of refrigerated cookie dough you take camping. YUM!

Watch the original Campfire Cookie Dough: Instagram

4. Bushfire S’mores Tray

This one starts with a trip to the supermarket and ends with what can only really be described as a tray of melted happiness.

You’ll need

• Scotch Finger biscuits
• Chocolate
• Marshmallows
• A foil tray

How to make it

Layer the biscuits across your tray, add chocolate and marshmallows and put the tray near the heat of your fire. Let the marshmallows soften and toast while the chocolate melts through everything underneath. That’s the entire recipe. There’s also absolutely nothing stopping you from messing with it – Tim Tams, Caramilk, Maltesers, Caramello Koalas… this is not the time for restraint!

Watch the original: Instagram Reel

5. Bushfire S’mores

S’mores themselves are American… this version however gets a fairly significant Australian upgrade.

You’ll only need

• Mallow Whip
• TimTam biscuits
• Skewers

How to make them

Grab your skewer and stick the end into the TimTam, dip it in Mallow Whip and toast it over the fire just like you would a marshmallow. Rotate until the outside is evely golden and the inside is completely molten.

The American version traditionally uses Graham crackers, but we’re in Australia, we gotta go with TimTams!

Watch the original S’mores video: Instagram

6. Banana Bush Dessert

Possibly the easiest dessert on the list because the banana brings its own cooking container!

You’ll only need

• Bananas
• Chocolate
• Marshmallows
• Aluminium foil

How to make it

Leave the banana in its skin and slice it lengthways without cutting all the way through. Pull it open slightly and stuff chocolate and marshmallows down the middle. Wrap the whole banana in foil and place it amongst the hot coals. Once the banana has softened and everything inside has melted (about 10-15 minutes), carefully unwrap it and eat it straight from the skin. You can also add crushed biscuits, peanut butter, caramel or whatever other terrible decisions are available in your food box.

Watch the original Banana Bush Dessert: Instagram

7. Campfire Cherry Pie

Making an actual pie while camping feels unnecessarily ambitious, yet this is ridiculously simple. Which is precisely why we like it.

This is possibly our favourite discovery because this is not how we imagined the cherry pie was being cooked. You don’t need a pie dish… you need a stick.

You’ll need

• Pre-made pastry
• Canned cherries
• Optional: Canned whipped cream!

How to make it

Grab yourself some pre-made pastry and wrap it around a decently thick stick. Rotate like you would a marshmallow on a fire until the pastry is cooked. Once cooked, remove the stick and this leaves you an empty pie casing. Now you simply put some canned cherries inside (pre-heat if you prefer!) and some optional whipped cream on top, and Bob’s your uncle!

The canned fruit options are endless… heck why stop at fruit! We’re now dreaming up Nutella, peanut butter, Biscoff pie…

Watch the original Campfire Cherry Pie: Instagram

8. Campfire Waffle Cones

This might be the easiest one to convince an entire campsite to participate in because everyone can build their own.

Less a recipe and more permission to fill a waffle cone with whatever rubbish you like and melt it all together.

Start with just

• Waffle cones
• Chocolate
• Marshmallows

Then go rogue

Try:

• Caramilk
• Caramello Koalas
• Maltesers
• Tim Tams
• banana
• berries
• peanut butter
• crushed biscuits

Stuff everything into the waffle cone, wrap it tightly in foil and place it near the hot coals. Turn it occasionally. Once everything inside has melted together, unwrap it and eat it straight from the cone.

No bowls, no plates, nothing to wash. We may have found the perfect camping dessert… ARGH!

Watch the original Campfire Waffle Cones: Instagram

9. Campfire Berry Cobbler

And finally, one that feels particularly appropriate if you’ve come to Australia for the berry harvest season. You can spend all week picking berries and then apparently spend your weekend putting them into a campfire dessert. YUMMY!

You’ll only need

• Berry/Berries of choice
• Sugar (optional)
• Cakemix (vanilla or buttermilk flavour work well)
• Butter
• Cast-iron campfire pot (with lid)

How to make it

Put the berries into your pan with a little sugar (if desired) and allow them to begin breaking down.

Make a simple cobbler topping with the cakemix, butter and sugar (if desired) by placing over the fruit. Cover your pan or camp oven and cook using steady hot coals. If you’re using a camp oven, place some coals on the lid so you’re getting heat from above as well.

When the berries are bubbling and the topping is golden, you’ve somehow managed to make a berry cobbler in the middle of the Australian bush, woohoo! TASTY!

Watch the original Campfire Berry Cobbler: Instagram

Before you turn the bush into a bakery…

A few things we’ve learnt from watching people do this.

Cook with coals, not flames. A roaring fire looks good in photos but isn’t particularly useful when you’re trying not to incinerate a biscuit.

Let your fire establish a decent bed of hot coals first. You can then move coals around to create hotter and cooler areas.

If you’re using a camp oven, coals underneath provide your bottom heat while coals on the lid create heat from above. You’re essentially building yourself a little outdoor oven.

And most importantly, make sure you’re actually allowed to light a fire.

Australia takes fire restrictions seriously for extremely good reason. Rules change depending on the location, season and conditions, and Total Fire Bans mean exactly what they sound like.

Check the local rules before lighting anything, never leave a fire unattended and make absolutely sure it’s extinguished before you leave.

Your days off don’t have to be complicated

If you’re travelling Australia while working, some of the best weekends aren’t necessarily the expensive ones.

Sometimes it’s finishing a week on the farm, throwing some food in the car, finding somewhere beautiful to camp and sitting around a fire with the people you’ve somehow ended up travelling Australia with.

And apparently, with some foil and just a few supermarket ingredients, you can also have freshly baked cookies, caramel slice and cherry pie.

We’re still waiting for someone to successfully make a pavlova though…. if you’ve done it, we genuinely need to see the evidence LOL!