Grilled Pizza Recipe

Requests for how I did the grilled pizza gave me a great reason to revisit my blog. I really need to blog more often - so many thoughts in my head and very little of it put down on paper (maybe for my own edification than anyone elses...but I hope there's some value in them for others...).



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:

1. Combine 1/2 the flour with the salt and yeast
2. Add 1 cup water and 2 tbsp olive oil - stir until smooth
3. Add remaining flour little by little until it becomes too stiff to stir
4. 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.
5. 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).
6. Cover the bowl in pastic wrap and/or a layer or two of towels.
7. 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.
8. "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.
9. 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:

1. Grill should be around 250-275 degrees.
2. 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.
3. Lightly coat the pan with olive oil and, if you'd like, dust with corn meal.
4. Place the dough on the pan and place in grill and close the grill.
5. Let it grill until the bottom is golden brown (about 10 min).
6. Take it off the grill and carefully flip it over with a spatula.
7. Put on your toppings (keep toppings somewhat light for grilling - a supreme-style pizza wouldn't work well).
8. 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!