Saturday, September 1, 2012

Grilled Pizzas

This is a favorite summer tradition in my house (mostly because we don't grill in the winter!) but you could make these pizzas year round in the oven if you like.

Dough:
1 tsp loose yeast or 1 packet yeast if you buy the packets
1 cup warm water
1 drop (and I mean drop) honey
3 cups flour (plus more for rolling)
1/2 tsp salt
2oz extra virgin olive oil
2 tb dried rosemary, crushed with a mortar and pestle
1 tb dried oregano, crushed with a mortar and pestle

Toppings (really could be whatever you want - this is what we use):
Sweet Italian sausages (boiled and then grilled)
fresh tomato slices
sauteed peppers and mushrooms (sauteed with garlic, salt, pepper, dried thyme, dried sage, olive oil)
sliced mozzarella cheese
feta cheese
pesto and/or tomato sauce
sliced fresh scallions and basil

1. To make dough, mix yeast, water and honey in a big bowl. Let sit 5 minutes until yeast looks like it is 'blooming'. Then add flour, salt, herbs, olive oil. Mix dough with one hand, using the other hand to steady the bowl (always keep one hand wet and one hand dry). Add small amounts of flour (1/4 cup) at a time as you go to keep dough from sticking to your hand. Knead dough until it is soft under your hand and smooth, not sticky and clumpy. If you pull dough it should stretch, not break, this is how you know you have developed the gluten enough so that the dough won't be heavy.
2. Once dough is kneaded, remove from bowl, put a few drops of olive oil in bowl, roll dough in it to cover, then let dough sit in bowl, (covered in a warm spot) and rise for 1-2 hours.
3. Prepare all your toppings.
4. Break dough into four equal portions. Flour a clean surface so that you can roll dough out. You don't want the dough to be to thick (it won't cook easily) or to thin (will stick to the grill and rip) - about a 1/4 of an inch thick is good.
5. Lite grill (we use charcoal, so you build a small fire for medium heat).
6. When grill is hot, spray bars with PAM to prevent sticking. Place dough on grill bars - let cook 2-3 minutes. As you start to see the top of the dough harden a little bit but not toast, and the underside is nicely toasted, it is time to remove dough from grill. Place on sheet pan grilled side up. Repeat until all dough is grilled.
7. 'Decorate' your pizza with whatever toppings you like. Make sure you are topping the pizza on the cooked dough side (the uncooked side will go down on the grill when you put it back). When the pizzas are 'decorated' place back on grill for 5-7 minutes to let cheese melt and underside to toast, be careful not to burn the underside of the dough just to melt the cheese.
** you may want to have the oven heated for further cheese melting or to keep pizzas warm

ENJOY!

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