pizza!

I enjoy grilling a lot. I had been watching a lot of food network lately and I kept seeing shows where they would cook pizza directly on their grills. I settled down one night to watch an episode of Good Eats and Alton was demonstrating how to make pizza on a grill. I knew I had to try it.

The dough:

• 16 oz (by weight) of all purpose flour
• 1 envelope rapid rise yeast (not active dry yeast)
• 1 Tbs. kosher salt
• 10 oz(1 ¹⁄₄ cup) of warm water (105 degrees F)
• 2 Tbs olive oil
• 1 Tbs pure maple syrup

If you watched this episode of Good Eats, then you will know that Alton used malted barley syrup, not maple syrup. I was unable to locate malted barley syrup, so I used the maple syrup and it worked fine and the pizza did not taste like maple at all.

In a mixer, combine the flour yeast, salt, water, and olive oil. Use the dough hook. Mix on low until it comes together, then increase the speed to medium and let it knead for 15 minutes.

Oil a bowl with some olive oil, add the dough, cover and let rise at room temperature for one hour. Split the dough into three portions, roll into rounds, cover with a towel and let them bench rise for 45 minutes.

If you plan on storing one or more portions of the dough, use some non-stick spray to coat the interior of a gallon size ziploc bag and toss it in the fridge.

Take one of the dough balls and roll into a 14” to 16” pizza shape on a floured board or countertop. Transfer to a floured pizza keel.

Fire up your grill. Let it heat up nice and hot. Make sure the grates are clean. Take all of your pizza toppings outside because this pizza cooks fast!

Turn the heat down to medium. Coat one side of the dough with a bit of olive oil. Use the keel to transfer this side of the dough down onto the grate of your grill. Cook for two minutes. Use the keel to remove the dough from the grill. brush the uncooked side of the dough with oil, then put it on the grill. Add your toppings to the pizza. Cook an additional two minutes, or until the cheese melts (watch the dough carefully so it doesn’t burn).

Remove from the grill, let stand a minute or two and serve.

As far as toppings go, get creative. We made a margherita pizza and a barbecue chicken pizza. For the BBQ chicken, we just used some bullseye sauce, mozzarella cheese, and some leftover BBQ chicken that I cut into cubes.