Grilling Pizza

Have been using TJ's pizza dough with great success in the stove. Would like to move it on to the grill during the summer.

So direct or indirect? Anyone with experience out there? Different and unusual toppings get extra points.

Will post results, God willing.

Direct over coals. Have topping prepared ahead of time. Best if toppings are at room temp or warm. When first side is done flip add toppings immediately and close lid for flavor and to help cheese melt.

Went to a potluck pizza party last weekend -- one good combination was Paulina Market's smoked duck with caramelized onions and mozz; another was "buffalo" with spicy chicken and blue cheese. There was also a good veggie pizza with bechamel, but that sauce may not be appropriate on the grill.

I've had pretty good results grilling using pre-made crusts (fork me if I can remember the name of the common brand) with indirect heat on the gas grill. It's a great quick weeknight meal, and everybody gets their own 'za. The precooked crusts tend to be a bit drier, so use extra sauce. The other advantage of the premade crusts is that they can support more toppings without collapsing or scrunching when slid off the peel.

Hi,

I have never made pizza over the grill. I can only comment what I once saw on a Martha Stewart demonstration:

The flattened rounds of individual serving sizes of pizza dough were coated with olive oil on both sides of the dough to keep it from sticking to the grill. I believe the coals all had a white dusting on them, so all engines were on. The pizza dough, without toppings, was placed on grill. When the bottom had a crust and the pizza dough partially cooked, the pizza was flipped over.

Now the pizza is dressed with sauces, cheeses and whatever, while the other side is cooking. It was a fairly fast process, so you had to be very organized with the toppings.

I have used homemade basil pesto sauce as a base sauce for pizza. I will add some pine nuts, freshly grated parmesean and mozzerella cheese because I don't want to dilute the pesto flavor too much. Though some previously grilled shrimps on top is beginning to sound good, especially if they are dressed in garlic.

For quick weeknight pizza meals, there was a recommendation for homemade partially cooked pizza crusts:

http://www.chowhound.com/midwest/boards/chicago/messages/42094.html

When you do grill these pizzas, I do hope you will continue this thread with your actual experience.

Regards,
Cathy2

This reminds me of one of my favorite things to do for kid or even casual adult parties:

Make a bunch of pizza dough in the bread machine. Roll out little pizzas, of a size that you can fit three at a time on your pizza stone. Bake them partway-- just enough to kill the yeast and set them firmly.

When party time comes, put out ingredients of whatever sort you like in bowls, put pizza sauce on a bunch of the crusts and let the kids (or grownups) decorate their own pizzas, then bake them the rest of the way. With the crust pre-baked it takes about 6 or 7 minutes to melt everything, and everybody enjoys having their own little pizza.

Clearly this could work with a grill as well...

The existence of this thread may prove that everything has already been discussed on the site...

Has anyone here been having good luck using their gas grill as a pizza oven for their homemade dough pizzas? I hate to heat up my house during the summer.

I've had OK results grilling my pizzas so far.

My best results have been with a minimal preheat (15 minutes) of 2 layers of quarry tile (my pizza stone). With an hour preheat of the tiles, I burned the bottom of the pizzas without browning the top.

My dough recipe:
2C flour
1t ADY
1t salt
3/4C water
1t sugar
3T olive oil
I blend a Cuisinart and let rise for ~1 hour (I'm too lazy to do anything with a longer rise).

Thanks in advance for sharing.

Your shill for pizza on the grill,
Blunt

Saw an episode on grilled pizza on America's Test Kitchen recently. Should be available for free on their website (free registration probably required):

http://americastestkitchen.com/episode. ... &iseason=6

Making grilled pizzas is one of my favorite things about grilling season. I make my own dough from an epicirious recipe, and it turns out really well. I haven't perfected it by any means, but it is consistently tastey. I usually make pizza margherita for my wife (I eat some too) and something else for myself. I like to buy bulk italian sausage, make patties out of it and grill the patties. Then I cut that up and top the pizza with it. Sometimes I'll add on some grilled onions and peppers also.

Here are some pictures from last weekend. I use an inderct cooking method for about 10-15 minutes, I guess baking on the grill, and then slide the pizza over the coals for about 1-2 minutes to crips the crust.

