I love to bake so without an oven during the renovation, I was missing that void. Not only do I regularly use my oven to cook dinner, but I bake something sweet at least once a week. I’ve been having withdrawals. I have the desired to bake up a treat for my family and the only way to do that is to fire up the grill.
Using a grill to bake is tricky, so I started slowly with cookies. After I felt I mastered that, I moved on to canned cinnamon rolls. First try and those came out great! I finally had a good feeling on what temperature to set my gas grill and how to control the heat. Also, I learned tips like rotating your pan throughout since most grills have hot and cold spots.
Now came a true test. Blackberries were on sale and I love blackberries. My sister has a great recipe for a blackberry cobbler, but I felt the need to do something more challenging. I needed to grill a pie.
I made my normal pie dough and let it chill in the fridge. I set my grill to low and made sure the center burner was off. Then I placed my handy cast iron pan onto the grill and let everything get preheated. I rolled the bottom crust layer out, placed into my pie plate, and put it on the grill. I decided to par bake my bottom crust because I’ve noticed that everything takes a little longer to cook on the grill. Maybe it’s because I’m afraid of turning the heat too high (remember the hockey puck chocolate cookies?), but when you’re dealing with a cookie, it may only take 3 – 5 minutes longer. Pies are big and can be dense. It may take 30 minutes extra to finish baking. With all the juices from the blackberries bubbling around, I was definitely afraid of a soggy bottom. So I placed dried beans on parchment paper in my bottom crust and then put it on the hot grill for about 10 min.
TIP: After you place your bottom crust into the pie plate, place back in the freezer until hard. This keeps the crust from shrinking down too much while cooking.
While the bottom crust was cooking, I tossed the blackberries with sugar, flour, and lemon juice. I took the bottom crust off the grill, placed the blackberry filling inside, and then rolled out the top crust. I moistened the edges of the bottom crust a little with water to make them more adhesive to the top crust. I pinched the top and bottom crust together and back onto the grill.
I checked it after 30 min and then began checking in 10 min intervals and rotating the pan so it would bake evenly. My edges began to look a little brown, which always happens to me when making a pie. I have this handy silicone ring that I place on top to prevent the edges from browning too much, but alas, this was placed in storage so I went back to the old fashion technique of wrapping the edges in aluminum foil. This post contains affiliate links. For more information, see my disclosures here.
After about an additional 30 min the pie was perfect. Not a soggy bottom in sight! I must say, I feel when it comes to grill baking, this is my Mona Lisa. The waiting to eat was the hardest part and I’m happy to report that it was delicious! I seriously feel like I can make anything on a grill now.
Enjoy!
Ingredients
Instructions
- Prepare pie crust and set in the fridge for 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
- In a large bowl, toss blackberries with the sugar, flour and lemon juice.
- Roll out pie dough and placed bottom crust into pie pan. Pour blackberry filling into pie pan and place top crust on top. Pinch top and bottom crust together. Make 3 small slits in the top crust and brush on the beaten egg.
- Place in a 425-degree oven for 15 min. Then reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees. Bake for an additional 25 – 30 minutes until crust is brown and filling is bubbling. Place aluminum foil or pie shield on top of pie if edges are browning too quickly.
- Let cool for 2 – 3 hours. Serve and enjoy!
