How to Bake

How to Bake – Bread on the Grill

Summarized from articles written by Dennis R Weaver

One of the slickest tricks we know is baking bread on the grill. You can enjoy fresh baked bread while camping, or at the cabin, or at the next family reunion. (Watch the neighbors turn their noses upwind when the smell of fresh baked bread wafts over the fence.) You can bake nearly anything with a covered grill. (If your grill doesn’t have a cover, improvise with a large inverted pot.) The trick to grilling bread perfectly is controlling temperature and time. If your grill comes equipped with a thermometer, you’ve got it made (though outside temperatures and winds may impact how well your grill retains heat). If not, guess. Burning grease in the bottom of the grill makes the temperature harder to control and the soot can stain the bread.

Here are a few more hints to help you along the way:

• Bake the bread before the burgers. The bread can cool while you cook the rest of the food. Burning grease in the bottom of the grill makes the temperature harder to control and the soot can stain the bread.
• If you are letting your bread rise outside where the temperature may be less than indoors or where breezes may swirl around the bread, consider using a large food-grade plastic bag as a greenhouse. Simply slip the bread dough–pan and all–inside the bag, inflate it slightly, and close it. If the day is cool, set the bag and the bread in a sunny warm place to capture a little solar energy.
• Grills tend to not circulate the hot air as well as ovens. To keep the bottom of the bread from burning, place one pan beneath the other and a wire rack between the pans to create space for insulation.
• If your bread is baking faster on one side than the other, turn the pan 180 degrees part way through the baking time.
• The tendency is to burn the bottom of the bread. Place the bread as far away from the flames as you can even if it means elevating the bread.

How to Bake – Muffins

Summarized from articles written by Dennis R Weaver

Muffins are a mainstay around our house. (For Easter, we served cranberry nut muffins with a ham dinner.) Extras can be frozen and heated in the microwave for hot muffins anytime. Today we will make muffins using the “muffin method”. (Just as there are two major makeup methods for quick breads, there are two methods for muffins-the muffin method and the creaming method) In the muffin method, the liquids and the dry ingredients are mixed separately and then stirred together until just combined. To make muffins using the muffin method, choose a favorite muffin recipe that does not call for the creaming of sugar into the fat. In preparation, grease the muffin tins. Muffin recipes are sensitive to the ratio of flour to liquid. Too little flour and the muffin will flow over the edges of the muffin cup rather than dome nicely. To make cake-like muffins, use lower protein flour-cake or pastry flour. Fill the muffin tins with a large spoon or ice cream scoop. Make sure that the muffin tins are evenly filled so that they bake evenly. Bake the muffins until they are a light golden brown. Over-baked muffins will be dry and tough. Under baked muffins may be moist and heavy.

Tags: how to bake, how to bake bread, how to bake muffin