Slice
All Up In My Grill
Inspired by a story about grilled pizza in the Daily News, Slice friend LW and I have been experimenting with the concoction invented by George Germon at Providence, R.I., pizzeria Al Forno.
Results have been mixed. After straying from our tried-and-true dough recipe (to follow), we came back to the old standby but left it in the mixer to knead for 15 minutes (instead of the 7 or so minutes we used to do) so the gluten could develop the proper elasticity. No matter on the dough and sauce, though. The real mixed results have to do with grill time.
Since the dough is cooking over an intense heat source, you have to watch it like the devil. After brushing on a generous coat of olive oil, we let our first pie sit on the first side (what will become the sauced side after flipping) for 5 minutes. There's artful charring and then there's burning. We achieved "burning" (as can be seen in the second photo here, on the pie's left-hand side). No matter. We still had 3 doughs in the hopper. The next pie, well, we learned our lesson, and let the thing sit on the first side for 2 minutes, during which time we coated it the top with another generous swatch of oil. After 2 minutes, the bottom stiffened enough to allow turning with the tongs, and we flipped it. Immediately after flipping—and as quickly as we could—we added the sauce, cheese, and toppings. I can't emphasize enough that you should have all your ingredients prepped and at grillside. The pizza will be on the rack for a short time, and you want those things to get hot in the brief span they're there.
Update: Our Step-by-Step Grilled-Pizza Guide!
Editor's note (5/27/2010): OK, I know I said I wasn't going to hold your hand through this, but so many people have asked for detailed instrux during the summer grilling season that we have put together The Ultimate Step-by-Step Guide to Grilling Pizza. And though I still think the tips below are good, this all-new updated guide is even better — especially for beginning pizza-grillers!
Check it out here! »
We got the pizzas topped quickly, but we're still working on our tag-team skills here. We could always dress the thing faster. Then we lowered the grill's lid to trap the heat so it could cook the toppings and melt the cheese. You can see the result at left.
You'll notice that we have nicely cooked pepperoni slices on there. We cheated a bit. After realizing that the short time on the grill wouldn't always allow for proper cooking, we gave the slices a quick heating on the stove top, blotted the grease on paper towels, and transferred them to a little bowl along with our other little bowls of prepped ingredients. We also prepared cremini mushrooms and red peppers. In other experiments, we've found that red peppers and portabella mushrooms are ideal toppings because you can cook them on the grill while it's superhot—before it cools enough to safely put a dough disk on.
Despite the slightly burned taste of the first pie (and the resultant toughness), we were pleased with the fruits of our labor. The grilling lends the crust a predictably smokey flavor and yields a texture not unlike a fresh-from-the-oven middle-eastern pita bread (especially the thicker doughs we tried), with a hot and crisp exterior and a spongey, doughy (but not undercooked), steamy inside. An added benefit was that my apartment didn't become unbearably hot as it does when I crank the oven up to maximum temp.
For more on grilling pizza, check out this nice step-by-step grilled-pizza guide.
Here, as promised, is the dough recipe I use. I know we have some real pizzaioli who read the site; if you see something totally wack about this recipe, feel free to leave a better one in the comments section, or, better yet, discuss it on the Pizza Peel, the bulletin-board section of Slice.
Adam K.'s Pizza Dough
- makes 3 medium-thick or 4 thin pizzas -
Ingredients
2 packages active dry yeast
2 cups hot water (about 110°)
1 teaspoon sugar
6 cups high-gluten flour
2 teaspoons coarse salt
4 tablespoons olive oil
Procedure
1. In a small mixing bowl or liquid measure, mix the yeast with the hot water and add sugar. Stir until yeast and sugar dissolve. Wait for yeast to activate, about 5 minutes (it'll get foamy; this tells you your yeast is good and will provide the lift your dough will need).
2. Meanwhile, in an electric stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment, combine 5.5 cups flour with the salt. Once the yeast mixture has become foamy, pour it in. Add the olive oil. Lower the mixer head, lock it in place, and turn it on to the slowest setting. Mix until flour and water come together into a dough. At this point, check dough for proper moisture. If it's too sticky, add some more of the flour. If it's too dry, add a tiny bit of water a little at a time till it's right. It should be slightly but not stick-to-your-fingers sticky.
3. Let machine knead dough for 15 minutes. This will develop an elastic network of gluten and allow your dough to be stretched without breaking. Test its readiness by breaking off a little quarter-size ball; tease this into a mini crust. You should be able to make it quite thin, and if you hold it up to the light, it should be translucent. It'll almost look like a bit of bubblegum ready for bubble inflation.
4. Remove dough from mixer bowl, roll into a ball, and transfer to a large, clean, oiled mixing bowl. Brush olive oil over dough (to keep it from drying out), and cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let rise until doubled in bulk, about 45 minutes. Punch down dough and let rise again.
5. After second rising, punch down dough, divide into thirds or quarters, depending on desired thickness. Stretch dough to about 12 inches, and then cook as desired.
ADAM FROM THE BLOCK
For those of you interested in trying pizza made from this very recipe, feel free to stop by the Garfield Place Block Party on Saturday. I'll be out front, grilling pizza (weather permitting) and doing my part to foster community on the stretch of Garfield between Fourth and Fifth avenues in Park Slope. I don't want any creepy stalkers, so I won't give the building number, but I shouldn't be too hard to find.