16 Camping Desserts You Need to Make ASAP
Whether or not you make it out for a camping trip, these camping desserts recipes will make your day. There is nothing like being gathered around a campfire with friends and family while slurping up the best camping dessert recipes! If you can’t light a campfire, many of these campfire treats can be cooked up on the grill or fire pit (and even the toaster oven)!
Best Campfire Desserts Recipes
If you are someone who loves spending time on a campsite, you are going to love these 14 Scrumptious Campfire Desserts You Need to Make This Summer! So on your next camping trip, be sure to grab everything you need to enjoy these sweet treats.
Related: Camping hacks
Camping Desserts the Entire Family Loves
I honestly had no idea there were this many great ideas when it comes to easy campfire desserts for kids. I usually just stick to s’mores, but I will definitely be stepping up my camping dessert game!
These campfire dessert ideas aren’t just for camping trips, they are also perfect to try out on your fire pit or grill from the comfort of your own yard!
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Campfire Treats Made in Tin Foil
1. Campfire Cones Recipe
Kids Activities Blog was the first online post to publish our Campfire Cones recipe many, many years ago. It was our first viral pin on Pinterest and there were soon a million copycat recipes out there for good reason…it is amazing! Filled with Chocolate chips, marshmallows, and your favorite fruit inside a waffle cone is one of the best camping desserts, ever!
And don’t fret if you are stuck inside and can’t get close to a campfire, I have made this in a fire pit, on the grill, in the oven…and even in the toaster oven. It is a campfire dessert that can’t be messed up even if you don’t have a campfire!
And don’t worry about clean up! This is one of those easy camping desserts that is cooked in foil packets.
2. Apple S’mores Nachos Recipe
These are not your typical classic s’mores! This Lil Piglet‘s sweet treat is exactly what it sounds like, and tastes amazing! On her last camping trip she found “there was a way to make non-sticky s’mores, even a healthier version, Campfire Apple S’more Nachos.”
Her campfire treat idea has simple ingredients: apples, cinnamon, mini marshmallows & chocolate chips with a little lemon juice squeezed on top. When you bake it in a foil grilling pan, the cleanup is a breeze as well.
3. Campfire Eclairs in Foil Recipe
Make these eclairs from The Many Little Joys right over the campfire! She declares it as the best campfire dessert ever…I suggest we test it to be sure {giggle}. She relates how the “best night of our camping trips was always the night Mom pulled out the stuff to make everyone’s favorite campfire dessert: flaky rolls filled with gooey pudding and topped with chocolate.”
You had me at flaky rolls…
This is a great recipe to make some very delicious treats after a long day of fun!
4. Campfire Foil Baked Apples Recipe
Parents Canada has the best recipe–apples filled with cinnamon and granola. The funny thing is that baked apples have been a staple at my home since before I was born. My mom made them every week during apple season, but I had never thought about making them in the campfire or on the grill. We always fill the middle of the apple with cinnamon, sugar and as many golden raisins as would fit.
Definitely a campfire treat I will be testing out!
Easy Camp Desserts Without Marshmallows
5. Grilled Berry Cobbler Recipe Perfect for Camping
Make this delicious recipe from Hoosier Homemade right on your grill in your backyard, or on a camping trip. This campfire recipe needs an iron skillet, some flames along with the ingredients: butter, baking mix, milk, sugar, peaches, blueberries and cinnamon. My suggestion is that vanilla ice cream be close by when it is finished baking!
Related: Dutch oven peach cobbler recipe
6. Campfire Tarts Recipe
This easy campfire dessert recipe from Cooking Classy looks incredible! Toasted biscuits with fruit and whipped cream filling. Yum!
And the presentation is not what you would expect from a campfire. Oh, and they taste even better than they look.
7. Monkey Bread Campfire Recipe
This is one of my favorite camping desserts! Say Not Sweet Anne has a delicious version of one of my all-time favorite recipes, made over a campfire! She reports, “It is simple, it is easy to cook, and it only requires one ingredient to be stored in the cooler. Win-win for me.”
Looking at this simple idea that works even for remote camping situations, I am thinking it is more of a win-win for everyone!
8. Campfire Donuts Recipe
If you want fresh donuts you can make them right over your fire, thanks to this delicious treat from Must Have Mom! This is her favorite kids camping recipe based on years of testing. To create this campfire treat, you will need a cast iron pan, biscuit dough, oil, sugar and cinnamon.
If you need a little help building the campfire in exactly the right configuration for cooking, check out this campfire recipe article because there are really good campfire building tips.
9. Dutch Oven Campfire Apple Dump Cake Recipe
Bake a cake right on your campfire! My family loves this recipe from Jill Cataldo. Jill says, “I love cooking with my cast-iron Dutch oven over an open fire. Dutch ovens are great for making “Dump Cakes,” meaning, you dump everything into the oven, close it up, and let it bake.”
That makes so much sense and yet it had never occurred to me how easy cooking in a dutch over over a campfire might be until I came across this genius campfire idea. And ever after we have packed a dutch oven as camping gear!
This looks like one of the most delicious campfire desserts and I’m very excited to try it this camping season.
