Can You Put a Baking Pan on the Grill?

Not everyone has the luxury of owning a fully functioning oven. Yet who doesn’t love baked goodies? The tantalizing smell of freshly baked treats is welcomed by everyone!

If you don’t have an oven or even a microwave, don’t sweat it, you can still enjoy scrumptious baked goodies using a standard stove or a grill!

So to answer the question, YES you can put a baking pan on the grill.

The grill that you have is essentially more or less, just like an oven. It entails a source of heat, a cooking area and is completely closed. It mimics the conditions of an oven, making it super-easy to bake the most delicious recipes ever!

Baking on the grill sounds unconventional and super strange, but it really isn’t that odd. Most backyard grills come with a lid, so when you close the lid, it replicates the function of an oven— that is, it generates heat and keeps the heat flowing throughout the packed area.

Here are some things that you have to ensure when you use your baking pan on the grill:

Factors to Keep in Mind When Using Your Baking Pan On The Grill

Here are some factors you need to keep in mind when using a baking pan on the grill:

Choose the Right Baking Pan

For starters, you need to choose the right baking pan. Your baking pan can be made of ceramic, glass or metal. It is always preferable that you use a solid metal pan for baking on the grill.

Glass and ceramic pans are riskier as there is a high chance that they will shatter due to extremely high temperatures. It is always better to be safe than to be sorry later.

The normal size of a pan should be 9 inches to 12 inches. Regular round metal pans for cakes or square pans for brownies should do just fine— you don’t need anything fancy.

Set the Right Temperature

When using a grill for cooking food, you always opt for charred food that has grill marks. But this is definitely something you don’t want on your cake or your brownies. To avoid the grill marks, you need to ensure that your cake gets indirect heat. You need to heat your grill to the temperature you need for the recipe you are following.

In a charcoal grill, measuring and controlling the temperature maybe a little more difficult as compared to a gas or an electric grill. Once the grill is heated and it reaches the desired temperature, turn of the burner to get more control over the temperature.

To ensure that your baked goodies don’t burn, you need to be able to maintain steady control of the temperature at all times—the best way to do this is through indirect heating.

If your grill has 2 burners, you can use both of them to heat the grill to the desired temperature and then turn one burner off and adjust the other to maintain the required temperature. If you are an avid baker, maintaining the temperature will literally be a piece of cake.

Get a Metal Rack for your Grill

Since we have established that secondary heating is the way to go, another pro-tip is either place the batter filled pan on the burners that are off or place a metal rack on the grill and then place the batter filled pan on top.

To understand the logic behind this better, we need to fly back into our past and uncover a grade 6 science lecture on heat and currents. If you remember, the source of heat heats the air molecules on top of it. The heated air particles expand and rise upwards, the cool air particles shrink and fall.

This cycle, known as convectional currents, forms as heated molecules become less dense as they expand and rise away from the heat source. The cooler, denser molecules are weighed down, and as they come closer to the heat source, they rise again.

This cycle causes the air in a compact place to constantly rotate and remain warm. This process naturally repeats itself until the air in a specific place is evenly heated.

So if you use buffers like racks, stands, or double baking pans, you can avoid burning your cake! The warm air in the grill ensures that your cake rises and is fluffy and moist.

Set a Timer to Avoid Burning the Cake

Set a timer so that you can monitor the cake. Every recipe requires different temperatures and different timings, so make sure you follow the instructions properly.

You can always check later and if need be, you can ‘bake’ it on the grill a little longer. To check if your cake is done or not, you can use a toothpick to prick the cake in various areas and see if it comes out clean and dry or not.

If the toothpick comes out covered in batter, you will have to cook it for a few more minutes.

How to Line the Pan

When baking on a grill using a baking pan, lining the pan is very essential.

You need to grease the base and the sides with butter or oil and then sprinkle flour on it. This prevents the cake from sticking to the pan.

Lining papers, also known as butter papers, are available and serve the exact same purpose. These papers also prevent the cake from sticking to the base or the sides as it is being baked.

Baking Other Super-Easy Dishes on a Grill

You don’t need to worry about being bound to only making food that relaxes nicely on a grill. You can use pots and pans on a grill too.

