Grilled Pizza Recipe
Think grilled pizza is too hard? Think again. Here's a
grilled pizza recipe perfect for your next barbecue. If
you don't have time to make a crust, you can always buy premade
pizza dough you simply roll out and shape.
Rediscovering Grilled
Pizza
By Scott
Schirkofsky
America's favorite food has long been the pizza cooked in a
traditional oven but is that about to change? While most
Americans have probably never indulged in a grilled pizza, the
origins of pizza are making a big comeback. There is no denying
that we love our traditional backyard barbeque but rarely, if
ever has the barbeque included grilling a pizza. Despite the
seemingly odd combination of grill and pizza, the grill is the
ideal tool for cooking pizza and in fact is deep in the origin
of pizza making. The high, dry heat is ideal for a nice crisp
crust and the flavor provided from your grill will on a whole
new world of backyard grilling.
Before the word pizza was ever used, Greeks and Romans used
wood-fired brick ovens to prepare the original version of pizza
- flatbread. In ancient times each diner was given a piece of
flat bread along with a piece of meat on the bread. This food
was eaten with the fingers with an occasional knife to cut the
meat. Little did they know that this would eventually spark the
creation one of the America's favorite foods.
Grilled Pizza
Techniques: Ingredients:
- 1 teaspoon dried yeast
- 1 tablespoon soy oil
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- ½ cup warm water (110°F)
- 1 ½ cup bread flour
- 1 tablespoon soy flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
Instructions:
Pizza
Dough
- Combine yeast, sugar and ½ cup very warm water in bowl,
let sit for five minutes.
- Combine flour and salt in bowl.
- Mix yeast mixture with bowl containing dry ingredients.
Add a little extra flour if dough is sticky.
- Knead for a good 10 minutes.
- Put into a greased bowl and let rise for 60 minutes
until it doubles in size.
- Turn out onto a floured surface then knead lightly
until smooth.
- Roll out into a ¼" thick, 12" diameter circle. The
thinner the dough is rolled, the better.
Grilling the
Pizza
- Before placing your crust on the grill, be sure that
your grill is both clean and well oiled. This will help
prevent the dough from sticking to the grill. You will need
something large enough to transport your dough to the
grill. A pizza spatula is highly recommended for this
task.
- Brush an even coat of extra virgin olive oil on the
side that will be facing down first. The oil will introduce
flavor and help to keep the dough from sticking to the
grill as well as giving the crust a nice crisp finish.
Before placing your pizza on the grill, you may want to
remove the top rack of your grill to make it easier to flip
your pizza.
- Cook the first side from 1-3 minutes before flipping
depending on the heat of your grill. During this time you
will need to brush olive oil on the side that is facing
up.
- While cooking the first side, peak under the edge of
the crust to monitor its finish. Cook until you are
satisfied with the finish and then flip your crust
over.
- After flipping, immediately apply any topping that you
would like. It's highly recommended that you keep the
topping very light, as they will not have a chance to cook
on the grill without burning the crust. You may consider
precooking certain ingredients such as meats and thick
vegetables.
- Be sure to lower the lid as soon as possible to trap
the heat in and finish cooking the toppings.
- Cook the pizza for an additional 2-3 minutes or until
you are satisfied with the crust's finish.
You are now ready to experience one great pizza with deep
tradition. Cut your pizza into triangle shaped slices or try
cutting them into 1" wide strips. This shape is great for a
party snacks!
Scott Schirkofsky is the chef and owner of At Home Gourmet.
You can find more recipes, cooking tips along with food and
beverage articles on his highly recommended website:
http://www.athomegourmet.com Scott is
also the owner of http://www.americasfavoritefood.com
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