I recently saw an episode of Alton Brown's "Good Eats" where he grilled pizza. I knew I had to try it. He used a pretty specific pizza dough recipe but hubs just whipped up a batch of pizza dough in the bread machine, same formula we usually use.
Recipe:
1 1/4 cup warm water
2 cups white flour
1 cup wheat flour
2 T sugar
1/2 t salt
1 1/2 t yeast
2 T oil
Place the ingredients in the bread machine in this order, put it on the dough setting. Watch it to make sure that it mixes everything together properly. (Course you can just go pick up a ball of ready made pizza dough at Wally's for 99 cents.)
After the machine was finished with the dough, I took it out, divided it and worked it into two balls and let them raise on the counter under a towel. Then I stretched them out into pizza shapes. I preheated the grill and put some olive oil on a paper towel to wipe the grill. I used a bit of cornmeal between the dough and a cookie sheet so that it wouldn't stick and just slid the dough on to the hot grill. I adjusted it a tiny bit once it was on, but for the most part the heat of the grill will start to make the dough into crust pretty quickly.
I poured on some olive oil and brushed it out into a nice even coat. I flipped it over and while the fire was browning the other side, I put olive oil on the baked side and brushed it around to an even coat. I put some garlic through the garlic press and tried to evenly distribute that over the surface, I followed that with thin sliced onions, peppers and fresh chopped basil. Then some cheese, mozzarella and some extra sharp cheddar. I had to work quickly because the fire was browning the other side of the crust in a hurry.
Then I closed the lid for a bit for the cheese to get a chance to melt. When I decided it was done, I slid my cookie sheet under it and took it off the fire. I cut it with scissors and got a very satisfying sound of crunchy crust along with the melted stringy cheese. Yum!
I'm looking pretty pleased with myself, I'll tell ya.. I hadn't tasted it at that point but I had certainly smelled it! I helped myself to a slice while I started the second one - YUM!
Believe me, you want to have everything you need right there beside you because it doesn't take long to put this together and you don't want it to burn while you're running back to the kitchen to get the cheese.
The second one was more of a rectangle... a very ugly rectangle... but I added some pizza sauce (highly over rated) and pepperoni to this one. It took a little longer for the cheese and pepperoni to warm so I ended up getting it a little dark on the under side. Oops... but still yummy!
It had a very satisfying crunchy crust and the kiss of the flames had worked their magic on the flavors. The crust cooks quickly and it can't be over loaded with toppings. It's all about texture and flavors! It was thin, crunchy and smokey... yum yum yum!
You have got to try this!! Make sure to gather everything you need around you while the grill is heating. Here's a list,
Hmmm... let me see:
Pizza dough.
Olive oil and a pastry brush to distribute it all over the crust.
Tongs for flipping the crust when it's half way done.
All the toppings, thin sliced veggies, pressed garlic, basil, good cheese, salt and pepper.
Cookie sheet or a pizza peel.
Scissors or pizza cutter.
Plates,and or napkins.
Something cold to drink.
Is there anything I missed?
With the size of my grill and the size of the recipe of dough, next time I think I'll divide it into three instead of two. That way maybe I can have two side by side on the grill and just do them one right after the other. That may work to serve more people at once, can't you just see grilling up a bunch of these for guests? I can, that would be FUN!
We may never make pizza indoors again.
Fire up the grill and let me know how it goes, ok?
Yummm....
Savor the flavors,
-Carmen Rose
FTC disclaimer: I received some of the products shown in this blog from Artbeads.com free of charge, I have not been paid for my endorsement of these products and I am reviewing the products honestly.
