Hi everyone, I’m Kate Dunbar, the Campground Gourmet for “Rollin’ On TV.” Today, we are talking sweet, sweet for breakfast or sweet for dessert.

This is a recipe that is perfect if you’ve never tried camp dutch oven cooking before, it doesn’t get any simpler than this. We’re going to be using a camp dutch oven. I’m using my dutch oven cook table. We’re using fresh fruit, some apples, some pears, and some granola. It is a little bit healthy, but you’ll never know it with the sweet flavor of maple syrup, candied ginger, and that warm cinnamon spice.

Let’s get to the ingredients and then the cooking technique. I have some honey crisp apples that this cute little bee is tasting right away for me. I have some canned pears in pear juice. I have some melted butter, some maple syrup, some slivered almonds, some candied ginger, and like I said, granola and cinnamon. So, let’s add this all together, and then I’m going to show you why I’m not preheating a camp dutch oven for this.

I’m going to add the honey crisp apples. I have three of them that have been chopped up. Like I said, I have that can of pears in pear juice. And now, I’m going to add in the almonds, the candied ginger. This is always a little bit sticky, so mixing it a bit right now will get all those little pieces distributed throughout this dish.

Now, I’m going to add in half of the granola. We’re going to add it in now so it has that time to soak up the juices from the pears and from the apples.

And then we’re also going to save this for the topping, so there’s that nice crunchy bit at the top of it that gets all nice and golden and toasty. We’re going to add some cinnamon. Whew, the wind’s taking it away with me today. About a teaspoon and a half. We’re going to mix this up really well. And now, we’re going to add in a quarter cup of maple syrup. This is our sweet. If you don’t like maple syrup, you can always add honey. Just mix this around. And we’re going to let this sit for a minute while we prep our camp dutch oven.

Now, like I’ve said, I already have the fire going, I have my charcoal chimney that still has some hot coals in it that we’ll be adding to the top. But why we’re not preheating this is because I want everything to warm up at once. We’re not searing, we’re not sautéing. We want to just cook this slowly camp dutch oven style.

But there is a trick. Using a deep dutch oven is the perfect way to make a crisp or a cobbler because there’s a lot of room for steam, and that’s what you want with this. We want to trap as much steam as possible. And I’m using parchment paper. You don’t have to if you don’t want to. It’s an easy way to help with cleanup. You can also line your camp dutch oven with foil, it’s no problem. Just take a sheet, press it right in, get it down all the way. And then take another sheet, open it up, and do it in the opposite direction so you have all the walls covered.

So, now we’re going to take our apples and pears and granola and ginger, the maple syrup, and the cinnamon, and add this right to it. Get every little bit. You don’t want to leave anything in the bowl. There we go. All right, set that aside.

Now, it’s time to just press everything down into all the corners. And then level it out, smooth the top out. All right, let’s take the remainder of the granola and sprinkle it evenly. And I have four tablespoons of melted butter, I’m just going to swirl this in the pan really quick. And I’m going to drizzle this right over the top. Not only is it going to add delicious flavor, but it’s going to help with the browning for the granola and the apples. Perfect.

All right, I’m going to place the lid on this, making certain that the paper is sticking out, pressing it down. And now, let’s go over to the camp dutch oven table, and let’s see how this is cooked. Okay, so I’ve brought the camp dutch oven that has our apples, and pears, and crystalized ginger, and that beautiful granola over to my camp dutch oven table.

I have more heat at the base of this camp dutch oven than I do on top. I have just a little sprinkling of it because I don’t want to force a ton of heat down through the camp dutch oven, because that would cause the granola to burn. And that is what I’m trying to avoid here today, and that is what I’m trying to show you today. So, by having the stronger heat source down at the bottom, it’s going to cook those apples and force heat up through the camp dutch oven. I’m going to give this about ten minutes, and then we’ll come on back and I’ll show you how to do a rotation and check.

I’m going to put on my glove, I’m going to lift up the bail wire handle. I’m going to pick this up off of the stand, and I’m going to rotate it. And then I’m going to take my lid lifter, and I’m going to give the lid an additional 45 degree turn. And now we’re going to let this go ten more minutes and it should be done.

Oh, it’s beautiful. Oh my gosh, it is perfectly golden all across the top. The apples still have their pretty pink color, and that’s what I love about honey crisp apples. They’re going to keep their shape, and more importantly, they’re going to keep that beautiful pinky red exterior color.

I’m Kate Dunbar, the campground gourmet for “Rollin’ On TV.”

Cook great memories, and I’ll see you at the campfire.

Bye.

Learn more about Kate at The Campground Gourmet.

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