The Reason A Room Temperature Pan Is Important When Grilling Dessert
While it may be associated with juicy steaks and sizzling chicken breasts, the backyard grill that helps you cook up a mean summer BBQ spread is also the key to preparing mouth-watering versions of your favorite desserts. Aside from giving classic treats a delicious smoked taste, Grilla Grills reports that this method of pie baking also allows you to cut down on the cooking time of many delicious dessert recipes. And, because using the grill to prepare baked goods often involves adding your ingredients to one pan, grilling your peach cobbler will also reduce the dirty dish pile in your sink.
However, before you pass up the oven and run to the grill to whip up The Grill Girl's rum raisin bread pudding, you need to know one important rule for baking a successfully gooey grilled dessert. Because while you don't have to use a cast iron skillet to cook a one-pan grilled brownie (though we highly recommend it if you're really wanting to get the most out of your smoked sweets), Food & Wine reports that whatever pan you use needs to be at room temperature before you set it on the grill. Here's why.
Room temperature pans are best for coating with butter
While a slew of delicious treats can be baked on the grill, desserts that work best with this cooking method have one thing in common — they all have a significant fat content. This is also why coating your pan in butter, a type of saturated fat (per Harvard Public Health), will help your grilled apple pie bake to perfection. Not to mention, butter prevents your treat from sticking to your pan (via Food & Wine). And because slathering butter on your skillet is an absolute must if you want your giant grilled chocolate chip cookie to come out looking and tasting delicious, you need to ensure that your butter coating is able to stick to all sides of your pan.
However, if you use a hot pan to grill your dessert the butter will not evenly coat your skillet. Instead, it will melt and goop into a mass of liquid at the bottom. To prevent your dessert's flavor from suffering and ensure it doesn't get stuck, Food and Wine reports you should always use a pan that is room temperature or cooler. After you are sure your cooking tool is not hot, you should then slather it with softened butter. Then you can bake up a grilled peach cobbler with a great taste that will flawlessly slip onto you plate. Just don't forget to top it with Southern Living's recipe for smoked whipped cream.