I used to think that having pizza while camping meant finding a local place and ordering delivery — this, despite pizza being a family favorite. To say my family loves pizza would be the understatement of the year. I grew up not far from NYC, and anyone who has tried a delicious slice of NYC-style pizza knows how a good slice can turn around your whole day. And yes, I fold my pizza slices.
We started eating pizza regularly, so we have changed our Friday meal plan and renamed it “Pizza Friday“. We don’t just do take-out pizza – no way. We have taught our kids how to make homemade pizza, everything from fresh dough to unlimited toppings. The kids have really gotten into creating their own pizza masterpieces.
Pizza Night at the Campsite
It has been fun to see them grow in the cooking process and experience the joy of making something with their own two hands. So it was natural for me to try to figure out how to incorporate our Pizza Fridays while we’re camping. I looked up many recipes on how to cook pizza outdoors. Most of those search results yielded how to do so over a campfire or in a cast iron pan.
I love my cast iron pan and cook many different dishes in it. As for cooking over an open flame, I’ll admit that I have not mastered that type of cooking yet (that excludes my excellent s’mores). And to be a hundred percent truthful, we travel in a Class A motorhome and enjoy bringing along as many of our “at-home “ cooking gadgets with us. This truly makes us feel that we’re home wherever we park our motorhome.
Use a Portable Pizza Oven
Since I’ve taken the lead on cooking outdoors during our trips, I’m facing the dilemma of how to make pizza at the campground. For us and many of you, the best and possibly easiest answer will be a portable pizza oven. I know, I know storage space is at a premium. I already carry at least two grills and adding a pizza oven would definitely make a dent in my precious storage space. After checking out a few on the market, I settled on Pizza D’lite propane-powered kit.
It measures a relatively modest 18-inches by 26-inches and has its own carry bag! The oven kit comes with everything you need (oven, pizza stone, pizza peel, and pizza cutter) to make your first delicious campground pizza. Will this pizza oven be worth the storage space you allocate to it? See for yourself. It could be the star of an RV tailgating party.
Let me tell you why I am so excited to have added this to my outdoor cooking setup.
Making Pizza at the Campground
Getting the D’lite oven setup is a breeze. Instructions are included and it took me about 5 minutes to get completely set up. Before you use it the first time, you need to preheat the oven for about 30 minutes. This was my first test. Commercial-style pizza ovens can get to temps above 900-degrees. I was not expecting this portable oven to reach that type of temperature, but to get the pizza crust right, it needs to reach a temperature somewhere in the range of 600-700 plus degrees. It reached 700-degrees relatively quickly.
Warning: please be careful interacting with the oven at those temperatures.
For simplicity, I chose to use premade pizza dough. After the oven reaches the desired temperature, it was time to cook our pizzas. For this oven, the perfect size pizza is a 12-inch personal size. I dressed up the first pizza (pepperoni, onions, and green peppers) and then slid it in.
Tip: make sure to close the door completely or your internal temperature will drop and you will have uneven cooking.
The pizza came out piping hot, the crust was crispy, and it tasted perfect. It was better than the pizza we make at home in the oven! Everyone was excited, and I can say without a doubt, that our new D’lite pizza oven was the hit of that camping trip. Each pizza took less than five minutes to cook, so it didn’t take long to have the whole family fed. It did take a few tries to get the hang of sliding the pizza off the peel and into the oven (use flour or corn meal on the pizza peel).
Pizza – It’s What’s for Dinner
My bottom line, there is more than one way to make campground pizza. We love to eat local and try local dishes while supporting the local economy. After using this D’lite pizza oven, it has become a welcomed addition to my outdoor cooking setup, and I look forward to experimenting with other foods I can cook in this oven.
Try some of my other recipes at the campsite:
- Soulful RV Family’s Trips Wing Left, Meat and Potatoes Right
- Soulful RV Family’s Philly Grilled Cheese Sandwich with Hand Cut Onion Rings Recipe
- Soulful RV Family’s French Toast With Hickory Bacon Recipe
How do you like to cook your pizza while camping? Tell us in the comments below!
