Yes my fellow readers reader. I baked on my grill this past week. No. Not a cake. Bread. A beautiful loaf of casatiello bread. And while the daytime temperatures hit 105. My kitchen inside stayed cool. See when I decided to take on the Bread Bakers Apprentice Challenge, it was spring. My morning’s were a brisk 50° and I could leave my doors and windows open without a care.
But now day time temperature are hitting about 187° and the electric bill will put me in the poor house. The thought of heating up my kitchen with a 350° oven so that my AC has to crank even harder seems like a no win. Besides, those little hamsters are working their little legs off to keep that AC running and I think they are about ready to form a union. So with a little help from my friend over at Bucky’s Barbecue & Bread, I turned my grill into an oven. And out popped this beauty.
It was easier then I would have thought, but I did learn a few thing that makes baking on the grill much different then in an oven. But first the prep. After preparing the loaf and rolls for the casatiello, I placed them on a baking stone dusted with corn meal.
Then prepared the grill.
I lit the grill, which is three burners, and then turned off the center burner leaving only the outside ones going. Then took another baking stone and centered it on the grill.
Placed 4 tuna cans on the outside “corners” of the stone. Yes I know circles do not have corners, just work with me will ya?! Nit picker…
Close grill and wait until you have reached 350°. You have to leave the grill at 350° for about 5 - 10 minutes before putting the bread on to make sure you can maintain your baking temperature. The Temperature will go down when you open the grill to put the bread on, but will easily climb right back to where you need it to be.
Then I put the bread which is already on the other stone, on the grill, using the 4 cans to keep it elevated. This is done so that the stone is not directly on the fire. Fire bad.
Monitor the temperature and do not open grill until you are at least half way through your baking. Because? Hello, as we already discussed, opening any grill releases heat. Pay attention! Baking time was about 10 minutes shorter then the recipe called for. The rolls came out at the half way mark. With the exception of some over browning on the sides, the bread was perfect!
Next bread is challah. On the grill should prove to be interesting. I have, however, to make a few minor adjustments based on some observations.
- The temperature could probably stand to be about 5-10 degrees less then is actually called for. This theory will be tested on the guinia challah.
- Usually a baking stone should be brought to temperature prior to placing what you are baking on it. I kinda forgot that with the casatiello. It seemed to actually be a better option, as I am pretty sure a pre-heated stone would have over baked the bread.
- Over browning on the sides of the bread was due to the flames not being covered on the sides. Covering the whole grill with baking stones should stop that. I think foil on the grill over the outside burners would also inhibit that from happeneing. More cost effective as well since 2 more stones would be about 40 bucks. That is a lot of dough.
Get it? Dough? HA HA HA! I slay me.
Will report back on my findings soon. But baking on the grill was NOT a fail but a success. My house stayed nice and cool and the hamsters love me again.
