After watching a fascinating article on Rick Stein’s Far East Odyssey, I grew into the idea of cooking bread on a grill. Not something I’d done from dough – I’d grilled existing bread but not taken it straight from the proving on to the fire. What the hell.
Went with a pretty basic bread recipe – might as well start simply – and allowed a hefty double-proving. Then whacked blobs of it on to a mega-hot barbecue until darkened on both sides. After turning once I used a rosemary sprig to douse them with olive oil. The results were puffy and interesting, not doughy at all considering a total of about 4 mins cooking time. My only complaint was that I was after something a bit more flatbready. Next time before second proving I would roll flat and pitta-esque to achieve that Turkish-style puffy bread.
Barbecued bread:
400g strong white bread flour
1 packet dry yeast
Pinch salt
Pinch sugar
300ml warm water
- Mix the dry ingredients together and add water until a sticky dough is formed.
- Continue to work the dough, kneading and stretching for about 10 minutes.
- Leave in a bowl drizzled with vegetable oil covered with a damp tea towel for about an hour.
- Punch the dough back down and allow to prove again for another half-hour or so.
- Preheat a barbecue as hot as it will go.
- Tear off pieces of dough and place on a flat grill.
- Turn when it has darkened on one side. Use a sprig of rosemary to baste the cooked side with olive oil.
- When done on the other side, devour like an animal.
