Homemade Bread on your Grill

All you have to do is think of your grill as an oven. Because when the grill lid is closed, that’s really what it is, and it can reach temperatures much hotter than your home oven. Getting that super-hot temperature is great for bread; it’s closer to the wood-fired ovens of artisan bakers.

Ingredients

• 3 cups (680g) lukewarm water
• 6 1/2 to 7 1/2 cups (907g) Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 1/2 tablespoons (14g) instant or active dry yeast

Instructions

1. Preheat the grill. We turn the grill up to full blast, then put the lid on to let it heat up. Then we use our oven thermometer to monitor the heat. When it reaches 450° to 500°F, we turn the heat down slightly and move on to the next step.
2. Preheat a cast iron pot. Put a large cast iron pot on the grill as it nears the baking temperature, and put the lid back on. You could probably use a pizza stone as well, but we don't currently have one, and so we've just used the pot. Let the pot continue heating with the grill for at least another 15 minutes.
3. Pour in the bread dough. Take off the lid, throw in a handful of cornmeal, plop in your bread dough and put the grill lid back on! This is the usual routine for no-knead bread; it's not much different here. The only difference is that you don't need the pot lid. The grill lid creates a small, hot space similar to the closed pot in the oven, so there isn't a need for the pot lid.
4. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until bread reaches internal temperature of 210°. - Our bread was done after 30 minutes. It's more important than ever, now that you're baking on a grill without as much control over temperature, that you know how to take the internal temperature of your bread. Slide in an instant read thermometer after about 30 minutes and see if it is done. If it is, take it off. If it isn't, keep checking every few minutes.