Make pitta pocket pizzas
You’ll need
- Bowls
- Aluminium foil
- Spoons
- Knives
- Chopping boards
- Ingredients (see recipe)
- Tongs
- Tin openers
- Graters
- Bucket of water
To watch in full screen, double click the video
Before you begin
- Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Additional help to carry out your risk assessment, including examples can be found here. Don’t forget to make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
- Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help if you’re short on helpers.
Planning this activity
- Remember to check for allergies, eating problems or dietary requirements and adjust the recipe as needed. Make sure you've checked everyone's dietary requirements and allergies then adapted the recipe as appropriate. This may include ensuring no cross-contamination during food storage, preparation and serving, too.
- Check if there are any items of food (or packaging) that people can’t touch or be near to or if there are items that people might not be comfortable using in the activity.
- Be conscious about who may be fasting when providing snacks, eating and drinking – you may want to plan this activity for when everyone can get involved or leave out the eating and drinking part.
- Everyone should wash their hands.
- Everyone should build and light a fire.
Prepare your fire
Once the last flames die down, most of what’s left will be a type of fuel called white coals.
- Someone should use a stick to spread the white coals out. It’s up to you how you position your coals. To create gradually increasing temperatures, make sure there’s more at the back of the fire bed, sloping into a smaller amount at the front. Spreading the coals evenly will mean everything cooks on the same amount of heat.
- The fire is now ready for cooking, with adult supervision. Wearing heatproof gloves, you could use a billy can, an adult could place a grate over the fire, or you can cook the pittas in foil directly on the coals.
Make your meal
- Ask everyone to get into small groups of between four and six people. Each recipe card makes one pitta pizza, so each group should work together to make a pitta pizza for each person. You may want to group people with similar dietary requirements together to make it easier and avoid cross contamination.
- Everyone should wash their hands.
- Groups should get ready to cook by making sure their area and their equipment is clean and ready to go.
- Give each group a copy of the recipe card, their equipment, and their ingredients.
- With adult supervision, everyone should follow their recipe card to make the pizza pockets.
- When they’re ready, an adult wearing heatproof gloves should remove the pizza pockets and place them in a safe, stable area, that’s away from young people, to cool down.
- Once they’ve cooled down, everyone can enjoy their pizza pockets.
Extinguish your fire and clean up
- Once everyone has finished using the fire, no one should add any more wood. The fire will die down.
- Someone should use a new stick (not one that’s been in the fire) to carefully spread out the wood and embers so they cool down faster.
- Someone should pour water over the smouldering wood and ashes to make sure they’re fully extinguished. They should use the stick to mix the water through the ashes.
- Everyone should work together to clear up quickly and efficiently – each group needs to wash up their utensils and dispose of rubbish and leftovers.
For vegans (people who avoid foods which come from animals, usually meat, fish, milk, eggs, and honey):
- Use cheese labelled as vegan (made with plant milk), or leave out the cheese.
For people who eat halal or kosher food:
- Check with individuals (or their guardians) to see if you need to adapt anything in the recipe or process.
For people who don’t eat cereals containing wheat or gluten:
- Make the pitta breads are free from wheat and gluten – you’ll probably need to buy special gluten free ones.
For people who don’t eat milk:
- Use cheese made with alternative (plant) milk, or leave out the cheese.
Other common things watch out for:
- Other common allergens include soy, fish, lupin, sulphites, celery, mustard, nuts, sesame seeds, crustaceans, and molluscs. If anyone is allergic to any of these, check all of the ingredients to make sure they don’t contain allergens (or traces of allergens).
- If anyone’s allergic to any of the vegetables, it’s easy to substitute them for another vegetable (that can be eaten raw).
- If anyone’s allergic to tomatoes, you could use pesto (likely to be unsuitable for vegetarians, and likely to contain dairy and nuts), hummus (likely to contain sesame seeds, and sometimes honey), or oil (you could try a garlic oil, for example).
Reflection
This activity helped you to value the outdoors. Did you enjoy cooking outside? What did you notice about the outdoors as you cooked? Was the outdoors helpful today, or did it make cooking challenging? Did you enjoy backwoods cooking? How did you keep the outdoors safe as (and after) you cooked?
This activity also helped you to live healthily. The good news is that pitta pocket pizzas aren’t just super tasty – they’re healthy, too. How many portions of vegetables do you think were in your meal? Can you remember how many portions of fruit and vegetables we should aim to eat a day? What other ingredients could you add, for example, for more protein?
Safety
All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.
- Sharp objects
Teach young people how to use sharp objects safely. Supervise them appropriately throughout. Store all sharp objects securely, out of the reach of young people.
- Cooking
Teach young people how to use cooking equipment safely. Supervise them appropriately throughout. Make sure it’s safe to use and follow manufacturers’ guidelines for use.
- Fires and stoves
Make sure anyone using fires and stoves is doing so safely. Check that the equipment and area are suitable and have plenty of ventilation. Follow the gas safety guidance. Have a safe way to extinguish the fire in an emergency.
- Food
Remember to check for allergies, eating problems, fasting or dietary requirements and adjust the recipe as needed. Make sure you’ve suitable areas for storing and preparing food and avoid cross contamination of different foods. Take a look at our guidance on food safety and hygiene.
- Outdoor activities
You must have permission to use the location. Always check the weather forecast, and inform parents and carers of any change in venue.
- Adventure
This activity has specific rules and systems to make sure it’s managed safely. Take a look at adventure activities for more guidance.
- You could buy pre-grated cheese and pre-chopped vegetables.
- Everyone can choose what they want to put in their pitta pocket pizzas – but the fillings must be safe when eaten raw. The pitta pizza will lightly toast on the embers of the fire – raw fillings won’t cook through, so mustn’t be anything unsafe.
Make sure the ingredients are suitable for everyone’s dietary needs. We’ve included a sheet with some suggestions to help.
All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.
