How To Bake Bread On Your Outdoor Grill

Something happens when Summer hits that makes me CRAZY about baking. As soon as the Los Angeles heat starts rising, I get this wild itch to bake. I don't know why. It's my life's enigma.

The thing that sucks is that we live in a tiny cottage-apartment in Silver Lake, and let me tell you, it's hot here. Our tiny apartment bakes in the Summer sun.....which means our apartment is even more hot with the oven turned on. What to do?

Bake on the grill, of course! I mean why not, right? I started this little experiment with the New York Times No-Knead Bread because the bread is baked in a cast iron dutch oven. This would be perfect to just pop on the grill I thought.

More on how this little experiment turned out in second part of post..

Total Success....Sorta

The bread that emerged, was indeed delicious. But a few things I learned along the way will make an even tastier bread the next time.

Below are the steps I took to bake bread on my outdoor grill:

Dutch Oven

I used my cast iron Kitchenaide dutch oven per the NY Times directions for the no-knead bread. The dutch oven retains heat and also allows steam from the water in the dough to help form the crust.



If your grill is big enough to accommodate the dutch oven with the lid on, then you're pretty much done. My grill is really small, so I had to take the grill off and place my pizza stone directly on the gas burners.

I was concerned about the bottom of the dutch oven getting too much heat and burning the bottom of the bread which turned out to be a legitimate concern because the bottom did indeed, burn. Not much, but I did have to cut that bit off. Again, if your grill is big enough to place the dutch oven directly on the grill and still be able to close the lid, you're set.

My solution for next time? I think I'm going to try placing an un-glazed terracata saucer on the inside of the dutch oven. That way there is one more layer separating the heat from the bread.

Oven Thermometer

It's important to have an oven thermometer to have accurate temperatures. My grill already has one built in, so this was easy for me.

Pre-Heat The Dutch Oven

This is CRUCIAL. Follow the NY Times instructions and pre-heat the dutch oven for 30-45 mins before adding the bread. The hot dutch oven is what helps to form the crust on the bread

That's about it. It really was simple. Again, the benefit of doing this is that you can have fresh baked bread without heating up your kitchen, which is a HUGE plus for me. Anyone have different methods of baking bread on the grill? I'd love to hear about it.