Thursday, November 25, 2010

Baking bread on the grill


You can't bake bread on the grill!

That's what they told me. Unfortunately, the oven was full of turkey and stuffing and other feasting fare.

And so I used the grill. I used my standard herb-garlic French Italian bread recipe:

- one packet of yeast, proofed with a tbsp of sugar in a cup of warm (not hot) water.

- 3 cups of bread flour, plus or minus (depends on humidity).

- 2 tbsp herbs such as oregano, thyme, or herbes de province. Dry is fine.

- Garlic powder to taste (1 tsp for me).

Kneed for 10 minutes. Yes it sound like a long te. You're developing the chewiness you want in the final loaf.

Let rise for 2 hours, covered with oiled plastic wrap. Punch it down and kneed for another 10 minutes. Shape into a loaf shape, coat with olive oil, and slice some very shallow diagonal slashes in the top. Let rose for another hour.

Now comes the grill part. Put 6 bricks on the grill, and turn on the burners to high. In 30 minutes, the bricks will be hot. Put a pie tin on the bricks and the loaf ( you formed it on a cookie sheet, right? Good.) on the tin.

Bake 9 minutes, then rotate the loaf 180° for another 9 minutes. All that's left then is to accept he stunned admiration of your lovely spouse.

UPDATE 25 November 2010 18:59: The texture was very nice, but it was soft (like Italian bread), not chewy (like French bread).

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