Baking on the Grill

When we were designing the bus, I asked a friend whose family had a bus conversion when they were growing up if they used their oven often.  She said her mother used it only twice in all the travels they did and that prompted me to not include it in our bus conversion.

But we're not just traveling in our bus - we are living  in it full-time now!  As the days wore on in the summer, I found that I missed dishes that could use an oven.  Like my beloved fish sticks, baked salmon, cookies, and most importantly, birthday cakes!   

On a trip to Williams-Sonoma, I looked for a good loaf pan that could withstand the ferocity of a grill's heat.  While I found a thick, double-layered metal pan without the non-stick coating, Michael and the kids sampled a pumpkin bread that the store was handing out.  Now I had to buy the pan and the bread mix!  Unfortunately, I only tried out both items recently.  Results were mixed.

The kids are excited to help me frost the bread.

What the ...

I'm still getting used to baking in a grill.  In general, I find that the small space of the grill intensifies the heat at the edges of the pan and moderately heats the food in the middle.  If I had a bigger oven, there would be a more even distribution of the heat.  So when I popped out the loaf, I had to cut off the charred pieces around the edges.  I didn't have to, but I wanted the eating experience to be enjoyable.  

The kids had a great time spreading the frosting.  They put it on too thinly at first, but were excited when I told them to glob on more frosting so as to not tear at the bread.  Max is just like his mother when she was little - sampling the frosting first.