Camping - Camping Toast: How to Make Toast While Camping?

CampingCamping AccessoriesGuideKitchen

Camping Toast: How to Make Toast While Camping?

Andrew N

07/09/2026

Making toast while camping is easy once you stop trying to recreate an electric toaster. The simplest methods are a frying pan on your stove, a folding camp toaster over a gas burner, or holding the bread near hot campfire coals with a grill or long toasting fork. I normally use a pan because I’m carrying one anyway, but each method gives slightly different results.

If you’ve ever tried holding a slice of bread directly in a campfire flame, you’ll already know the main problem: the outside turns black before the middle has properly toasted.

The trick with almost every camping-toast method is the same. Use moderate radiant heat rather than flames, keep the bread moving, and check it constantly.

How to Make Toast When Camping

The easiest way to make toast while camping is to put bread into a dry or very lightly buttered frying pan over a camping stove and cook it over low-to-medium heat, flipping regularly until both sides are browned.

You don’t actually need a dedicated camping toaster.

If I already have a stove and frying pan with me, that is normally what I use. A folding camp toaster is quicker if you make toast regularly, while a grill or pie iron works brilliantly when I’m cooking over a campfire.

Here are the methods I use:

• Frying pan or skillet: Best all-round method
• Folding stove toaster: Best for making proper dry toast
• Campfire grill: Best for several slices at once
• Pie iron: Best for toasted sandwiches
• Toasting fork: Simplest campfire method
• Dutch oven: Works, but massive overkill for toast alone

Best Overall Method: Toast in a Frying Pan

If you want the quickest answer, use your normal camping frying pan.

You are probably carrying one anyway, it works on virtually any camping stove, and you don’t have to bring a specialist bit of equipment just for bread.

You can toast bread completely dry in a pan. It won’t automatically burn as the old version of this article suggested; you simply need to control the heat.

I actually prefer dry toast if I’m going to add butter afterwards because it gives you a result closer to normal toaster toast.

If I want something richer and crispier, I’ll butter the bread first. At that point you’re almost making fried bread or a grilled sandwich rather than traditional dry toast, but it tastes bloody good.

How to Make Camping Toast in a Frying Pan

1. Place a skillet or frying pan over your camping stove.
2. Use low-to-medium heat and give the pan a little time to warm up.
3. Add the bread dry, or lightly butter it first if you prefer.
4. Check the underside after around 30-60 seconds.
5. Move the bread around if your burner creates a strong central hot spot.
6. Flip when golden brown.
7. Toast the second side and eat immediately.

Small backpacking stoves tend to concentrate their heat into the middle of the pan. Moving the bread around instead of simply leaving it stationary makes a surprisingly big difference.

You don’t need cast iron either. Cast iron retains heat beautifully, but I’ve made perfectly good toast in lightweight aluminium and stainless-steel camping pans.

Camping Stove Toaster

A folding camp toaster is probably the closest you’ll get to using a normal toaster without electricity.

These sit above the burner and use a perforated metal plate or mesh to spread the heat. Some hold one slice flat while the familiar pyramid-shaped versions let you stand several pieces of bread around the outside.

They’re cheap, flat when packed and work surprisingly well.

The downside is that they’re a dedicated piece of equipment that does basically one job. For car camping that doesn’t bother me; for backpacking I usually can’t justify carrying one when my frying pan already makes perfectly acceptable toast.

How to Use a Camping Stove Toaster

1. Set your stove on a stable, level surface outdoors.
2. Open the toaster and position it securely over the burner according to its instructions.
3. Start with a relatively low flame.
4. Add your bread.
5. Watch it continuously because thin bread can brown quickly.
6. Turn or rotate the slices as needed.
7. Remove when both sides are evenly browned.

One thing I don’t do is balance a big four-slice toaster precariously on top of a tiny ultralight canister stove. If the whole arrangement looks unstable before you light it, it isn’t going to improve once there’s a flame underneath it.

