This is your guide to baking a delicious cobbler on your charcoal grill with proven and consistent results. Baking with charcoal is certainly not something to be afraid of and a simple cobbler is an excellent way to get started while using up the rest of those coals from dinner. Why shut it down when you can whip up a delicious dessert?
We are not going to reinvent the wheel by introducing a unique recipe. I have always had great luck with Tyler Florence’s recipe from the Food Network website. You can find it here! The only variation we like to introduce is the addition of blackberries to the peaches. We’ve always found this to be a great combination. We will also note a couple of charcoal specific items throughout this process but generally speaking you will follow the recipe verbatim.
If you don’t already have a hot grill you’ll want to get it preheated. Ultimately you are shooting for 350°. Initially a couple of charcoal baskets set together in the middle of your grill will create a direct cooking zone to get things started.
The prep work for this one is very straight forward and involves getting your fruit sliced, sugared, spiced, starched, liquored, stirred, and set aside. This all happens quickly especially if you eyeball the bourbon.
Once this is completed you can get the dry ingredients prepped and incorporated with the butter. You don’t want to overwork this and we tend to leave things a little on the rustic side. After all, we are dealing with cast iron and charcoal.
With almost all of your prep work complete it is time to set a 9″ cast iron pan on your direct heat and throw the remaining chunk of butter in that pan to get ready for the fruit! We use a Lodge Combo Cooker but cast iron is cast iron.
Once the butter is melted you will add your fruit mixture and let things cook over the direct heat while stirring occasionally.
Now you will want to transition to indirect heat by moving your two charcoal baskets to the outside edges of the grill. We accomplished this on a Weber Kettle by opening the outside wings of the grate and sliding the baskets aside with a pair of tongs. Techniques might vary on other grill types. Once you are all set up for indirect cooking it is time to get your bake on. Finish the batter by adding the cream to your dry ingredients and get things incorporated. Place dollops of the batter all over the top of your fruit mixture and brush with some remaining cream.
Built-in grill thermometers are notoriously inaccurate. We used a Maverick probe placed right above the
We set a ThermoWorks TimeStack to 45 minutes and let things roll.
The only thing to be conscious of when cooking over indirect heat distributed on two opposing sides of the grill is the fact that those two sides of your cast iron are going to receive the most heat. Cobbler is very forgiving but as a general statement it is best to rotate your pan 90° halfway through the cooking process. This ensures that heat is distributed evenly.
After approximately 40 minutes take a look at your results and continue baking until the cobbler has reached your desired degree of doneness. Remove from the heat and admire your work!
Baking is not one of the most popular things to do with a charcoal grill so it doesn’t get a lot of attention. We highly suggest you give it a try. We think you will find that the results are delicious!
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