May 5, 2020 - 12:16pm
Argh! My oven broke!
I'm sheltering at home, I have 125 lbs of flour, 2 lbs of yeast, and a lively starter, and my oven is broken! Tragedy!
I welcome any and all ideas about producing bread on the stove. Or the smoker.
(My new baking element and relay board will turn up in a week. Or two.)
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Flatbreads like tortillas and pitas can be done in a skillet on the stove-top.
Do you have a counter-top toaster oven?
Please describe your smoker. And how hot does it get?
Do you have an outdoor BBQ grill?
If the oven has a top/broiler element, is it still working? If so, you can cook naan, focaccia, or pizza on skillet on the stove-top/range, then finish baking the top of it under the broiler.
No counter-top toaster oven, no.
The smoker is a Kamado style Akorn (think Big Green Egg knock off) that can do anything from 200F to 700F. I've made a couple of loaves of bread in it (when it was new and exciting) and found that I need to figure out a way to raise the bread a couple inches above the grate to avoid the bottom burning. Maybe a couple of tuna cans and a cookie sheet.
The Akorn doubles as a BBQ grill if you go for high heat and no cover (or vents all the way open).
The broiler element is working, and that's a great idea!
Thank you!
I've got a double batch of dough (20% whole wheat, 70% hydration, some olive oil & yogurt) rising right now to play with naan/chapati/roti/pita style breads.
The Akorn should work fine, I don't have a BGE, but they have an active forum, I am not a member, or frequent user, but did a quick search and found this https://eggheadforum.com/discussion/comment/2515081#Comment_2515081 about halfway down the page, there is a photo , they used a Dutch Oven on top of the fire tamer, and the results looked pretty good.
Bao buns...
Also use a bain-marie to stop the bottom burning and produce steam at the same time.. although it may need to be removed halfway.
As sandwich loaves bake at 325 you could achieve that quite easily with what you have.
Surprisingly successful banana bread (quick, not yeast).
banana-bread.jpg
I heated the Dutch oven with an upside down empty tuna fish can on the bottom. I found a small stainless steel bowl that would fit in there with the lid on, greased the bowl, lined it with parchment paper, greased the parchment paper, and put in the batter. I cooked it at medium high, opening the lid briefly every 10 minutes to let the steam out and take an internal temperature. It took about 30 minutes to get it up to around 200F. It's got a little bit of scorch, but all in all very edible!
I hope you put the DO in cold, since if you preheated it, that could cause the scorching.