Baking tips please


 
D

Drew

TVWBB Member
I’ve searched the forum but I cannot find any posts regarding baking with the grill. Looking to start using my Weber Genesis Silver as an oven and bake cookies, pies etc. Any tips or direction to the right thread or forum area appreciated
 
Hope you get some better tips than this one, but in general, set it up for indirect, and maybe try baking some canned biscuits or store bought cookie dough first to get a feel for it before you invest a lot of time with home-made stuff? Just a thought. I've never tried baking on my geni
 
Swanson chickenpot pie on the genesis?? Just throwin' that out there. I ate a bunch of those as a kid and still like em' once in a while.

My wife ate em' when she was a kid too, but she accidentally took the pie totally out of the little aluminum pie pan the first time and that didn't work too well 🤣 ;)
 
I'll see if i can find some pics.

I use fire bricks and a raised grate so I can get heat evenly from all 3 burners.
 
Play around with different burner settings to achieve your desired temperatures. On my Genesis II three burner, with the right and left burners on low and the center off, the grill runs at 350*F on an 80* day. Ambient temperature extremes of course will changes that but you get the idea. Another tip is to use a raised cooking rack inside a shallow foil pan or just on double thick heavy aluminum foil.
We love using our gas grill as an outdoor oven for casseroles and side dishes.
 
Colin said:
Play around with different burner settings to achieve your desired temperatures. On my Genesis II three burner, with the right and left burners on low and the center off, the grill runs at 350*F on an 80* day. Ambient temperature extremes of course will changes that but you get the idea. Another tip is to use a raised cooking rack inside a shallow foil pan or just on double thick heavy aluminum foil.
We love using our gas grill as an outdoor oven for casseroles and side dishes.
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Do you do more indirect heating baking or direct baking? With the temps pretty steady in the 80-90’s here just trying to do everything on the grill instead of heating up the house
 
I'm the same when summer is here, and I avoid the electric oven as best I can.

I've not tried baking cake, but I've done cupcakes and cookies and a bunch of side dishes. I use layers of griddles and stuff to raise the cooking surface and this let's me use all the burners. I find doing this provides even heat.

edit: this was the only pic I could find. I tend to just stack stuff up until I get the height I'm looking for. This is an old grate, a cast iron griddle, ( I think) a stainless steel veggie cooker, then the large perforated baking sheet. This was to hold the glass pyrex baking dish.

While this is a front control Genesis, I do the same thing on my genesis 1000, which is put something between what is being baked and the burners which allows me to run all the burners. I don't run them all for heat, I do it for more even heat. 3 burners on low is probably over 350F.

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The idea is to get the object to be baked away from the heat of the burners so the bottom doesn't burn. I've used a water pan on the flavorizer bars coupled with a pizza stone on the grates for baking sourdough bread, but if you find the bottom still burns, you will need to elevate the item above the burners and more into the dome to try to equalize the heat above and below the baked item. A cooling rack on top of a pizza stone with a water pan on the flav bars might do the trick.
 
I have found the larger the grill and more burners it has the easier it is to do. we've done baking but I typically use the Wolf. Because it's so wide and has 6 burners so I can get very fine control for wife to bake in.
 
Hi drew!

I don't think anyone here will tell you that the Genesis is a great oven. I would start with easy stuff like cookies, brownies, cobbler, etc. By easy I mean food that has a wide envelope of success and doesn't require great precision. Smaller is also easier. Then I would progress to more challenging baking - entire loafs of bread, etc.

I would save stuff like souffles and wedding cake for an actual oven.
 
I have only tried pie and cornbread on my S330 which has north south burners. I just used one outside burner and baked on the other end. Didn’t raise or alter anything. I did have to turn them occasionally as the heat come from just one side. Late in the fall when it is colder I could use the two outside burners on low. I think you would have to stay with a small footprint item though to have room to keep it far enough away from the burners.

Drew, you might post your questions in the “grilling” or “photo gallery ” section of the forum. I have seen people doing bread there.


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Drew said:
Do you do more indirect heating baking or direct baking? With the temps pretty steady in the 80-90’s here just trying to do everything on the grill instead of heating up the house
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Drew, thanks a million for asking the questions and starting this thread, it could become epic.(y)
Whether right or wrong, I always try to bake indirect in some form. For some reason I associate direct cooking with flame broil and avoid that with a layer of protection from the flame more than just the flavorizer bars.
Again, thanks for asking. It is leading to some great discussion.
 
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Richard in NS said:
I have only tried pie and cornbread on my S330 which has north south burners. I just used one outside burner and baked on the other end. Didn’t raise or alter anything. I did have to turn them occasionally as the heat come from just one side. Late in the fall when it is colder I could use the two outside burners on low. I think you would have to stay with a small footprint item though to have room to keep it far enough away from the burners.

Drew, you might post your questions in the “grilling” or “photo gallery ” section of the forum. I have seen people doing bread there.


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That’s great info and that looks delicious!
 
Colin said:
Drew, thanks a million for asking the questions and starting this thread, it could become epic.(y)
Whether right or wrong, I always try to bake indirect in some form. For some reason I associate direct cooking with flame broil and avoid that with a layer of protection from the flame more than just the flavorizer bars.
Again, thanks for asking. It is leading to some great discussion.
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I just want to get as much versatility out of my grill as i can since I love using it. Hopefully yes this thread is very informative to many I know I’m learning a lot already. Every thing I’m reading also mentioned indirect heat so good to know!
 
I use a thick piece of marble directly on the grates to make pizzas on, but I know I could bake bread on that stone too. There are plenty of ways to bake in the grill, I did like the suggestion to turn your food from time to time while you're baking it, that will help equalize any local heat effects. Try some stuff out have some fun and let us know what works for you!
 
THyde said:
I did like the suggestion to turn your food from time to time while you're baking it, that will help equalize any local heat effects.
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One time, many years ago when I was about 20, I was tasked with making a large batch of brownies in an unfamiliar oven at a Boy Scout camp. I thought I knew what I was doing and counted all the correct eggs and everything. The part that got me was the unevenness of their oven. I stuck the first few trays in and didn't watch them. I don't remember if they were even edible, but I remember getting yelled at pretty good. Learned my lesson. After that, I constantly rotated the trays and got the job done.
 
I worked two summers at a Scout camp in Rockaway NJ in 1988 and 1989. It was a lot of fun and even though the pay was very very low it was worth it!
 
THyde said:
I worked two summers at a Scout camp in Rockaway NJ in 1988 and 1989. It was a lot of fun and even though the pay was very very low it was worth it!
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I worked at Allamuchy for a couple of summers in the 1990's but the I think the oven in question was at Sabattis.
 
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