Dutch Oven Recipes

With a little practice you can cook anything you want with this method. You end up with great tasting food that is hard to really mess up.

Dutch Oven Pies

Ingredients:

1 can apple or other pie filling

1/4 stick butter
1 box any Jiffy muffin mix

1 spray can of whipped cream

Notes: Some people stir the muffin mix into the filling.

Instructions: Pour the filling into the pie tin. Sprinkle the dry muffin mix over the entire surface.
Slice the butter into thin squares and distribute across surface. Put 4 or 5 equal sized pebbles in the Dutch oven. Carefully, place the pie tin on top of the pebbles. (Reduces burning.) Put on the lid and cover with coals. Cook for 10-15 minutes. Serve with whipped cream.

Dutch Oven Lid Pancakes

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 1/2 cups milk
2 tablespoons melted butter
vegetable oil

Instructions: Pour flour, baking powder, and salt into a zip-loc and mix it very well. In a separate bowl, mix egg and milk. Pour flour mixture into bowl, stirring until smooth. Blend in melted butter. Place Dutch oven lid upside down over coals - place 2 pieces of wood parallel on the coals and rest the lid on them to leave air space under lid. Pour some oil on the paper towel and wipe the lid to cover it in a thin film of oil. Pour 1/4 cup of batter in the center of the griddle. Cook until brown and dry around edges with bubbles on top. Flip and brown the other side.

Pizza for Breakfast

Ingredients:

1 tube of Crescent Rolls

3 Tbsp milk
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese

3 Tbsp Parmesan cheese
1 cup hash browns

3 Tbsp red bell pepper

3 Tbsp yellow bell pepper

1 green onion
1 lb sausage
3 eggs

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

Instructions: Grate the cheese. Thaw the hash browns if they are frozen. Slice the onion. Brown and drain the sausage. Beat the eggs. Dice the peppers. Unroll the crescent rolls and cover the bottom of a 12 inch Dutch Oven with flattened crescent rolls. Sprinkle sausage, peppers, hash browns, green onion, and cheddar cheese evenly over the rolls. Mix eggs, milk, salt and pepper in a bowl. Pour egg mixture into D.O. Sprinkle parmesan cheese on top.

Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees, about 10 briquettes on bottom and 15 on top.

Breakfast Burritos

Ingredients:

2 potatoes, peeled

1/4 stick butter

4 eggs
8 Soft tortillas

1/2 cup shredded cheese
8 pre-cooked sausages

salsa

Instructions: Cut the sausage into small pieces. dice potatoes. Melt the butter in skillet. Add sausage and potatoes. When the potatoes are brown, mix in the eggs. warm the tortillas while cooking the eggs. Put 1/8th of the eggs in a tortilla with cheese and salsa. Roll up.

Cowboy Breakfast

Ingredients:

1 Package Bacon cut into pieces
1 Package Ground Sausage
1 Bag Cubed Hash Browns
12 Eggs
Optional: Syrup or Ketchup

Instructions: Cook Bacon and Sausage in the Dutch Oven. Remove the excess grease with a paper towel. Add hash browns and cook until they are until they are crisp on the outside. Mix in Eggs with done hash browns. Stir until eggs scramble in with hash browns and are thoroughly cooked. Add syrup or ketchup if desired.

Easy No Knead Bread

Dutch Oven Bread

Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons active dry yeast

1 ½ teaspoons sea salt

1 ½ cups warm water 105 degrees F

Instructions:

Combine the flour, yeast, and salt in a large bowl and stir to combine.
Add the water and mix until the dough forms a ball.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap (sprayed with cooking spray) and a damp tea towel.
Let dough sit covered at room temperature for a few hours.
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
Place a 5-6 quart dutch oven with a lid in the oven while it is preheating.
While oven is preheating, transfer the dough from the bowl onto a floured surface.
Form the dough into a ball, adding a little more flour if needed. The dough should still be slightly loose. Then cover it with a floured towel while the oven is preheating. (Important note: The dough ball will be loose and "floppy." That is how it should be as this is a very moist bread which is what makes it so irresistible. You will not have a firm ball, it will look a little flat).
Carefully remove the hot Dutch oven from the oven. Remove the lid and spray the dish with cooking spray or line it with parchment paper.
Gently put the dough ball into the baking dish so it’s evenly distributed.
Cover and bake for 30 minutes.
Remove the lid and bake for an additional 15 minutes, or until the loaf is golden brown.
Remove the loaf from the Dutch oven and let it cool on a rack before slicing.
never cut the bread before it is cooled. Why? Because a lot of the final cooking bits happen as it's cooling! So, be patient, let it cool and finish.

