Baking...In My Grill.....Really!

Well, I have been fortunate enough to have double ovens in my home.  They are really great when you are trying to feed an army or two.  However, they have decided to die....and I feel like I have lost a dear friend. 

I have been a bit frustrated by this.  We do plan to replace them.....but I will be paying in cash and need a few more weeks to have the funds saved.  So, I decided to see this as an opportunity. 

A couple of years ago, I featured a post on emergency baking.  So, I decided to experiment on the word....that I had posted.

The Information is from the "Preparedness Pantry".    I re-read it and tried it.  I made a favorite Whole Wheat Bread recipe in my Breadmaker (yes....I am that 'lazy'). 

One of my big complaints is that when I bake any breads is that the bottom doesn't always want to willingly come out of the pan.  So, I now help myself by placing a liner of parchment paper at the bottom of the bread pan. Here, you can see that I traced the pan onto parchment paper. I cut the liners out with my scissors. 

As the paper curls from being on a roll, I sprayed the bottom of the pan with a vegetable oil spray.  It acted as a type of adhesive for the liner.  I then sprayed the sides of the pan as well.

Using my new tool (that I bought recently), I divided the dough into to two pieces.

I shaped the bread into two loaves and put them into my mini loaf pans.  I covered them with a towel and let the dough rise.

After the dough had risen, I preheated my grill to 350 degrees.

I placed the loaf pans inside another pan.  According to the instructions from Preparedness Pantry, the 2nd pan helps protect the bottom of the bread from burning.  I placed the loaves on the 2nd shelf away from the flames.  As you might imagine, when I opened the grill there was heat loss.  I adjusted the burners to bring the heat back to 350 degrees.  I turned down the burners when we achieved that level and watched for several minutes to try to ensure that the temperature was maintained.

After 30 minutes (the cooking time recommended for my recipe), I went to get the bread.  Here is an important lesson that I learned, the heat rose to over 400 degrees by then, so the loaves were a bit scorched on the outside.  I will check the temperature more often when I try this again. 

I took the bread out of the pans and placed them on the cooling racks. I sprayed the loaves with the vegetable oil spray and covered them with a towel to cool.   I retrieved the parchment paper from the bottoms of the loaves.  Here is what one looked like.

After the bread cooled, I sliced one of the loaves.  The bread was moist and cooked all the way through. I quickly took some photos because I wanted to try a slice.  The butter melted quickly and the taste....was fabulous.

I certainly would do this again.  It is not difficult, but I realize that I will need to do some baby-sitting with the temperature when I repeat this procedure.  The application of this procedure should not be lost on you:

• This is a fun thing to do with your family...and certainly is not hard.
• In an emergency, you could bake with your grill....and it would be delicious and comforting.
• It is also something that you could do in the summer time if you don't want to heat up your kitchen.
• Finally, you can use any recipe that requires baking in this manner. Can you see the possibilities?

Now, Try It!!!!  You Can Do It!!!!