Anyway, here is the process I went through for grilling the 'za. I give most of the credit to Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything". If there's one cookbook to have in your kitchen, that's the one I recommend. Okay, here goes...
You'll need:
- 1 tsp rapid rise or instant yeast
- 3 cups flour (almost anything should work - all-purpose or bread flour as the base and then you can substitute a cup of that base with whole wheat, etc.). I used all bread flour and forgot to put in the wheat flour - so my posting is a bit incorrect now that I think of it.
- 2 tsp coarse kosher or sea salt
- 1 - 1.25 cups water (I only ended up using 1 cup)
- 2 tbsp olive oil (plus a little extra for the rising bowl and grill)
First, know that I chose to do this by hand - it's what I prefer (it makes the outcome more rewarding for me), and if I know how to do something without technology, it helps me be more self-sufficient; I can now do this camping if I want!
Here are the steps:
- Combine 1/2 the flour with the salt and yeast
- Add 1 cup water and 2 tbsp olive oil - stir until smooth
- Add remaining flour little by little until it becomes too stiff to stir
- Knead the dough using a lightly floured work surface (flour your hands, too, so that they don't stick). Knead for about 6-7 minutes or until the dough is smooth and elastic.
- Lightly oil the inside of a medium sized bowl. Place the dough in the bowl and very lightly brush or spray a bit of oil on top of the dough so that it doesn't stick to the plastic wrap or towels (see next step).
- Cover the bowl in pastic wrap and/or a layer or two of towels.
- Place the bowel in a draft-free, warm area. You could turn the oven on and place the bowl near the oven (not on or in). I just put the bowls (I doubled the recipe) up in my son's room because it's the warmest room in the house - it worked great. Ideally, the air should be around 70 degrees. I let the dough rise for about 90 minutes.
- "Punch" the dough by pressing down with a fist - do it a few times to disperse the air throughout the dough - it will deflate, which is good.
- Remove the dough...here's the tricky part. You can roll it out - but you'll get a tougher crust. I recommend stretching the dough over your fists, moving it in circles with your fists so that the weight of the dough makes the shape of the crust - not a rolling pin. I've found I can get a larger crust since I'm not stressing the dough like I would with a rolling pin.
To get it on the grill:
- Grill should be around 250-275 degrees.
- Use a pizza grill pan - I recommend it. You could probably use another kind of pizza pan, but I'm not sure what the outcome would be.
- Lightly coat the pan with olive oil and, if you'd like, dust with corn meal.
- Place the dough on the pan and place in grill and close the grill.
- Let it grill until the bottom is golden brown (about 10 min).
- Take it off the grill and carefully flip it over with a spatula.
- Put on your toppings (keep toppings somewhat light for grilling - a supreme-style pizza wouldn't work well).
- Place back in grill until the other side of crust is golden brown (about 10 min). You can insert a knife into the side of the crust to see if it is cooked all the way through.
For toppings:
- Cook all meat before adding it as a topping.
- If you want your veggies to have a grilled flavor, grill them first before adding them.
- Again, keep it light so that the cheeze melts.
If you have questions, let me know. Enjoy!
