Smoking Bread

[l'inferno]

Anyone have any experience smoking bread? Looked around, there's not a lot of info out there. Seem like the recommendation is to smoke the flour which sounds interesting. Anyway, if you do have a experience or some educated thoughts would love to hear them. Have a nice weekend.

[DeusDingo]

ahem Breadhead

[RonB]

If you bake the bread on your grill indirect with a hunk o' wood, it should be smokey. I know pizza crust picks up a little smoke on that short of a cook.
Anyway, I will post how the "test batard comes out as I am baking my first one on the grill today.

[l'inferno]

Thanks for the suggestion. Yes definitely post the results.

[Breadhead]

l'inferno ... I could smoke a lug nut if I wanted to but why would you do that?

I've baked 100's of loaves of bread in my BGE and I never once considered applying smoke flavor to bread. The flavor of bread is very subtle and if you put smoke on it, smoke is all you are going to taste in my opinion. Besides smoking at 500° is not to smart.😆

Go ahead and try if you want. I don't think it's a trend that will catch on.😏

[RonB]

Well, the bread was a success - sort of. I put the bread on about half way through the chicken cook and had trouble keeping the temp up because I had to open the Weber a number of times to tend the chicken, and also to add more charcoal - I didn't use enough when I started. So the bread baked at a temp lower than I prefer, but it did get done. The crust could have been browner, but it was acceptable. However, I got an answer to my one burning question - I don't care for the slight smokey flavor that the charcoal produced. It just didn't seem to go well with the bread flavor. I am a bit surprised though because I do enjoy the smokey flavor of pizza on the grill. Of course, pizza has a much bolder flavor that still comes through the smoke.
bottom line - pizza on the grill - yes, bread on the grill - no. YMMV

[Breadhead]

RonB ...

I'm perplexed by the smokey taste you're getting from your cooker on your bread. Were you smoking the chickens? Wood chunks? Was the fat from the chicken dripping on your charcoal creating a flavor in the air in your cooker?

I smoke lots of meat in my BGE. However I never mix meat and bread in the same cook.

I use 100% mesquite lump coal for baking bread & pizza. I've never had even a hint of smoke flavor on either bread or pizza. I bake sourdough and Ciabatta bread at 500/525°. I bake pizza at 650/750°.

What cooking temperature were you cooking at? You won't get much browning on the recipe under about 500°. I think Kenji said to bake the pizza at 500 to 550°.

Don't write your cooker off just yet. Make that same recipe and try it in that same cooker. Preheat your pizza stone for 1 hour at 500/525°. Then put your loaf on and let it cook, lid down, for 20 minutes. Open the lid to check to see if your loaf is browning evenly. If not rotate it 180°. Check your loaf after 30 minutes with your thermapen. Pull it when the IT is 203°.

I bet you won't taste any smoke.

[RonB]

Breadhead - this was just a test cook. I was set up for chicken indirect @ 375*, but because I kept opening the kettle, it never got much past 350*, and most of the time was probably below that. I did not use a stone or the Baking Steel - I didn't want chicken drippings on either. And I did do a bit of reverse sear on the chix - that did create some smoke.

I think your BGE burns cleaner than a kettle with KBB. I do get some charcoal flavor on pizza in the kettle, and I do use a stone and much higher temps too.

I may try bread again, but if I do I will do it the way it should be done - no chix and using either the stone or steel and a higher temp.