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[okie smokie]

Great cook!  Looks like you will have many more.   

[RanrocSmoker]

I really appreciate the help and feedback from everyone on here. You all have made my foray into the pellet grill world an awesome experience.

I look forward to sharing many more cooks and experiences with this grill with you all!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[RanrocSmoker]

Wanted to try to bake some bread using a new Baking Steel on the grill. I was hoping to bake directly on the steel, but the recipe I used (simple no-knead recipe) made a HUGE sticky mess, so I decided to just leave it the baking pan it was rising in.

This is the 3rd or 4th loaf of bread I've ever made from scratch, so I didn't remember to oil or butter the top before I baked it. It was ok, as I like lighter breads, but the bottom of the bread had a bunch of olive oil and it browned up really nice.

I'm looking forward to doing other bakes and pizzas too at some point. The family LOVED this one, and wife said it was the best out of all the other breads I tried making before (more to do with the recipe than the grill, I'm sure!).

Baked at 375* for almost an hour (I let the grill and steel heat up for an hour as the dough was getting ready).

[BigDave83]

That looks very good.

[okie smokie]

Just needs fresh butter!.  Beautiful job. 

[RanrocSmoker]

Thanks, BigDave. Thanks Okie!
It's very tasty and moist. Even this morning, I put a couple of slices in the toaster for a couple of minutes and then buttered them...DELICIOUS!

I really wanted to see what the baking steel would do, but I guess it'll have to wait until I can get to making pizza dough or maybe pita bread or naan, or some other flat bread. Probably would've been nice to actually use a bread loaf pan instead of the round cake pan.

At least I feel pretty confident about baking on the grill if I had to! The (light) browning was even all around. I never had to rotate the bread in the grill.

[bregent]

>I really wanted to see what the baking steel would do,
>but I guess it'll have to wait until I can get to making pizza dough

FWIW, I found the baking steel counter productive on the pellet grill. It transfers heat so effectively that the bottoms starts to burn before the top crust browns. In ovens with good top heat, this probably isn't a problem.

[RanrocSmoker]

>I really wanted to see what the baking steel would do,
>but I guess it'll have to wait until I can get to making pizza dough

FWIW, I found the baking steel counter productive on the pellet grill. It transfers heat so effectively that the bottoms starts to burn before the top crust browns. In ovens with good top heat, this probably isn't a problem.

Great feedback, bregent! I thought about this and when I look at pizza ovens like GMG pizza attachment, and even the uuni oven, I noticed that the ceilings are relatively low compared to the lid height of a grill.

What I thought about doing for pizzas is to put something like a baking sheet held up by fire bricks (I have these at the ready) over the baking steel to create a mini oven. I'll have to play around to see what the ideal positioning might be, but I might do this after seeing how it works with just the baking steel alone.

Thanks for the input!

[bregent]

>What I thought about doing for pizzas is to put something like a baking sheet held up by fire
>bricks (I have these at the ready) over the baking steel to create a mini oven.

Yes, that will probably help a lot. That's what I do in my kitchen oven, although with stones. One on top, and another on the bottom.

[okie smokie]

I have a big round metal pizza pan with perforations.  I just slip it into the smoker on high and it does pizza in about 20 minutes and they have a nice crusted bottom.  Will take a pic.  Lightweight and works well.  Prefer it to my pizza stone.

[RanrocSmoker]

I have a big round metal pizza pan with perforations.  I just slip it into the smoker on high and it does pizza in about 20 minutes and they have a nice crusted bottom.  Will take a pic.  Lightweight and works well.  Prefer it to my pizza stone.

Would love to see some pics, Okie!

[okie smokie]

I have a big round metal pizza pan with perforations.  I just slip it into the smoker on high and it does pizza in about 20 minutes and they have a nice crusted bottom.  Will take a pic.  Lightweight and works well.  Prefer it to my pizza stone.

Would love to see some pics, Okie!

Sorry no pics.  Next time will get some.

[RanrocSmoker]

Decided to add an extension to the warming rack in case I wanted extra space (brisket on one level, pork butt on another, or maybe bacon on the second level dripping over a spatchcocked chicken on the first level, etc.). The extension allows food at that level to be more toward the center of the grill.

$14 and free shipping, connected to the existing warming rack by flat stainless steel skewers (it was the closest to the fit and least expensive one I could find)

[RanrocSmoker]

Decided to get the grates dirty with Greek style chicken thighs! I cooked them at 525* indirect (with the flame slats closed). The wife loves these kinds of dishes with tons of flavor. Served on a bed of heirloom tomato and cucumber salad, and a dollop of seasoned greek yogurt.

[RanrocSmoker]

Tried pizzas on the grill. Decided to use fire bricks I had laying around and build a little oven with a half baking sheet for a top, lined with foil thinking it would deflect heat better.

Baking steel on bottom, with direct flame slats wide open, grill set to 600*.

I measured the air temp in the middle, 1-2 inches above the steel and it was hotter with the baking sheet lid vs without it, by about 50*.

The baking steel got to 600*, but the air in the center was about 60* cooler, so I knew the crust would cook faster than the toppings. But oh well! Will try to adjust for future pizza cooks!

The first one would have been great if the mozzarella pearls would have melted more.

I made 4 pizzas total (not all of them round), all had bottoms nicely crisp and charred, but the last one was about 90% charred. I made that last one really thin and left it on way too long. They each spent an average of 6.5 minutes total cook time...if the toppings cooked faster, these would have been 4-5 minute pizzas for sure.

BTW...a HUGE lesson I learned when making my own dough from scratch: NEVER use WAX PAPER when letting dough ferment 24 hrs in fridge. It stuck to the dough and when I tried to peel it off this morning, the wax paper fell apart and left small bits stuck to the dough. I had to through out the WHOLE batch I made yesterday. Thankfully, Publix supermarket is right down the road and they sell ready to bake pizza dough in their bakery, which is what I wound up using today. Not what I wanted, but now I know not to do that again!