We’ve had a Kamado Joe BBQ for a few years now and use it whenever we can – if it’s not raining (too much) or too windy then it’s the cooker of choice.
I’ve made bread and pizzas in it a few times now, but felt the heat deflector and pizza stone hadn’t been getting enough use recently so made up some sourdough.
Nothing special about sourdough – I make enough of them most other days, but wanting to experiment, last night I simply took some of my Rye sourdough starter from the fridge, fed it some flour and water and left it on the bench overnight. A small bowl of nice bubbly starter greeted me this morning. I made up a simple dough – 100g wholemeal spelt flour, 300g white and 100g of the starter (I’d made about 190g starter with the intention of using the left-overs to make some crumpets – that was not a good idea, must try harder!)
Anyway, made the dough and left it to ferment and a few hours later I shaped it and put it into a banneton – and left it to prove.
A few hours later I’ve lit the Kamado Joe and the dough has almost doubled:
I’ve thrown some flour and semolina over the top in preparation for tipping it out directly onto the stone in the Kamado Joe.
The internal temperature at this point was a shade over 300C and the top of the pizza stone (measured using an IR thermometer) was about 210C.
In it goes:
A few slashes which will help it expand and make it bake-out more of an oval shape than a big round (This is how I usually do my large loaves)
I lowered the lid, set a timer for 11 minutes and let it get on with it. After the 11 minutes, I turned it round and closed the vents on the Kamado Joe down – although I should have remembered that it really ought to have been done earlier as the base did scorch a little… However I left it another 22 minutes and it was done:
The slightly scorched base wasn’t excessive – didn’t stop it smelling good!
After that, I removed the stones and put the cooking grid back in and let it get up to about 250C again and cooked some chicken and pork belly slices:
A lot of smoke there – maybe it was a bit too hot… Nice crispy skin on the chicken legs and the pork rind though!
And then to lunch:
Obligatory “crumb” shot…
And on the plate:
I can tell its going to be a good summer already! Our local farm shop at Dean Court has been taken over by a farming couple we know and The Outdoor Gourmet next door to it is always helpful and now has locally sourced lumpwood charcoal too!