Hi, I have a Big Green Egg. Actually, I have two!
They are wonderful for baking. Anything you can do in the oven, you
can do on an egg. And more. You cannot broil, but that's about it.
I've made the No Knead Bread on the Egg and also Chocolate Chip
Cookies. I've made French Toast as well. It makes an excellent MeatLoaf.
The Egg has a thermometer and cooks with lump charcoal, which you
reuse, unlike briquets which get thrown away at the end of the
cook. So a bag of lump will last you quite a while. I would say a
bag would last an average of 15 cooking hours if you were cooking at
an average temp of 400 degrees. Since a lot of what you do on the Egg
is done at a considerably lesser temp, the lump would typically last
even longer.
The platesetter is an accessory item that is like a pizza stone with
legs. You use it to cook over indirect heat vs direct heat. You can
use it with the legs up or down. For the recipe you referenced, most
likely it was used with the legs up and then the baking stone set on
top of the legs.
I'm not sure where you live but there are 'Eggfests' all around the
country throughout the year where people come and cook on Eggs, and,
for a small fee, the rest of us can wander and sample the food as
much as you like. At the end of the day, the Eggs that were used for
cooking are sold at a hefty discount. Many people acquire their Eggs
this way. (You have to prearrange that you want to purchase an Egg
at the end of the day with the Eggfest organizers.
There is an excellent forum on the Big Green Egg website,
www.eggheadforum.com. You can ask anything you like and get an
almost-immediate reply from very friendly and knowledgable
people. Egg owners are among the most friendly people I have ever
met. The Eggfests are really fun and a fabulous way to see what the
Eggs are capable of. Eggs are expensive (the large runs about $900)
but they last forever. Your great great grandchildren will be
cooking on it and beyond.
Feel free to ask me any specific questions you like.
Gwen
(Dimple's Mom on the Egghead forum)