Making Toast Over a Campfire

Campfire toast is arguably the nicest way to do it, but it is also the easiest way to convert bread into charcoal.

The secret is not using the flames.

I wait until I have a decent bed of glowing coals and then use the radiant heat coming from them. You can toast over the grill, use a fork, or hold the bread beside the fire rather than directly above it.

Fresh yellow flames are incredibly uneven. They lick one corner of the bread for a second and suddenly you’ve got a black triangle while the rest is still white.

Hot coals are much easier to work with.

Obviously, only have a campfire where fires are permitted and conditions make it sensible to do so.

Making Toast With a Campfire Grill

If I’ve already got a grill over the fire, this is probably my favourite campfire method.

You can toast several slices at the same time, which is particularly useful when cooking breakfast for a group.

I position the grill over glowing coals rather than flames and keep the bread moving with tongs. The edges normally brown faster, especially if the fire isn’t perfectly even.

Method:

1. Allow the fire to produce a stable bed of hot coals.
2. Place the grill at a sensible height above the heat.
3. Lay the bread on the grill.
4. Check underneath frequently.
5. Move slices between hotter and cooler parts of the grill.
6. Flip once browned.
7. Remove before the second side goes from golden to black.

Bread goes from “nearly there” to “bugger, it’s burnt” remarkably quickly over a campfire.

Making Campfire Toast With a Toasting Fork

A long toasting fork is about as basic as campfire cooking gets.

You don’t need a specialist one if you have another suitable long cooking fork, although purpose-made telescopic campfire forks are cheap and pack down surprisingly small.

The mistake people make is sticking the bread straight into the flame.

I hold it beside or above the glowing part of the fire and keep turning it. It takes slightly longer but you get much better toast.

Directions:

1. Secure the bread firmly on the fork.
2. Hold it near glowing coals rather than in active flames.
3. Keep your hands and clothing well away from the fire.
4. Rotate the bread constantly.
5. Move closer if it isn’t browning rather than starting ridiculously close.
6. Toast both sides and remove carefully.

This method is slow if you’re cooking breakfast for six people, but it’s great when there are only one or two of you.

Making Camping Toast With a Pie Iron

I wouldn’t buy a pie iron purely for ordinary toast, but if you already have one, it makes excellent toasted sandwiches.

The Rome Round Pie Iron from the original article is actually still current. It uses a 4.25-inch cast-iron cooking head on long rods with wooden handles, and Rome still makes a whole range of these things.

I normally butter the outside of the bread when making a toasted sandwich. Fill the middle with cheese, ham, beans, chocolate or whatever else you’ve decided constitutes camping cuisine, close the iron and cook it over hot coals.

Rome recommends roughly 3-5 minutes for its pie-iron sandwiches, although in practice I still open it regularly because campfire temperatures vary massively.

How to Make Toast in a Pie Iron

1. Preheat the pie iron briefly.
2. Lightly butter the cooking surfaces or the outside of the bread.
3. Add one piece of bread.
4. Add your filling if making a sandwich.
5. Add the second slice and close the iron.
6. Hold it over glowing coals rather than aggressive flames.
7. Turn regularly.
8. Open carefully to check the colour.
9. Remove when crisp and golden.

Cast iron stays hot for ages, so remember that the cooking head remains capable of burning you long after the sandwich has disappeared.

Using a Dutch Oven to Make Camping Toast

The Lodge Camp Dutch Oven from the original article is also still current. Lodge sells its camp ovens in multiple sizes from 2 to 10 quarts, with feet underneath and a flanged lid designed for cooking with coals.

They are brilliant bits of camp cookware.

They are also completely ridiculous if all you want is two slices of toast.

If I’ve already brought one for stew, bread, cobbler or another meal, then yes, I can toast bread in it. But I wouldn’t bother heating an entire Dutch oven specifically for breakfast toast when a pan will do it much faster.

