Baking Sweet
Have you ever heard the phrase “as easy as pie”? While most people know it means that something is simple to do, few realize that the saying originally referred to the eating of a pie, which was considered a pleasurable and easy experience, rather than the making of it. After all, making a pie does take some work.
Baking sweet on the Big Green Egg is a lot like baking savory on it. The food is cooked indirectly and uses no smoking wood. Cooking temperatures and times are similar to those of your kitchen oven. You can use many of the same racks, pans and cast-iron cookware with great results.
It is important to start out with a clean cooker when you are planning to bake sweet items on the EGG. Replace any charcoal that has fat or meat drippings from your last cook; otherwise, your sweet treats will be permeated with the flavor of smoky meat renderings. If your cooker is particularly dirty, it may be a good time for a high-heat burn-off. Typically, I do this the day before I plan on baking.
Long before I entered the barbecue world, I was a baker at Cravings Fine Desserts in Allenhurst, New Jersey. During my time there, I learned the finer points of baking in a professional kitchen. The dishes that I am going to share with you in this chapter were inspired by my experience there. Does the thought of learning how to make a Giant Cinnamon Roll with Bourbon Cream Cheese Frosting excite you? How about a sweet, tart Key Lime Pie with Graham Cracker Crust or Salted Chocolate Chunk Cookies? If you answered yes to any of these questions, grab an apron and fire up your cooker. You don’t have to be a professional to bake sweet on the Big Green Egg. I will show you that it is “as easy as pie.”