Monday, July 19, 2010

Pizza on the Grill

It's been so hot here lately that George has been devising ways to use the grill instead of using the oven and this pizza was a great success.  The recipe for the dough is below, typed by George:

Poolish
1/2 tablespoon yeast
1 cup water
1 cup flour (half can be whole wheat)

Dough
1 cup water
2 tsp. salt
1/2 tablespoon yeast
1/4 cup olive oil
Flour as needed

Directions
I mixed half a tablespoon or so of yeast with 1 cup water, added 1 cup flour (about half whole wheat) and stirred vigorously.  I let the "poolish" sit for about 4 hours at room temp.  (This step can be up to 10 hours if you want.)  Then I added another cup of water, 2 teaspoons (or so) of salt, another half tablespoon or so more yeast, and about 1/4 cup of olive oil.  I mixed in as much flour as needed to form a sticky dough and kneaded it in the bowl for a few minutes.  I let this rise for about an hour, covered. 

Then I punched it down and worked it into 3 or 4 little pizza pies (adding flour as needed).  I let these rest on the counter for about 20 minutes.  They formed a bit of a dry skin on top so I flipped each over onto a cornmeal-dusted pan and put the sauce and toppings on the sticky side.  I kept shaking the pan to make sure the dough wasn't sticking to the pan.  I just slid them right on the hot grill.  I was happy not to have any real sticking-to-the-grill issues that I was worried about.  I had the gas grill at about medium-high and kept the lid closed as much as possible.  I was worried about burning the crust, but that was not really a problem.  Next time I will try to be more brave and keep it on the grill longer. 

I'm sure any pizza dough recipe will work.  We added canned artichokes and fresh mushrooms, but you can add any topping you like.  It was great to keep the heat out of the house!

3 comments:

ashleigh said...

can't wait to try this! how yum!

ashleigh said...

"poolish" is "poolishing....."! finally! trying george's pizza dough recipe. baby steps. (maybe by spring we'll make it to the grill.)

ashleigh said...

please let george know that we have another confirmed HIT! (& a full substitution of whole wheat pastry flour -whole foods 365 brand - throughout works just fine.)