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  FAVORITE FOODS - Baking

  Date: October 2, 2014
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  BEST BISCUITS:

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  PHOTO ENTRY NAME:  BUTTERMILK BISCUITS
  SOURCE:  Big Green Egg Cookbook
  DATE FIRST COOKED:  August 11, 2012
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Buttermilk biscuits are one of my favorite types of breads. They really go well with soups and stews and other hearty dishes. One of the disadvantages to these biscuits are they are often quite dry. This recipe dealt with that issue by adding pea-sized pieces of butter into the dough mixture. This recipe, baked on the Big Green Egg turned out some of the best buttermilk biscuits I've ever had.

  BEST BREAD 1:

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  PHOTO ENTRY NAME:  CRUSTY WHITE BREAD
  SOURCE:  Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day
  DATE FIRST COOKED:  December 9, 2011
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I've often heard white bread referred to as "plain white bread". Judging by the sad state of the mass-produced white breads you get at the supermarket, I can see why. This bread is made using the master dough recipe from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. It is extremely easy to make, has a wonderful crispy outer crust, a nice buttery taste and the sweetness you find in freshly baked breads. This bread is a great accompaniment to your meals or great when used on sandwiches and make a mean French toast. You cannot use the word "plain" in the same sentence as this white bread.

  BEST BREAD 2:

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  PHOTO ENTRY NAME:  IRISH SODA BREAD
  SOURCE:  Cook's Country TV Show
  DATE FIRST COOKED:  April 13, 2014
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Irish Soda Bread done right can be excellent, but it is often far from it. The flours used for this bread are not readily available in the US. The bread often turns out hard and dry. I was looking for a nice hearty bread to go with some Guinness beef stew I was making. I found this recipe on the Cook's Country website. The folks at America's Test Kitchens claimed to have come up with a recipe that was authentic tasting, and dealt with all of the problems. This recipe which is technically a quick bread because it doesn't use yeast. It couldn't have been easier to make. Since there was no rise time, it basically went from the bench to the oven, or in this case: my Big Green Egg. This bread was excellent! The chefs at America's Test Kitchens had done their job well. I really love when something that tastes this great is so easy to make too.

  BEST FLATBREAD:

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  PHOTO ENTRY NAME:  GRILLED NAAN
  SOURCE:  King Arthur Flour website
  DATE FIRST COOKED:  May 14, 2014
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The kamado grill, which is the family of grills that the Big Green Egg is a member of, is also a cousin to the tandoor grill use for making naan. Both are thick walled high heat grills. I cooked the naan on a pizza stone raised high in the dome of the Egg at 700 degrees (370 C). This was really some amazing bread. I really can't remember ever having any better naan.

  BEST FLATBREAD/QUICKBREAD:

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  PHOTO ENTRY NAME:  PUMPKIN SCONES
  SOURCE:  King Arthur Flour website
  DATE FIRST COOKED:  September 29, 2014
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In September of 2014, I picked up a third Big Green Egg dedicated to baking tasks. I quickly discovered that baked goods cooked on a shelf high in the dome turn out more moist and more evenly cooked than I get with my indoor oven. Scones can often be very dry. King Arthur Flour's secret to producing moist scones is to mix sticks of butter cut into tiny cubes in with the dough. Every KAF recipe I have ever made for scones has been great. These were the tastiest scones I have ever made between all of powdered spices and the crystallized ginger used.

  BEST HAMBURGER ROLLS 1:

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  PHOTO ENTRY NAME:  HAMBURGER ROLLS
  SOURCE:  King Arthur Flour website
  DATE FIRST COOKED:  June 16, 2009
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I took a bread baking class at the King Arthur Flour Cooking School to learn how to bake bread so I could turn those skills towards making my own hamburger and hotdog rolls. This KAF recipe turns out hamburger rolls that are far tastier and have a much better consistency than the rolls you buy at your supermarket. These roles have a nice true to them as opposed to the foam rubber texture found in store-bought rolls. They also have a wonderful sweetness you get in fresh-baked bread.

  BEST HAMBURGER ROLLS 2:

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  PHOTO ENTRY NAME:  MINDY'S PRETZEL BUNS
  SOURCE:  Big Green Egg Cook Book
  DATE FIRST COOKED:  August 4, 2012
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I only just discovered the wonders of pretzel buns two years ago. At first they sounded scary. Somehow I figured hard, crunchy and too salty. Once I got up the nerve to try them, I found they were some of my favorite hamburger rolls ever. This recipe from Wicked Good Burgers turned out the best pretzel buns I've ever had. It is a different process to make the dog and get the rolls ready to be baked. The extra great flavor and wonderful texture you get, is worth all of the extra effort. I think these are my absolute favorite hamburger rolls.

  BEST PIZZA CRUST:

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  PHOTO ENTRY NAME:  CHICAGO STYLE DEEP DISH PIZZA CRUST
  SOURCE:  Big Green Egg website
  DATE FIRST COOKED:  September 21, 2012
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This recipe involved the collaboration between the Big Green Egg Company and King Arthur Flour on a recipe intended to re-create A Pizzeria Uno style deep dish pizza. The KAF pizza dough recipe was excellent indeed. I love deep dish pizzas and I also love the fact I can use this recipe to create a pizza that is as good as or better than what I can get out at the restaurant. The folks at KAF did a great job at re-creating the taste and texture of this signature pizza dough.

  BEST ROLLS 1:

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  PHOTO ENTRY NAME:  BEST AMERICAN DINNER ROLLS
  SOURCE:  Cook's Illustrated sept./Oct. 2006
  DATE FIRST COOKED:  December 26, 2012
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This rather audaciously named recipe is intended to re-create all that is great about the best restaurant style rolls. It is actually a relatively simple dough recipe, but it certainly is not something you can throw together at the last minute. The dough needs to rise in the refrigerator for 24 to 48 hours ahead of time. Then there is a room temperature rise of around eight hours that must occur before you can bake the rolls. These are very tasty and very excellent rolls, which are now my go to dinner roll recipe. Everyone I have served them to raves about them. The Cloverleaf Rolls which I am also featuring here come in a close second and are faster and easier to make. But for my best rolls this is the recipe I make if I have the time.

  BEST ROLLS 2:

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  PHOTO ENTRY NAME:  CLOVERLEAF ROLLS
  SOURCE:  Cook's Illustrated
  DATE FIRST COOKED:  November 22, 2012
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These rolls come in a close second to the Best American Dinner Rolls described above. They are a bit quicker to make since they don't need multiple days of rise time. These rolls can be made the night before and allowed to rise in the refrigerator, or you can simply make them and give them a room temperature rise before baking. These roles have a wonderful smooth texture and great buttery flavor and that hint of sweetness generally found in fresh-baked breads. They also have a classic appearance which looks great on your dinner table. So if I don't have time to make the Best American Dinner Rolls, these are a close second choice and I really don't feel like I'm making much of a compromise at all.

  Motivation:

People are always asking me what my favorite recipes are. This section had it's origins in a seven part BLOG entry I wrote in 2011 called A Few of My Favorite Things. I have made many great dishes since then and also started making other types of foods such as Stir Fries. This section needed to be updated and expanded to stay current or be dropped. I chose the later and you have the results of my reworking the section in the Fall of 2014
  Baking Info:
The BAKING section contains various types of breads and rolls which are intended to be served as an accompaniment to a meal. As a result what is the "Best" item can vary depending on what the meal is. So this list presents a list of my favorite baked goods which are great to suit particular situations. There is a wide range of baked good so your mileage may vary.

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