We squeezed in one more trip before the season shut the door on us. Second weekend of September, out past Alcova toward the Sweetwater country, and you could watch the year turning through the windshield — aspens along the creek bottoms going that thin coin-gold they get, willows rusting at the tips. Seventy-six degrees at noon. Thirty-eight by ten at night. That’s September out here: two seasons in a day, and only one of them warns you.
My son is five now and has firm opinions about camping, most of which are about dessert. He’d been bringing up the Dutch oven peach cobbler since June, and somewhere around Pathfinder he asked whether I could do the same trick with apples. I said sure. I had not actually tried it, which he didn’t need to know.
It worked better than the cobbler — a hard thing to admit about a recipe I’ve made every trip for two summers. Cobbler topping is a batter, and batter is fussy about even heat. Crisp topping is oats, flour, sugar, and cold butter rubbed together, and it does not care. It browns, it crunches, it forgives.
The Coal Math, One More Time
Same rule as my Dutch oven sourdough, and it’s the one skill that makes camp baking work: your oven’s diameter in inches is roughly your total briquette count for about 350°F. A 12-inch camp Dutch oven wants about 24. Split them so most of the heat comes from above — roughly two-thirds on the lid, one-third underneath. That’s 16 to 17 on the lid and 8 below, same as the cobbler. You’ll also see it phrased as diameter plus three on top, minus three on the bottom — 15 and 9. Either works.
Pile coals underneath like you’re boiling water and you’ll scorch the bottom while the topping is still pale. Keep the under-coals sparse and ringed toward the outer edge, load the lid, and quarter-turn pot and lid in opposite directions every ten minutes. Wind and cold ground get a vote, so light spares.
Which Apples to Buy
Straight talk on sourcing: Wyoming isn’t apple country in any commercial sense, and whatever’s in your store bin almost certainly rode in from Washington. There are hardy backyard trees in some of the lower, irrigated parts of the state, and if you know someone with one, take the apples. Most of us are buying, and that’s fine.
Variety does matter, because apples behave very differently under heat. You want ones that hold their shape and bring some acid. Granny Smith is the workhorse — firm, tart, won’t collapse. Braeburn holds up beautifully with more complexity. Honeycrisp stays sweet and keeps its structure. Jonagold splits the difference. Skip Red Delicious: fine in a lunchbox, watery and mealy in a hot pot.
Better still, mix — two-thirds Granny Smith for structure, one-third Honeycrisp or Braeburn for sweetness. Two varieties beat one, and it costs you a second bag.
Gear
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- A 12-inch camp Dutch oven — three legs, flat flanged lid. A smooth kitchen lid won’t hold coals.
- A lid lifter — check on it without dumping ash into dessert.
- A charcoal chimney starter — countable coals beat raked campfire embers every time.
Ingredients
Serves 10-12 | Prep 25 min | Bake 40-45 min
Filling:
- 8-9 medium apples (about 3½ lbs, 10 cups sliced) — I use 6 Granny Smith and 3 Honeycrisp or Braeburn — peeled, cored, sliced ¼-inch thick
- ½ cup brown sugar, packed
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour (or 2 tablespoons cornstarch)
- 1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Topping:
- 1½ cups old-fashioned rolled oats (not instant)
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup brown sugar, packed
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup (1½ sticks) cold butter, cut into small cubes
- ¾ cup chopped pecans (optional, and very good)
How to Make Dutch Oven Apple Crisp
1. Start your coals. Light a chimney 30-40 minutes ahead — about 24-25 briquettes for a 12-inch oven, plus spares. Butter the inside of the pot while you wait.
2. Slice the apples. Peel, core, and cut ¼-inch thick. Thicker and they won’t cook through; thinner and they turn to sauce.
3. Build the filling. In the pot, toss the apples with brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, lemon juice, and vanilla until coated. Spread even and press lightly. It’ll look like too many apples. It isn’t — they cook down by a third.
4. Make the topping. Combine oats, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt in a bowl or gallon zip bag. Work in the cold butter with your fingertips until it holds in coarse, pea-sized clumps — crumbles, not dough. Stir in the pecans, scatter evenly over the apples, and don’t press it down.
5. Bake over coals. Lid on. Eight coals underneath in a ring toward the outer edge, 16-17 on the lid with a few near the rim. Bake 40-45 minutes, quarter-turning pot and lid in opposite directions every 10 minutes.
6. Check it. Lift the lid around 35 minutes. You want a deep golden topping, filling bubbling thick at the edges, and a knife sliding into an apple with no resistance. Pale topping means your lid coals faded — add three or four fresh ones.
7. Rest. Off the coals, lid off, 15 minutes. The filling is molten out of the fire and sets as it cools. Everyone skips this and everyone regrets it.
Home-oven method
No fire, no problem — this is how I make it most of the year. Build both layers the same way in a 9×13 dish, a deep cast iron skillet, or a kitchen Dutch oven. Bake uncovered at 350°F for 45-50 minutes, until the topping browns and the edges bubble. Use a rimmed sheet pan underneath to catch drips, and tent with foil if the top browns before the apples soften. Rest 15 minutes.
What to Serve It With
Vanilla ice cream if your cooler is holding. Realistically at camp that’s a can of whipped cream, or cold heavy cream poured over the hot crisp — the underrated move. Leftovers eaten cold out of the pot the next morning are, I maintain, a legitimate breakfast.
It’s the natural finish to a heavy fall camp meal. If you’re headed into hunting camp this month, it’s worth the pack weight — something warm and sweet after a cold day does more for morale than more jerky. My Dutch oven venison stew is the meal I’d pair it with if the day’s hunt went well.
If you make it, tag @wyofood on Instagram or find us on Facebook. I want to see your pot, ideally with something gold in the background.
— Sean