A couple years ago I talked about my experience with baking bread in an outdoor grill. One solution to baking yourself out of your own home during the hot summer months. Recently, Breadtopia reader Marianne Preston posted a photo of her success using a Big Green Egg to accomplish the same thing. Since the bread looked so good, I asked her if she wouldn’t mind ellaborating on how she did it. Read her account below.
Thanks very much, Marianne. Great job!
Bread Baked in a Big Green Egg
My bread baking experiment in the Big Green Egg was only my 4th attempt at using the Egg. We had just bought it the previous week. It’s is pretty easy to regulate the temperature in the Egg once the Egg’s ceramic has had a chance to reach the appropriate cooking temperature. I’ve found that it’s best to start to close off the air entering the bottom damper door and the air going out the daisy wheel top as the cooker is approaching the correct temperature. It’s harder to reduce the temperature because the ceramic holds the heat so well. Even when you open the Egg to put in the bread or to remove the cloche, the temperature returns to baking temperatures within a couple of minutes (assuming the Egg is properly preheated)–without adjusting the damper door or the daisy wheel.
When baking in the Egg, it’s recommended that you use the Egg’s plate setter (http://www.biggreenegg.com/setters.html) or make your own version using firebrick. Here’s a link to the firebrick configuration:
http://www.nakedwhiz.com/firebricks.htm
The firebrick acts as an additional heat sink as well as a shield for the pizza stone which is placed on top of the brick. If you look closely at the picture I posted you might be able to see the way I had it set up.
I was aiming for a temperature of about 500F. I made the mistake of increasing the airflow after I loaded the bread into the Egg and the temperature crept up to 550F. Should have left it alone. I used no-stick aluminum foil under the loaf (Alcan Slide) instead of parchment paper. After 20 minutes, I removed my terracotta pot as well as the foil and baked for an additional 15 minutes. I should point out that this was a recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day and was a smaller loaf than the ones you usually post on your site. I wanted to start “small”. 
The loaf was great although the bottom did get a little too dark, but I managed to scrape off the burnt parts. Next time I will try to leave the aluminum foil in place and/or try to keep the temperature at 500F.
From my experiment it looks like you bake the bread at the same temperatures as in the kitchen oven for about the same length of time. And, you pre-heat the pizza stone for about 30 minutes. Obviously, using a live fire is a little less precise and requires a little more attention, but I think it’s well worth the effort. I’ll certainly do it again.
Marianne
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Check out Artisan Bread in 5 min a day website for many recipes and methods for baking bread and other delicious bread items on the grill. Jeff and Zoe are devotees of grill breadbaking.
AK
FYI: the website is http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com
I saw this and was wondering if I should attempt on mine. Also I believe they have some recipes for the Big Green Egg on http://grillkitchens.com.
I just purchased a BGE but have not used it as of yet. I enjoy baking at home as well as at work, now I can’t wait to try it in the Egg. I was wondering, if I am making a loaf of bread in the Egg can I spritz the inside with water to create steam or will have an adverse effect on the Egg such as cracking?
Hi Dino,
I’d check with the manufacturer on that one.
I have made bread many times in our Big Green Egg. I think you will find there is no need to add moisture to the egg, and I certainly wouldn’t try it, in case of damage. The egg loses no moisture, and the crust that develops is as crisp as anyone could desire. My only problem, is that the only time I can take time off gardening to bake bread is in the winter, when it is mighty cold out there. I try to choose a sunny day when I decide to use the BGE, but at 40 below, it still does an awesome job on the bread (I tried one at 40 below, the first year we had the egg. Now I stick to 20 below and above.)