Wednesday, July 13, 2016

How to Bake Cookies on a Grill

Here in Georgia, it is incredibly hot. If I can cook it outside on the grill, I will. We recently discovered it’s not too difficult to turn the grill into an oven. This is our grill, we love it. The only thing you need aside from your grill is an ambient thermometer. The thermometer on the top of most grills is not accurate enough for baking. We use the iGrill thermometer for all our grilling. Unless I’m cooking pizza we always use the ambient probe, as well as a probe in whatever we are cooking (pork, chicken, beef etc.)


The finished product. My mouth is watering.
My favorite cookie recipe is Crisco's Ultimate Chocolate Chip. You can find this recipe on the little cards that are inside the packaging of Crisco baking sticks. My Mom showed me this recipe as a kid, and they are definitely the best. This dough freezes really well. Occasionally I will make a double batch, and freeze the majority of the dough. All you do is scoop out the rest of the dough out onto a cookie sheet. Freeze till solid, then move into a labeled container or bag. This recipe (not doubled) makes three dozen cookies. Most of the time I will bake one dozen and freeze rest because if I bake them all we will eat them all in 2 days. Here is the recipe for convenience.



Crisco Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies


Ingredients
¾ stick(cup) Crisco
1 ¼ cups firmly packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 ¾ all purpose flour (might need extra depending on climate)
1 teaspoon salt
¾ teaspoon baking soda (I usually double this it makes your cookies a bit fluffier. But if you double baking soda omit the salt or the cookies will be way too salty.)
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup coarsely chopped pecans (optional I prefer walnuts if I put nuts in these cookies)


Directions


  1. Putting the cookies on the grill. Do it as quickly as
    possible so you don't loose too much heat. 
    Beat shortening and brown sugar in a large mixing bowl. (I use my KitchenAid stand mixer with a scraper paddle attachment ) Beat on medium till light and fluffy.
  2. Beat in milk, vanilla and egg.
  3. In a separate bowl, stir flour, salt and baking soda together.
  4. Add the flour to the wet ingredients a little bit at a time, mixing on medium.
  5. Check and see if dough needs more flour. Touch it with your fingers, if it sticks to your fingers add more flour 1-2 tablespoons at a time till dough is no longer sticky.
  6. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.
  7. Preheat your grill or oven to 375 degrees fahrenheit.
  8. Scoop out cookie dough onto a foil lined cookie sheet.
  9. Bake for 8-10 minutes.



Other instructions/tips for baking on a grill.


  • Make sure your propane tank is not empty. You don’t want to be halfway through baking and run out of gas.
  • If you grill has more than two burners, only use the outer two. This will give indirect heat so there is less chance of your cookies burning.
  • Give your grill plenty of time to warm up. You want your whole grill up to temperature.
  • Shut the grill tight! Try not to look!
    Make sure your grill temp is stable before you start baking your cookies.
  • Once you have started cooking, resist the temptation to keep peeking at your cookies. The lid of the grill is much bigger than the door of your oven and way more heat escapes! Remember you want to keep your temp as stable as possible.
  • Your cookies will cook fine anywhere between 325 and 375. That is the range you want to go for.
  • If your grill is running hot make sure to check your cookies early. No one likes burnt cookies.
  • If your grill gets too hot and you need to lose 10-20 degrees quickly, open the lid 3-4 inches for just a few seconds.


If you are not brave enough to start with cookies on your grill (we weren’t). Start with something like Dino Nuggets! That was the first thing we cooked on our grill. The are pretty easy, and practically impossible to fuck up. If you don’t have Dino Nuggets try it with any other frozen breaded food that needs less than 400 degrees to cook. More than 400 needs a good amount of practice, and isn’t similar enough to cookies, if that is your end goal.


I hate Georgia summers. I cannot wait for fall to come so I can wear sweaters all day and eat soup. In the meantime I will do everything I can to keep the hot out and the cool in. Look out for a blog post on how to cook bread on your grill! Thanks for reading.

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