One of the cleverest tricks we know of is baking bread on the grill. Once you know your grill, it’s easy, just like baking your favorite recipe in the oven.

We can think of all sorts of reasons to grill. You can enjoy freshly baked bread while camping, at the cabin, or at the next family gathering. Sometimes it’s nice to get out of the kitchen, enjoy the spring air, and bake outside. (Watch the neighbors turn their noses against the wind as the smell of freshly baked bread wafts over the fence.) And in the summer, you don’t have to heat the kitchen to bake. Finally, if there is ever a prolonged emergency when the power goes out, you may have the only fresh bread in town.

You can bake just about anything with a covered grill. (If your grill doesn’t have a lid, improvise with a large inverted pot.) Heat rises and circulates in the covered area just like it does in your oven. The heat source can be coal, gas or even wood. We prefer gas because it’s easier to control and doesn’t impart a smoky flavor to the bread. Since it’s hotter near the flames, raise the bread even if you have to improvise. In our grill, there is a secondary shelf for baking potatoes and such.

For this demonstration, we use traditional white bread mixes, although any mix or recipe will do. Mix according to package instructions. After it had risen, we made one batch into oval country buns, one into hamburger buns, and one into buns.

The trick to grilling bread to perfection is to control the temperature and time. If your grill comes equipped with a thermometer, you have it ready (although outside temperatures and winds can affect how well your grill retains heat). If you have a thermometer, simply heat it to the temperature designated on the package or in the recipe. If not, guess. After a few loaves, you’ll have it perfect and we bet the first batch off the grill will be fine.

Rolls and scones will probably bake in 15-20 minutes and loaves will take 20-30 minutes depending on size and temperature. An occasional peek to see how your bread is doing as it nears completion is fine.

We made twelve jumbo-sized hamburger buns, just the ticket for that quarter pounder. Shape the buns as you would the bagels, and then flatten them several times until they look like the ones in the image on the left. (The powder you can see in the pan is cornmeal.) Cover and let rise.

Just before baking, we wash the buns with an egg white (one egg white plus a tablespoon of water). Then we sprinkle them with sesame seeds. On our grill, we baked them with the heat about two-thirds open for about 18 minutes.

For the muffins, we used an 8 1/2 x 15-inch pan and made 20 2.5-ounce muffins.

We made two country-style loaves from a mix. If you look closely, you’ll see that we forgot to cut the top to release the steam and consequently end up with a split on the side of the loaf. Don’t do what we did: make 2-3/4-inch-deep slits in the top of the loaf just as you start baking.

Here are some more tips to help you along the way:

o Bake the bun before the burgers. The bread can be cooled while you cook the rest of the food. Burnt fat on the bottom of the grill makes the temperature more difficult to control, and soot can stain the bread.

o If you are letting your bread rise outdoors, where the temperature may be cooler than indoors or where the breeze may swirl around the bread, consider using a large food-grade plastic bag as a greenhouse. Simply slide the bread dough, pan and all, into the bag, inflate it slightly, and close it. If the day is cool, place the bag and bread in a warm, sunny spot to capture some solar energy.

o Grills tend not to circulate hot air as well as ovens. To prevent the bottom of the bread from burning, place one pan below the other and a wire rack between pans to create space for insulation.

o If your bread bakes faster on one side than the other, rotate the pan 180 degrees halfway through the baking time.

o The tendency is to burn the bottom of the bread. Place the bread as far away from the flames as possible, even if it means raising the bread.

We hope you have fun baking bread outdoors this summer. We know you’ll be the envy of the neighborhood, campground, or trailer park.

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