Grilled Pizzas

I have always wanted to make a grilled pizza, but had the fear of it not turning out. Plus, I thought it was going to be a lot more trouble than it was worth. Man was I wrong! Bradley and I adventured out last night and tried making one for ourselves. I sent him to the grocery to get the cheese, pizza sauce, and pepperoni while I made the dough. Finding a good and tasty dough recipe for pizza has also always been a problem. I finally fixed that last night and will no longer have to look for one! The recipe I used was perfect. In knowing how hard it is to find a homemade pizza dough recipe, I will let you have mine.

Homemade Pizza Dough:                (makes 2: 10-12inch  pizzas) - you can freeze one.
- 1.5 cups warm water
- 1 package (2.25 tsp.) active dry yeast*
- 3.5 cups all purpose or bread flour
- 2 tbsp. olive oil
- 2 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. sugar

*I know how it is to see a recipe with active dry yeast in it and want to run. I promise you, don't be scared. Yes, it takes longer to prepare this way, but it is very worth it!

Put water and yeast into mixer and let sit for 5 minutes. If not dissolved completely after the 5 minutes, turn on mixer until it is dissolved. Mix in the oil, sugar, salt, and flour on low setting for 1 minute. Trade out mixing head for a dough hook. Knead using the dough hook on medium setting for 10 minutes. Place ball of dough in a lightly olive oil coated bowl. Turn the dough so that it gets coated all over with oil. Cover with plastic and let sit in a warm place for at least 1.5 hours (or longer will improve flavor). **For a warm place, I let my oven heat up to 150 degrees and then turned it off. Also, I let my dough rise for 3 hours.

Once dough is ready, prepare the grill for direct high heat. (Bradley put one layer of charcoal across the bottom and raised the temperature to where you could not hold your hand 1 inch from the grates for more than 2 seconds.) While the grill is heating up, prepare a small bowl of olive oil for greasing the grill grates.

Take the pizza dough out of warm place and begin shaping the dough by pressing it down on a floured surface. Shape to 10-12 inch circle. Do not make a raised rim as it will interfere with grilling.

Wipe the grill by dipping a paper towel in the olive oil and spreading across grates. Don't burn yourself because this will cause the grill to flame up. Take the shaped pizza and slide it onto a cookie sheet with a little cornmeal on the bottom. Put pizza on grill for 2 minutes or until the bottom has grill marks and the top is bubbly.

Take pizza off grill, flip to where the grill mark side is facing up. Cover with your favorite toppings, but do not overload as this will make your pizza soggy. Also, when using sauce, lightly cover...do not coat. Put pizza back onto grill, close lid AND smoke stack. Cook for around 5 minutes or until the bottom is done and cheese is melted. Slice and serve!

 Before cooking the toppings...

 All done and ready to eat!

Emily's pizza





                                                        Bradley's Pizza




My toppings included: a light pizza sauce on the bottom, sliced tomatoes, fresh basil (from my herb garden!), shredded mozzarella cheese, salt &pepper, and olive oil on top.

Bradley's toppings included: olive oil brushed on the crust, sliced pepperoni, hunks of mozzarella cheese.

(We grated our own cheese...therefore mine was fine shreds and Brad had hunks.)

We both thoroughly enjoyed our pizzas and cannot wait to do it again! It looks like it took a long time to prepare them, but it was actually quite simple. Also, we were able to have whatever we both wanted with our own spins to the perfect pizza. Bradley says mine was everything you can imagine wrong with a pizza. He hates tomatoes, doesn't enjoy pizza sauce or basil, and likes lots of cheese. I on the other hand thought his pizza was too much. He had way too much cheese and it tasted dry. So, when you can't quite agree on a good pizza....make your own! I hope you will try the recipe and enjoy it as much as we did! There was nothing left on our plates.