We all would agree that fresh baked cookies always taste better than store bought or ones that have been sitting around for a while. So how do you get fresh baked cookies at the end of a great meal while tailgating? Bake them on the Bubba Keg Grill, of course.
For the uninitiated, the Bubba Keg Grill’s top and bottom dampers allow you to adjust the air flow and oxygen level getting to your lump charcoal. That feature coupled with the double walled, insulated convection style design makes it just like a regular convection oven but the versatility of taking it outdoors. With that said, I wondered if I could use it like any other convection oven, i.e. bake cookies on the Bubba Keg Grill. I am happy to report that it was a success. See the photos below and click each for larger view:
Right off the bat, please disregard the heart shaped cookie sheet. It was the only round cookie sheet in the house and the rectangular ones would not fit on the Bubba Keg Grill. If you would like to bake cookies on your own Bubba Keg Grill, I would suggest using round pizza pans for cookie sheets.
Because this was an experiment that I was not 100% sure would work, I used your run of the mill Nestle Toll House cookie dough you can buy in the tube at any grocery store. There would be no point in going to all the trouble of making cookies from scratch if this technique was not going to work.
What I did was I got the Bubba Keg Grill up to about 500 degrees much like I would if I were tailgating and grilling meats. I gently adjusted the top and bottom dampers down and was able to get the Bubba Keg Grill to consistently maintain 375 degrees, the recommended cooking temperature on the cookie packaging. I then proceeded as I normally would had I been working with a conventional oven in my home kitchen. I put the cookies on the sheet, placed the cookie sheet on the grill, closed the top, set the timer and went back inside the house to watch the game. The timer went off and the cookies were done to perfection as you can see in the photo to the right.
I took them off the sheet and let them cool. Once cooled, I tried one and they tasted just as they would normally had they been cooked in a traditional oven. There was no smokey flavor. The bottoms of the cookies were not burned because the charcoal was under the pan. Based on the taste, no one would have known they were “baked” on a BBQ grill.
So if you are craving fresh baked cookies while tailgating, try baking them on the Bubba Keg Grill. I would suggest grilling all your meats first because they normally require higher temperatures. Once all your meats are done, reduce the top and bottom dampers to the point the coals maintain a consistent temperature of 375 or whatever temperature your cookies require. Once you are done baking your cookies, close down the dampers all the way and let the natural lump charcoal burn itself out for later use. Now when tailgating you can have your cake cookies and eat it them too.