The old article suggested around ten minutes at 350°F. I wouldn’t use a fixed ten-minute cooking time because that is enough to thoroughly ruin some slices depending on how the oven is set up.

Instead, I treat the base much like a heavy skillet and check the bread frequently.

Do You Need Butter or Oil to Toast Bread in a Pan?

No.

You can make perfectly good camping toast in a completely dry frying pan.

Butter or oil changes the result. It gives you a crispier, richer surface and is excellent for fried toast and sandwiches, but it isn’t necessary to stop bread burning.

In fact, too much fat can make the outside cook faster than you want.

If I’m making normal breakfast toast, I’ll usually dry-toast the bread and butter it afterwards.

If I’m making a grilled cheese sandwich, I butter the outside before cooking.

Can You Toast Bread With Olive Oil?

Yes.

The old version of this guide said you should avoid olive oil because it has a low smoke point. That’s too simplistic.

You can absolutely toast or fry bread using olive oil at sensible cooking temperatures. Different olive oils have different smoke points, and you don’t need extreme heat to brown bread anyway.

I wouldn’t blast any oil over a maximum-output backpacking burner.

Keep the heat moderate and you have far more control.

Can You Make Toast on a Backpacking Stove?

Yes, and this is how I normally do it when carrying lightweight equipment.

Use the smallest frying pan or cooking pot you already have and keep the burner lower than you would for boiling water.

Ultralight stoves are often designed to concentrate a lot of heat into a very small area. That’s excellent for boiling a mug of water quickly but rubbish for evenly browning bread.

Move the toast around the pan frequently.

If your stove has particularly poor simmer control, lift the pan away from the burner occasionally instead of allowing the centre of the bread to scorch.

Can You Toast Bread Directly Over a Gas Flame?

Technically you can, but I don’t think it’s the best method.

Holding bread directly over a gas burner gives you very concentrated heat and makes burning individual spots extremely easy. A camping toaster solves this by spreading the heat over a much larger surface.

A frying pan does the same thing.

Given those two options, I don’t see much reason to balance bread directly above the burner.

Can You Make Toast Without a Stove or Campfire?

Not proper hot toast, obviously, but there are a couple of alternatives.

If you’re backpacking somewhere fires aren’t permitted and you haven’t brought a stove, you can carry:

• Pre-toasted bread
• Bagel crisps
• Crackers
• Hard flatbread
• Tortillas

None of those produces the same effect as fresh buttery toast beside the tent, but they satisfy the crunchy-carbohydrate requirement without needing heat.

Best Bread for Camping Toast

Thicker sliced bread is easier to toast over a campfire because it gives you more margin between browned and incinerated.

Thin supermarket bread works well in a pan or proper stove toaster where I have more control.

I also like:

• Sourdough
• Bagels
• English muffins
• Crumpets
• Fruit bread
• Thick-cut white bread for pie irons

Bagels are particularly good camping food because they’re relatively tough and survive being crushed in a food bag better than ordinary sliced bread.

What Is the Best Way to Make Toast While Camping?

For me, the answer depends on how I’m camping.

Backpacking: I use the pan I’m already carrying. No extra equipment.

Car camping: A folding camping toaster is cheap, quick and produces something much closer to ordinary toaster toast.

Cooking over a campfire: I use a grill over glowing coals.

Toasted sandwiches: A Rome pie iron is hard to beat.

Large groups: Use a grill because you can cook several slices simultaneously.

Already cooking with cast iron: Use the skillet you have rather than carrying another gadget.

If you remember only one thing from this guide, make it this: don’t chase toast with flames.

Use a moderate burner or glowing coals, turn the bread regularly and stay with it. Camping toast isn’t difficult; it just doesn’t give you much warning between perfectly browned and completely cremated.

I still think toast is one of the best simple camping breakfasts. Add butter, peanut butter, eggs, beans or whatever you’ve got left in the food bag and you’ve got something warm and satisfying with almost no effort.