Just don’t forget that the temperature of a grill can be really high, so make sure to avoid using thin pans as the hot spots can increase the possible risk of scorching. You can definitely use your stainless steel baking pan on the grill to bake your favorite goodies.

You should start with baking simple goods, and remember not to use your favorite baking pan at the initial stage! It’s best to use your grill once in a blue moon for baking in order to conserve fuel.

You can either bake directly above the flame (foods that are normally baked at above 400° F) – using a gas grill. The best tip is to use indirect heat to avoid burning your baked goodies by placing it next to an ignited burner. Just like an oven, don’t forget to preheat your grill and keep it covered during the whole baking process.

Here are some super-easy dishes apart from cakes that you can bake using a grill.

Pizza

You can make pizza in your baking pan on your grill. With crispy edges, melting the cheese, and no grill marks, we bet this pizza will be better than any pizza you have tasted! You can bake a pizza as large as your grill to feed all your friends and family.

You’ll have to preheat your grill just like your oven. In case you’re making a 16-inch pizza, you will have to preheat your grill at high heat (500-600° F) for at least 13 to 14 minutes.

Prepare your pizza pan by greasing the bottom. Then add the dough, the toppings, and most importantly, the delicious cheese! The tip is to keep the pizza pan elevated above the barbecue grate in order to protect the bottom crust of the pizza from getting burnt.

You can use a few empty food tins or metal cookie cutters for this trick. Keep rotating the pizza pan 90° every 3-4 minutes. You’ll have to lift the lid of the grill and check the pizza every 10 minutes.

French Fries

With those grilled hot dogs and char-grilled burgers at your outdoor barbecue party, you’ll need a delicious sideline. Instead of opting for packaged chips, you can make your own super-delicious French fries or tater tots.

You can use a baking pan to do so! Let the grill heat at direct medium heat (450° F) for about 20 minutes. Add the chopped potatoes to the baking pan once it’s hot.

Make sure to keep turning the fries so they end up crispy on both sides. If you’re making tater tots, then give the baking pan a little shimmy every 5 to 10 minutes in order to roll them on to a new side and make them crunchy.

Quiche

Who doesn’t fancy a scrumptious little chicken or veggie quiche for breakfast? You can bake delicious breakfast items on the grill too. A cast iron baking pan is the best option for doing so.

A cast iron baking pan has considerably thick walls that ensure even baking throughout the pan. Just remember that the key here is to go ‘slow and low.’ This means you bake on the grill at super slow speed at super low heat.

It will take a little time to set, so be sure not to rush; otherwise, the crust can burn.

A quiche is to be baked at an indirect and low heat (300° F) for 30-40 minutes. First, you’ll have to blind bake the crust if you want a flaky bottom layer. Form the quiche by adding the crust in a cast iron baking pan.

Then place a sheet of aluminum foil over it, accompanied by some pie weight in the middle to allow the crust to remain flat. After you’re done blind baking, very carefully remove the foil and the weights. Now, load up your crust with the filling and go about the baking process just like you would in an oven.

Brownies

Baking brownies has never been easier – all you need is a grill and a cast-iron or aluminum baking tray. While your brownies can easily get burnt in an oven, they can turn out to be very warm and gooey when baked using a grill.

Top off your outdoor party by making some scrumptious gooey brownies for the kids that will leave your entire backyard smelling like chocolate.

These brownies are to be grill-baked at an indirect medium-low heat (350° F) for about 45 minutes. The best option is to use a cast iron baking pan or a disposable aluminum baking pan by raising it up on the grill using small food tin cans.

This will delay the cooking time and save your brownies from burning. In order to make them perfectly gooey and scrumptious rather than hard and burnt, don’t try to rush things! Turning up the heat will only make them burn.

Related read: Can You Use a Grill Pan on a Glass Top Stove?

The Bottom Line

You can most definitely use a baking pan on a grill— you just need to set the right temperature and choose the right baking pan. You can bake anything on the grill, for instance, sweet goodies like cakes and brownies as well as savory snacks!

Now you can make the shepherd’s pie using your family’s secret recipe, the savory biscuits, and delicious buttered pretzels without an oven! Just use your grill and the tips and tricks we just shared with you to make amazing delights for your next party or get together.

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