I went tent camping this weekend with two people who I recently met. Its
been several years since the last time I went camping. I used to go
camping at least once a month with my dad when I was a kid, including
cold winter months, but not in many years, so when the idea of going
camping again presented itself, I jumped at the chance.
We went up to Worthington State Forest on the New Jersey side of the
Delaware Water Gap. That place is awesome! Any way, we never made pudgie
pies when we went camping when I was a kid. This was the first I heard
of them.
Over the years, I have noticed cast iron pie irons available in
army/navy stores, like this http://www.firepies.com/irons.html (see the
photo at the top of the web page), but I just assumed they were for
making toast or grilled cheese sandwiches, neither of which I ever
wanted while camping.
On this trip, I learned about pudgie pies. One of the women on this
camping trip is a full time cook at a farmer's market. Molly told me she
is from a family of avid campers and that pudgie pies are a tradition in
her family whenever they go camping.
She made them as snacks while we sat around the camp fire on Friday and
Saturday nights. But what's a pudgie pie?
You coat both cavities of the pie iron with butter to prevent sticking,
then you place one slice of bread on the pie iron gadget, spread a thick
layer of cherry pie filling on top of it, put another slice of bread on
top of that, then clamp the pudgie pie iron shut. You can optionally
spread some cream cheese on the second slice of bread and lay the cream
cheese side down on top of the pie filling. After the pudgie pie is
assembled and the pie iron is shut, put it in the camp fire to let it
cook for a few minutes.
When its done, put the pudgie pie on a plate, slice it in quarters, wait
a few minutes for it to cool, then pass the plate around and enjoy.
Molly used cherry pie filling because its what she likes the best, but
she also said some other kinds of pie filling work well too such as
peach and apple. She made one batch with cream cheese an other batch
without. I liked both versions.
So, have any of you other campers tried making pudgie pies?