perfect grilled pizza (and our pizza crust recipe)

We make grilled pizza a lot. In Denver, in the summer, we probably made pizza almost every week. And then we made it in Saipan whenever we could find fresh mozzarella and goat cheese. And now we make it a ton in Texas. It’s such a nice trick to have in your grilling arsenal and takes basic pizza up a notch to guest-worthy.

However, the pizza crust recipe we use is mysteriously gone from the internet, so honestly, I am writing this down as a reminder for myself.

INGREDIENTS

2 1/4 teaspoons fast rising yeast
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons italian seasoning or herbs (this can be a little heavy handed if you like herbed pizza crust- also in the summer we often add fresh rosemary and thyme to the mix)
1 1/2 cups warm water
3 1/2 cups flour

DIRECTIONS Add the yeast and warm water to a bowl and whisk together. Add in the rest of the ingredients. Using the slowest speed on a hand mixer (or stand mixer like a Kitchen Aid), mix for about five minutes. With well floured hands, pull the tacky sides of the dough into the middle of the bowl, making a ball. Continue flouring your hands/the dough until you have an easy to handle ball of dough. Knead several times. Place in a floured metal bowl and place in the oven at it’s very lowest temp (or your extra warm house if you live in the tropics) for about 45 minutes to let it rise. Punch down the dough, place in a floured ziplock and refrigerate until you are ready to use it.

Prep your toppings (we like to make a couple kinds of pizza on each crust). Right now, we layer whatever we pick from our garden (heirloom tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, basil, thyme, mini peppers) on top of olive oil, pesto or mango chutney and then add fresh mozzarella and goat cheese. We also love adding all kinds of meat,, grilled onions, feta, and sundried tomatoes.

TO GRILL

Move dough from ziplock bag to floured surface. Dust flour on your hands and flatten out dough into large circle or rectangle. Lightly salt. Allow to come to room temperature.

Heat grill to high. Before putting dough on grill, reduce heat for the pizza cooking area to low (leave indirect heat on high).

Re-dust flour on both sides of dough before adding to grill so the dough doesn’t stick to the grill. Slide the dough onto a large flat cookie sheet- this will act as your spatula as you grill your pizza. Dough should be floured enough that it slides easily onto and around the cookie sheet (if this is not the case, add more flour).

Slide dough off cookie sheet and onto grill. Allow to cook for 4-5 minutes (you are currently cooking the bottom of the pizza- there should be no toppings on your dough at this time).

Using cookie sheet as spatula, rotate dough 180 degrees, giving both sides of the bottom access to the indirect grill heat for another 4ish minutes.

Slide cookie sheet under dough (it should lift easily since it is now cooked on the bottom side). Flip as you would a pancake. Allow other side to cook for 4-5 minutes while adding sauce base, meat and cheese (veggies and herbs are added at the very end). Rotate 180 degrees for even cooking. Add final toppings. Dough should be cooked through before removing from grill. Remove, cut and serve. YUM.

 

 

 

ENJOY!