Pizza Margherita



Grilled Sausage with pepperjack cheese and mozerella.

Before the grill:


After:

zoinks ! the grill needs a cleanin' !

Mike G wrote:...let the kids (or grownups) decorate their own pizzas, then bake them the rest of the way.

I'll second this - we even got the eat-nothing twins to eat their own pizzas when they came over for dinner. First time they ate anything I participated in cooking. Works great. I should also add that I discovered, during a cheese emergency, that chopped string cheese is excellent on pizza.

I used Traders Joes dough and it worked well.Just remember to put evoo on the bottom and along the edges.I precooked the sausage before hand and put directly on the grill for 10 minutes at medium high and rotated it 180deg.and cooked for 5minutes more.Keep an eye on the edges ,once it starts browning pull it off.
You will have fun experimenting with diferent toppings.Rememberthat the higher moiture toppings like fresh tomatoes wil need to cook longer.

tem wrote:zoinks ! the grill needs a cleanin' !

My first thought as well....

The pizza look great

The grill will be getting and end of the season scrapedown and scrubbing pretty soon here...

Hi,

I once saw Martha Stewart prepare pizza on the grill. She began by putting the well oiled dough disk on the grate to from a crust. It was then flipped and while the underside was cooking, she was dressing the pizza with sauce, cheese, meats and vegetables.

From the pictures, it appears the pizza was assembled, then put on the grill. I presume directly on the grill and not on a flat surface.

What surprises me: the pizza dough not wrapping itself around the grates, which even a well oiled dough might do. Or am I missing something?

Regards,

When some people make grilled pizza they do everything out at the grill, I don't have enough space out there to set up my toppings and everything.

My process is this:

1. Make the dough and roll it out in the kitchen. Transfer the dough to the pizza board and take it outside.
2. Throw the dough on the grill directly over the coals and cook for 3 minutes or so on one side and about 1 minute on the other side.
3. Return to the kitchen and put toppings on the side that was cooked for 3 minutes.
4. Return to grill with topped pizza and cook indirectly with lid closed. When cheese is melted, slide the pizza over the coals and crisp the crust.

Then the pizza is ready to serve. Since I like my pizza a bit heavy on toppings, this method works best for me.

Cathy2 wrote:What surprises me: the pizza dough not wrapping itself around the grates, which even a well oiled dough might do. Or am I missing something?

If the grill is really hot, the dough firms up to not droop in between the grates. For pizza on the grill it's usually a thin or not-too-thick crust with toppings that cooks in 5-8 mins

I'm thinking of giving this a shot this weekend. I've got some TJ's pizza dough in the freezer that I'll thaw. Has anyone been grilling pizza this summer? Any more data points to add to the ol' graph? I was thinking of getting a pizza stone and getting that super hot and using the grill like a woodburning oven. For some reason, I'm not loving the idea of flipping the dough and then putting the sauce & toppings on a pre-grilled crust. Maybe it's not so bad? Obviously, I'm not going to get woodburning oven pizza but I'd like to get something in the neighborhood, crust-wise. I can get my grill close to 600 degrees and with the stone, I'm thinking it may mimic the environment of an oven.

Oh, and one more thing...a question a bout the TJ's pizza dough. How big of a pizza will one bag of the dough make? I'm going to try to get the dough fairly thin but not super-thin.

viaChgo wrote:Oh, and one more thing...a question a bout the TJ's pizza dough. How big of a pizza will one bag of the dough make? I'm going to try to get the dough fairly thin but not super-thin.

We made grilled pizza with TJ's dough this weekend, and each piece of dough made 2 pizzas about 8"-10" wide. In fact, we were expecting it to make 6" rounds, but found that those were too thick.

I did the TJ herbed pizza dough on the gas grill recently. I heated up my cooking stone on the grill at about med-high temp for about 15 minutes. Threw the dough on that, topped with tomato sauce, motz cheese, fresh tomatoes, closed the lid & cooked for about 6-8 minutes. I didn't flip the dough over. Sprinkled with some olive oil, sea salt & fresh basil and it was really good. Just be careful if your grill isn't clean... the first time I tried this, the grease pan caught on-fire... wasn't pretty.

