Good onion/garlic bread, with no smoke flavor

Prof Dan

Thanks to some tips from fellow Eggers, I made a really good (and easy) onion garlic bread yesterday. The crust was good, and there was no smoke flavor. I had been baking bread in a Dutch oven (to avoid making smoky bread), but it turns out not to be necessary. Here's the recipe:[p]Chop up a small onion, along with several garlic cloves, and sauté the mixture in a little olive oil. [p]Put 2 teaspoons of yeast into a half cup of warm water and let it get foamy.[p]In a food processor using a dough hook, mix 3 cups of flour, three tablespoons of brown sugar, 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt, two tablespoons of toasted sesame seeds, the onion/garlic mixture, and the yeast. Dribble in a little more water as needed, until the dough forms a ball in the food processor. (This whole process can be done in a bowl by hand, and it yields better results, but it's too much work.)[p]Stick the dough ball in a plastic bag. Let it rise for an hour in a warm place, and punch it down. Let it rise for another hour. Form the loaf into a ball. Put it onto a pizza peel sprinkled with cornmeal. Let the loaf rise, covered with plastic wrap, for another hour.[p]Then light the BGE, about 45 minutes before baking time. Don't add any wood chips to the charcoal. Put the pizza stone on a raised grid. Get the Egg up to 400 and let it stay there until it's time to bake. (I think that this is the secret to avoiding a smoke flavor: after 45 minutes of heating, the ceramic gets so hot that by the time I put the bread in to bake, I don't have to burn much charcoal to maintain a 400° oven.)[p]Using a sharp knife, mark a big "X" into the top of the loaf. This allows the loaf to expand while baking, and it looks cool, too. Scatter cornmeal on the stone and slide the loaf onto the stone. Using your instant read probe thermometer, check for doneness in a half hour. It should have an internal temperature of about 190. Lift the bread off the stone and set it on a rack to cool.[p]I have heard that if you have a can of water on the pizza stone, the crust will be even crunchier. Next time, I'm going to try that.

Clay Q

Prof Dan,
Sounds like great bread! I use a plastic spray bottle to mist water on the bread when I first put the bread in and again half way into the bake when I turn the pan. [p]Today I baked a big loaf of banana nut bread (quick bread). Sunday, weather permitting, I plan on baking pita bread. Here is where the spray bottle comes in handy.[p]Baking is really fun with the egg. It knocks people over when I tell them the bread their eating I make in my smoker.
Keep on Smo....ah, baking....
Clay