Camp Dutch Oven Donuts are the perfect breakfast treat when you’re out car camping and you want to satisfy your inner Homer Simpson. What could possibly beat a warm, sugar topped donut served with your favorite camp coffee while sitting in front of your morning camp fire. Sounds a bit decadent for sure; but Camp Dutch Oven Donuts are super easy to make.

If you’ve watched my other videos (see Dutch Oven Chef YouTube Channel), you’ll notice I typically cook with charcoal briquettes. I use charcoal because briquettes are easy to transport, light quickly in a chimney, and its easy to know how many coals you need to achieve the desired cooking temperature. However, I decided to depart from this approach with this recipe.

Taking a different approach to cooking temperature

In contrast to my other recipes, I decided to use my Camp Chef Explorer two burner propane stove to make Camp Dutch Oven Donuts. I’ve found my propane stove is the best choice when frying because you can more easily control the heat applied to the stove and maintain the consistency of the temperature throughout cooking. Furthermore, if you plan to make a lot of donuts — say for big scout troop — maintaining a consistent temperature is super important.

Another reason to use propane when making donuts is that you can keep your focus on cooking. If you have to keep adding charcoal to maintain temperature, then you have to keep making more charcoal to maintain the higher temperatures needed for frying. Without further ado, here’s my camp dutch oven donuts recipe.

Prep-Time

20 minutes

Cook Time

20 minutes

Difficulty

Easy

Equipment Needed

• 12 inch Dutch Oven (6 quart)
• Thermometer (to measure oil temperature)
• Pearing knife
• Outdoor stove – We used a Camp Chef Explorer model with two burners
• Metal spatula or other flat item – used to flatten out the rolls
• Metal Skimmer/Ladel used to remove donuts from the oil
• Parchment paper

Ingredients: Camp Dutch Oven Donuts

• 8 cups vegetable oil
• 2 – 16 oz cans, Southern style biscuit dough, eight biscuits per container
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 powdered sugar
• 1/2 brown sugar

Step-by-Step Instructions: Camp Dutch Oven Donuts

Start by flattening each of the biscuits. I used a large spatula but you can use anything with flat surface like the bottom of pan or even your hands.

Next, cut out the center of the flattened biscuit so that you have a donut shape. Reserve the center because you will use the excess dough to make donut holes.

Once all the centers have been cut out of the doughnuts, then take the excess dough and roll them into balls. We’ll use the balls to make doughnut holes.

Add oil to the cool, camp dutch oven.

NOTE (photo below): I have not turned on the oven at this point or heated up the dutch oven when the oil is added to the pot. I only lit the stove and heated the dutch oven after the oil was added to the pot as an extra safety measure.

Heat the oil to a temperature of 300° Fahrenheit or 177° celcius. Add the uncooked donuts.

Flip the donuts after about 1 1/2 to 2 minutes.

Fry the donut holes once you’ve cooked all your donuts.

Remove the doughnut holes after two or three minutes frying. Make sure to turn them in the oil to be sure that they are completely cooked.

Place 1/2 cup of powdered sugar into a strainer and then spread the sugar on top of the donuts. If you have a paper bag, you can fill the paper bag with the powdered sugar and then drop one or more of the donuts into the paper bag to coat the donut with sugar.

Place 1/2 cup of powdered sugar into a strainer and then spread the sugar on top of the donuts. If you have a paper bag, you can fill the paper bag with the powdered sugar and then drop one or more of the donuts into the paper bag to coat the donuts with sugar.

Here’s the finished product. They tasted as good as they looked!

Additional resources

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