10. Campfire Berry Upside Down Cake Recipe
Speaking of deliciously easy desserts to make…
Based on the dutch oven experience and how dump cakes are super easy to make in the wild outdoors, upside down cakes are similar. Dump in the ingredients, bake and then flip over in the pan you baked it. One of our favorites is our Berry Upside Down Cake recipe. We wrote about it last year from a traditional kitchen, but using an iron skillet or a dutch oven over the campfire is an easy variation.
11. Camping Dutch Oven Brownies Recipe
OMG. You need to taste our favorite campfire brownies – dutch oven brownies. This recipe is loaded with candy (duh!) and all sorts of campy goodness. The first time we made these campfire brownies, my kids were so impressed and said they were the best brownies they had ever had.
There’s just something about cooking over the campfire coals that makes everything better…even brownies.
More Easy Camping Desserts With Marshmallows
- My daughter and I love this s’mores caddy! It’s perfect for keeping s’mores ingredients organized (and bug-free) while camping.
- My daughter and I have gluten and dairy sensitivities, so I keep this caddy stocked with our favorite allergy-friendly marshmallows, chocolate, and graham crackers, and bring it along when we go to a cookout so that she can participate.
- We also love these telescoping marshmallow skewers, because each skewer is a different color, which helps with keeping them separated from others’ and avoiding cross-contamination. Bamboo skewers work, too, and they are nice during a camping trip because you can just throw them into the fire when you are finished.
12. Camping Cast Iron Baked S’mores Recipe
We had so much fun with this cast iron s’mores recipe last time we went camping. It is literally ooey-gooey goodness in a pan. This recipe broils the marshmallows to give them that light brown (or dark, if you prefer) “just-out-of-the-fire” look and taste. The good news is that it can be made with or without a campfire!
13. Candy S’mores Recipe for Your Next Camping Trip
What’s better than a s’more? A s’more with a Reese’s cup, instead of plain chocolate. Loving this idea from Crafty Morning! And then I thought…wait. You could literally put together any sort of chocolate candy into a s’more…genius!
Related: Foil wrapped recipes perfect for the campfire
14. S’mores In a Bag Recipe
Holy crap this is a good idea. You have probably heard of walking tacos made inside of a chip bag. This genius idea is basically walking s’mores made inside of a Teddy Graham bag.
It will keep your hands from being covered in sticky marshmallow! Make this brilliant idea from A Girl And A Glue Gun, instead.
15. Upside-down Cookie S’mores
A while back we wrote about a fun camping treat we made over the campfire that we called pineapple upside down cookie s’mores. It is a morph between a pineapple upside down cake and a s’more.
TASTY!
16. Best Camp Campfire Strawberries
Goodcook (unavailable) has a really fun way of making strawberry s’mores…kinda. It is just two ingredients and a little fire that are needed: strawberries & marshmallow fluff. Toast a dollop of marshmallow fluff and you have campfire strawberries! What a treat!
Campfire Food FAQs
A campfire is the original kitchen! Basically anything CAN be cooked over a campfire, but some things are more easily made over a fire with better results. When in doubt, choose things that work well on a grill or take a campfire recipe and modify it for best results.
When baking a cake over a campfire, you will need a strong pan to keep the heat consistent while protecting the cake. A cast iron skillet on top of a campfire or a dutch over lower in the campfire works well with good results.
All of these campfire treats work well as snacks, but I love the bite sized ones for snacking like the dipped strawberries and monkey bread the best.
1. Vegetables or fruits kabobs with a long handle work really well for campfire roasting. Brush with a little vegetable or olive oil.
2. Hot dogs
3. Corn on the Cob
4. Bacon on a stick
5. Bread – wrap dough around the end of your stick
6. Sausages
7. Fish
I think we can all vote s’mores as our very favorite campfire food, but don’t forget to try some alterations and variations next time you are cooking over a fire!
Campfire Treat Gluten Free and Dairy Free Substitution Ingredients
Don’t let food sensitivities and allergies stop you from having fun at the campfire this summer! Here are some of our favorite gluten free/ dairy free ingredients that can be used as. substitutions in some of the recipes above.
- Dandie’s Gluten Free and Vegan Marshmallows
- Kinnikinnick’s S’moreables Gluten Free Graham Crackers
- Unreal Gluten Free Vegan Peanut Butter Cups
- Free2b Foods Sunbutter Cups (these are gluten free, dairy free, soy free, and nut free!)
- Joy Gluten Free Waffle Cones
- Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips (these are free of: wheat, dairy, peanuts, tree nuts, egg, soy, fish and shellfish!)
- Enjoy Life Chocolate Bars (these are free of: wheat, dairy, peanuts, tree nuts, egg, soy, fish and shellfish!)
More Camping & Summer Fun for Families
- Camping ideas with kids with tons of great camping tips for families.
- Don’t worry if you can’t get away for a camping trip, backyard camping is great fun! And if it rains, we always have our indoor camping ideas.
- We have a massive resource of over 50 camping crafts for kids!
- Have you seen these cool camping bunk beds? Genius! Or this car tent? So cool!
- Water play! 23 Ways to Play with Water This Summer
- What to Do When Camping
- Sides for an End of Summer BBQ
- Cool and Refreshing Summer Treats for Kids
- Check out how to make bubbles.
- Learn how to make a compass and go on an adventure with your kids.
- Try these fun edible playdough recipes!
- Set up a neighborhood bear hunt. Your kids will love it!
Looking for more summer activities? We have so many to choose from!
What’s your family’s favorite campfire dessert? Comment below!