Keli

i've used TJ's dough on the grill a number of times...

i always coat the grate in oil first. i preheat the grates themselves about as hot as they'll get, but then usuall yturn the heat down so they don't burn before the dough is cooked through... i've played around with preheating with the lid open and shut, and have had good luck both ways with getting the dough done yet not burning it...

i typically prep the dough beforehand, and put it in between layers of saran wrap then drop directly onto the grill and quickly then put the toppings on. i've never used my pizza stone on the grill, i just throw it on the grate directly. (i have the weber cast iron grates)

i haven't bought TJ's dough in a really long time, as i've found it's easier to work dough that you make fresh...and really nearly as easy. the recipe blunt posted is pretty close to what i use. actually, i have used the st. louis style (imo's) dough recipe successfully, which basically from glancing at blunt's recipe is the same minus the yeast. (ADY=active dry yeast if anyone needed that deciphered)... less yeast or even no yeast will make it more like a flatbread style pizza.. and the thinner it is, the more likely it'll successfully cook through without burning. (we also have made grilled pizzas using a very similar dough made out of carb quick, when we had atkins people around)

I found unglazed ceramic quarry tiles at Lowes this weekend so I was able to commence with my backyard grilled pizza experiment. The tiles worked great! I layed out six (8"x8") tiles on my grill and a couple of bricks on the top rack of my gas grill. I fired up the burners and let it heat up for about an hour.

I used TJ's dough for my crust. The tiles gave it a nice crisp texture and the edges started to bubble like a good wood-fired pizza. Next time I do this, I think I will add a couple more bricks to the top rack and maybe even on either side of the tiles to try to retain more heat. I would have liked a bit more browning on the top of the crust and maybe a bit more bubbly cheese. I think when I opened the grill to slide the pizza in, it just loses too much heat and isn't able to recover fast enough for the short cooking time.

I have had great success, better then inside, doing deep dish on my grill. I have done better (quicker cook time) with my gas grill, but have great results either way. Here is what I do.
Make your favorite deep dish dough. I prefer a fairly light and yeasty dough with Parmesan and plenty of oil in the mix.
Let it rise once or twice
Oil up your favorite cast iron skillet, if you don't have one, get one. Has to be my most used item year round for cooking.
Let the dough proof in the pan. (simply a second rise)
Get your grill as hot as it can go-my gas grill easily hits 600 no idea on the charcoal, but you want it hot!!! You are going to lose heat immediately when you open either grill.
Top your pizza with your favorite toppings-lately I am into caramelized onions, blue cheese, fresh basil and either pepperoni or bacon. One tip-cover the entire pizza with cheese all the way around. This will cause it to ooze down the inside of the pan ala Pequods.
Put the pizza on the grill
Depending on temp your looking at between 12-20 minutes. Don't open the grill for at least 10 minutes to look.
Word of caution the cast iron pan will be extremely hot when you pull it off the grill. I use a towel and an oven mitt and then I put it on a hefty hot plate to cool. Let it rest at least 10 minutes before you attempt to cut it. The pizza should slide right out of the pan onto a cutting board making it very easy to cut and serve.
Now eat and listen to the happy praise of your friends.

BBQ Deep Dish mmmmmmm

Glad to see this thread because I'm going to try this for the first time sometime this week. i recently bought Steven Raichlen's book How to Grill, because I don't want Sweet Baboo to be the only one in the family who knows how to use the gas grill. (I figured I should start with learning how to just plaing grill a variety of foods, before I try to tackle Raichlen's Barbecue Bible or any other barbecue guide.

By the way, I recommend How to Grill as a Grilling 101 curriculum for the not-very-confident griller like me. So far I have done a pork shoulder, chicken thighs, and beer can chicken, all with surprisingly good results. Next: pizza!

The book recommends - if you're working with charcoal - a three-zone fire (high, med, low). The dough is first placed on the hot side; then, when firm enough to move, it's slid over to the medium-heat area. When the bottom is brown and blistered, 3-5 minuts, you filp it over. When the second side begins to brown, you slide it to the low-heat area, and add the toppings.

I'll be trying this on a gas grill, with three front-to-back running burners, so I guess I'll try the left one on high, the middle one on low, and the right one off, and see what happens. I'll report back.