* Pre-Heat the Dutch Oven
Professional bakers always put their bread into hot ovens. Most Dutch oven bread recipes I read just said to put coals on. Eventually, the iron will get hot enough and it will bake your bread.

But it turns out that when you shove a ball of dough into an already heated oven, that initial blast of heat will make the dough "spring". That means it puffs up almost immediately. The trapped gas expands, the moisture in the dough turns to steam, and the whole ball poofs. You get a bigger loaf, with a softer crumb (that's the technical term for the part of the bread that's not the crust).

There are two ways to approach this. One way is to do just what it says. Pre-heat the Dutch oven. After you've risen and shaped the bread, set it aside to proof on a piece of baking parchment, with plenty of extra parchment all around the dough. Oil the inside of the Dutch oven. Count out the proper coals for baking the bread (according to the recipe). Put the right amount in a ring underneath the Dutch oven, and the right amount above on the lid. Let it sit, empty, while it gets hot and the dough proofs. Then, when the dough is ready and the Dutch oven is hot, gently lift the dough by the parchment and set it into the Dutch oven. Close the lid and let it bake.

Another method is to pre-heat the lid of the Dutch oven. After your bread has risen and you've shaped it, put it in an oiled Dutch oven to proof. In the meantime, put some (a lot) of coals on the lid and set it aside. When the loaf is ready, take some of the coals off the lid and put them in a ring. Set the Dutch oven on the ring of coals, and put the lid on. The advantage of this method is that you're not handling the bread as much, and so there's less of a chance of punching the bread down as you're trying to maneuver it into a hot Dutch oven. You can also do some fun shapes, like braids and rings. It's much easier to do rolls this way, too.

However, the other method gives a better blast of heat and better spring. There are some breads, like French bread, that really only respond to the first method.

* If you are using a fire or coals turn the Dutch oven.
This is pretty standard and it's vital for bread making. You have to turn the oven so that you don't get hot spots. Lift the oven and turn it about a quarter turn in one direction, then set it back down on the coals. Then turn the lid about a quarter turn. The point is to have the placement of the coals be different in relation to the bread. It helps the bread cook evenly.

I usually do it every 15-20 minutes. As long as you don't lift the lid every time and let the heat escape, it won't hurt the bread.

* Use a Thermometer

It can be difficult to strictly regulate the internal temperature of a dutch oven. There are many variables. Counting coals is a good idea, but if it's cold out, or windy etc, the heat can vary. That means, I'm never sure when it's done. Cooking a certain length of time is no guarantee. Looking at the "golden brown" of the crust doesn't work, because I can never tell if it's done inside. Ina dutch oven, it's not always practical to reach in, lift out the loaf and thump it.

My solution? Stick a meat thermometer in it. If it's between 180 and 200, it's done.

Dutch ovens were made for baking.

You can always bake bread in a well-oiled Dutch oven but instead of baking directly in the oven, consider this method: Put the dough in a baking pan and the pan in the Dutch oven.

Form the dough into a round loaf and placed the dough in a greased nine-inch metal pie pan. Then set the pan atop small rocks in the bottom of her twelve-inch Dutch oven. Put the lid on the Dutch oven and the oven on ten briquette coals. Another fourteen briquettes went on the top. Bake the bread for 45 minutes, turning the lid occasionally.

Use single loaf or smaller batch of rolls. 2 loaves won’t have adequate air circulation between the loaves and will tend to be lopsided.

It is important that you elevate the pan off the bottom of the Dutch oven using small stones so that it does not burn, and enough top clearance so that the rising bread does not reach the lid.

You can use this same technique to bake great desserts or pastries.