You know the secret to amazing, wood fried pizza? Hot, hot heat. But no one wants their oven cracked up over 500 degrees in the middle of summer. Enter your trusty BBQ. Once the dough is made in the morning, grilled pizza is a quick dinner that can be customized for each family member. Did someone say pizza party?!
The pizza cooks quickly, so it’s best to keep toppings simple and sliced quite thin so they will cook quicker. Here are some of my favorites:
Margherita Pizza
- Tomato sauce with garlic, salt and oregano
- Fresh basil leaves
- Chili-infused olive oil for drizzling
Mushroom White Pizza
- Spicy Cashew Cream Sauce
- Thinly sliced mushrooms
- Caramelized onions
- Fresh chopped herbs: basil, parsley, oregano
Pesto Artichoke Pizza
- Pesto Sauce
- Chopped artichoke hearts
- Thinly sliced zucchini
- Chopped spinach
Ingredients
- 4½ cups bread or all-purpose flour (or gluten-free all-purpose flour)
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp instant yeast
- 1¾ cups cold water
- ¼ cup olive oil
Desired Toppings
- ½ cup olive oil for grilling
Preparation
-
First make dough. Add oil to water in large measuring cup. In stand-alone mixer, add flour, salt and yeast. Mix on low and slowly add water and oil. Keep adding until dough starts to form a ball and pulls away from the sides of the bowl (you may not need all the water). Once dough reaches the right consistency, keep mixing in bowl on low for another 8 to 10 minutes.
-
Lightly dust a flat surface with flour and hand knead dough into smooth ball. Divide the dough into 6 equal parts. Knead each into a ball. Place dough balls on to baking sheets (spacing out to allow room for them to rise, drizzle with olive oil and cover with plastic wrap. Leave on counter to rise for 4to 8 hours.
-
When you are ready to make the pizza. Get all your toppings ready and heat up your BBQ to high. Once you start grilling each pizza, you will need the toppings right beside you and ready to go as the pizza cooks fast.
-
Lightly flour your working surface and roll out or hand-shape your dough into a circle. Brush lightly with olive oil. You can either place dough directly on your grill or I used a wire cooling rack (flipped upside down) to help transition the dough from kitchen to grill easily.
-
Place dough on to BBQ and grill for approximately 3 minutes. Check to make sure the bottom is brown, but not getting burnt. Brush top with olive oil, flip dough over and quickly add sauce and toppings. Close lid and cook for another 3 minutes, checking half way to ensure pizza is not burning.
-
Once done, remove from grill. Let cool for 2 minutes and slice. Repeat with next piece of dough.
