Monday, June 27, 2016

Grilled Pizza!!!

As intimidating as grilled pizza might seem, it is actually very easy. There are quite a few steps but they are simple. The first time I made grilled pizza it came out perfectly. I have not made pizza in the oven or ordered pizza since! This is simple, easy and delicious!


I tried quite a few pizza dough recipes before I found this one, and this one is awesome. Although if you are looking for a quick dough recipe this is not. I have discovered to make good pizza dough you have to be patient. I typically start this dough around three to have it ready for dinner around five or six. I found this recipe on a blog through Pinterest. The instructions are slightly confusing so I will post the recipe and grilling instructions in this post as well as share the links.


Pizza dough


Ingredients


1 cup of warm water
2 tbsp of honey
½ tsp of kosher salt
2 tbsp of yeast
¼ cup of olive oil plus 2 tbsp for crispier pizza dough
3 ½ cups of flour
Extra olive oil
Cornmeal for dusting


Other tools and items needed
Foil
A timer (I just use my phone)
Tongs
Spatula (optional, I usually only need tongs, but occasionally the slightly larger pizzas need a bit of extra help to get them off the grill)
If you have a pizza paddle use it, I do not and have never seriously wished I had one. It’s not difficult without one.


Dough instructions
I use my Kitchenaid with the dough hook attachment to make this.


  1. Add the water (the water should be very warm but comfortable, to touch around 100 degrees Fahrenheit if you prefer to use a thermometer) to your mixer bowl.
  2. Add the honey, and salt to the water, mix on low for 20 seconds.
  3. Add the yeast, and continue to mix on low for a few more seconds.
  4. Add 1 cup of flour mix on low till incorporated.   
  5. Then add the olive oil, mix well on low.
  6. Add the rest of the flour all at once. Start mixing slowly, and increase speed as dough comes together. If dough is too try and will not come together add water a tablespoon at a time. If dough is too sticky add more flour a tablespoon at a time.
  7. Remove the dough from the bowl and knead on a lightly floured surface for a couple minutes. This will help build the gluten, and help the dough rise better.
  8. Put the dough back in the bowl, cover it, place it in a warm dry area, and let it rise for about 45 minutes.
  9. Punch it down. And let it rise for at least another 45 minutes preferably more.


I have cooked this dough it in the oven on a pizza stone, and it is yummy. I do think grilled pizza is much better, and always comes out a bit crunchier than pizza from my oven. I will post oven instructions at the bottom of this post as well.


I have a gas grill with 3 burners (the Weber Genesis S-330I highly recommend it if you are looking to buy one). If you have a charcoal grill I recommend finding a different set of instructions. If you have a gas grill with 2 or 4 burners I'm sure you’ll be fine. If you have 2 burners your pizza might not cook as evenly when you turn off one burner for the second part of the cooking.


Grilling instructions


While the dough is rising, I prep my toppings. My favorite pizza sauce is Target’s heart healthy marinara. It is cheap (occasionally it goes on sale for 1 dollar a jar) and tastes the best. I am pretty sure I have tried every brand out there, and this one is my favorite. I grate my mozzarella, and refrigerate it if it will be a while till I use it. We love Hawaiian pizza. I typically use Canadian bacon for the ham and canned pineapple pieces. Pepperoni is always a good staple too.   


To form/roll out your dough, divide the dough into 4 equal parts. I usually only cook 2 pizzas, in one sitting. I refrigerate the other half of the dough for 3-5 days, and we have pizza later in the week (make sure the dough has plenty of time to come to room temperature if refrigerated).


Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface, my pizzas are usually 12 inches. Just before this or while I’m rolling out the dough RJ turns all the burners on the grill on high, you want the grill to get nice and hot.


  1. Lay down a piece of foil
  2. put down 1-2 teaspoons of olive oil, and brush it around.
  3. Put one rolled out piece of dough on the foil.
  4. Put another 1-2 teaspoons of oil on the dough and brush it so it's completely covered.
  5. Now put another piece of foil on top of that so you have a dough foil sandwich.


The foil makes it easy to slap the dough onto the grill. The oil helps it not stick to the foil or the grill. Repeat this process till you have all our dough in foil sandwiches. I place these on a upside down cookie sheet, or cutting board to carry outside.


Very lightly dust a pizza stone or upside down cookie sheet with cornmeal.


Move out to the grill, make sure you have everything prepped and ready to go. This pizza goes quickly and once you're started it’s difficult to stop, or have time to run back inside for anything.


  1. Turn your grill down to medium.
  2. Grab your dough, peel the top piece of foil off, slap it on the grill and peel the bottom piece of foil off.
  3. Shut the grill and wait at least 2 minutes before checking the dough.
  4. When the dough is done it will be bubbly, browning on the edges, and have nice grill marks, remove the dough and place it grill marks up on your cornmeal dusted pizza stone or cookie sheet.
  5. Shut the grill and turn the burners back up to high.
  6. Dress your pizza, top the pizza on the side with grill marks.
  7. Turn your middle burner off, slide your pizza onto the middle of the grill.
  8. Shut the grill, and leave for 5-7 minutes (with only the outside burners on you create a type of oven, your cheese will get all melty and the dough will finish cooking it’s magical).
  9. Once your cheese is nice and melted and you are satisfied with the crispness of your dough, remove your pizza with tongs. Get your pizza stone or cookie sheet as close as possible. Typically I just need to grab the edge of the crust with my tongs and slide it up onto the pizza stone.


Repeat process if needed. I have made this enough times that when I remove the first dough I immediately place the second dough on the grill, while it cooks I quickly top the first then remove the dough, and place the dressed pizza on the grill then immediately top the second. I was not brave enough to do this the first time. The more practice I have the quicker I get.
Here is the delicous finished product, just before removing it from the grill (my mouth is watering, yum).
Oven instructions


Gadgets/tools needed for cooking pizza in oven.
Pizza stone
Cornmeal
Two flimsy cutting boards, or a pizza paddle (again I don’t have one so I use a makeshift one).
Two spatulas


  1. Place your pizza stone in the oven.
  2. Turn up your oven as high as it will go.
  3. Lay your cutting boards out, stagger them one on top of the other so you have enough area to roll out a large pizza, or use a pizza paddle it would make this much easier.
  4. Cover your work surface in cornmeal. Use a good amount of cornmeal. Enough that the dough can not stick to your work surface.
  5. Place dough in the center of the cornmeal and roll it out to desired thickness.
  6. Top pizza with toppings.
  7. Brush excess cornmeal away from the perimeter of the pizza.  
  8. Slide pizza onto pizza stone (This is sometimes a little messy from excess cornmeal. The bottom of my oven may or may not be covered in burnt cornmeal).
  9. Cook pizza for 5-10 minutes depending on how hot your oven goes, and how crispy you like your pizza.


That’s it I hope the instructions make sense, and aren't too intimidating. I will post pictures of the whole process soon! Enjoy.




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