A classic camping food is getting a makeover! Three Wisconsin natives have teamed up to write a cookbook devoted to pudgie pies. What’s a pudgie pie? It’s a grilled sandwich toasted in a pie iron over a fire. Known to some as mountain pies, tonka toasters, campfire pies or something entirely different, they are delicious no matter what you call them. According to authors Jared Pierce, Carrie Simon, and Liv Svanoe, pudgie pies are where it’s at when it comes to campfire cooking.
“We live by our Pudgie Pie-losophy,” says Simon, “which is that anything you can think of eating will taste better in the form of a pudgie pie.” These longtime friends co-authored “Pudgie Revolution! Pie Iron Cookin’ for Food Lovin’ Campers.” Their cookbook puts a gourmet spin on this camping staple, raising the bar on conventional camp food. Pudgie Revolution! is filled with unique pudgie pie recipes that will inspire campers to bring their camp cookery to the next level. You don’t even have to be a camper to get in on the action—pudgie pies can be cooked in a backyard fire pit, on a grill, or even in a panini press.
Photographs of each recipe provide simple visual instructions that make following them easy as pie. The recipes employ an array of crust materials including bread, pastry dough, hash browns, tortillas and batter. The filling combinations are just as diverse: try salami, mascarpone and figs or peanut butter and pickles. Light-hearted recipe titles like Yolkey Dokey, Pudge-Yam-a Party, and Revenge of the Curds add a fun factor to some seriously delicious sandwich pies.
“We wanted to elevate the pudgie pie beyond the white-bread-and-pie-filling variety we grew up with,” says Svanoe. “While our recipes incorporate unconventional camping foods, they are all easily made in the outdoors.” Each recipe includes a difficulty rating, and there are many useful tips throughout the book. There is even a guide for creating a pudgie pie dessert box, which includes everything needed to satisfy any sweet tooth. Don’t go camping without it!
You can get a copy of Pudgie Revolution! here and you’ll also find links to the team’s Pudgie University video series here. There you can learn how to make recipes from the cookbook, get cooking tips, and even hear a few puns. “We just really love pudgie pies,” says Pierce, “and we want you to love them too!”
Pudgie Revolution 