This is a popular treat at my house, and I thought that this would be the perfect recipe to start the revamp of this blog. (Also a friend of mine wants to make pizza at a party soon and I just wanted to put this up for her to see.)
This is not the recipe you do if you want that perfect circular pizza that you get at restaurants. No, this is the one you do to just have a fun time making your dream pizza. Great entertainment for parties and get-togethers (having your guest either bring their toppings of choice and having them set up in a buffet like fashion for everyone to pick and choose what they want.)
For the ingredients it varies depending on what you want, but the initial things you'll need is your dough and flour. We buy dough from Publix and that amount is good for 4 decent sized pizzas (scroll down to see the exact size). You can use however amount of dough you want and you can even make your own dough (although that may take a lot longer to prepare).
four and dough
This dough is good for about a month in the freezer, just make sure you remember a day in advance to move it to the fridge to defrost. It is also best if you take the dough out about 20 minutes before you cut it to allow it to thaw out and make it easier to stretch.
You take the flour and spread it across your work area (after cleaning the surface of course) and you use a pizza cutter or a knife to cut it into 4 equal parts. (More or less depending on the size you want/are able to handle. The more dough the harder to handle in the next step.)
I just use a bowl because that's where I had the dough resting before. Just a personal preference because then I can move it around with ease.
Next you take flour a rolling pin and use it to flatten out the dough. It won't make it completely flat, that's where gravity and your hands come in. Just stretch, spin, whatever to make it to the thickness of your liking. If it's sticking too much, just add more flour. But there is a good chance that you will get flour on you. The mess just shows the fun.
A word of caution: Don't make you dough too thin, it will disintegrate on the grill. I know from personal experience, and it was one of the saddest nights. I sign of the dough getting too thin is if it starts tearing. One or two small tears (like the one below) are fine, just reseal the edges. But if too many start appearing every time to seal up one, then it is too thin and you need to reroll it or something (only know that it is a warning sign because of the sad night... not to certain if rerolling will actually work. So just don't get to that point and we are good.)
The four pizzas rolled out
Next step is to take some olive oil and a fork and sprinkle a small amount of the oil on one side and to poke holes all over the dough. The oil is to help prevent the dough from sticking to the grill and the holes are to help prevent air bubbles to form.
close up on oil/holes
Grilling
Now you take the dough and place them, oil side down, on the grill. You only grill ONE SIDE! If you grill both sides then the bottom of your pizza will be black by the time you are done. There is no way around that fate, so just avoid it and grill one side.
The dough will give you some warnings as you grill. The thinner parts will actually start darkening on the top side. And it is done when you can easily get your spatula under it (from there it's just how dark you want it. Darker means more grill flavor... until it's burnt, then your just done and it's a sad day for you.)
The normal grill trick of once it releases from the grill then it's ready applies here. Just pull then off (FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS DO NOT FLIP IT!!!)
This is pretty much a good color for the crust (the dough is now crust, I am calling it crust from now on). There are only three in this image because the fourth was destined for greatness: dessert pizza.
You want to have the crust flipped over because that is the side you will be putting all of your lovely toppings on. We didn't have out toppings set up nicely, so you don't get to see them. Sorry.
TOPPINGS!!!
We have too much fun adding the toppings, and mine is always noticeable because I add ALL THE MEAT to mine. I also am not a big fan of crust (yes I'm weird), so I always try to get my toppings as close to the edge as possible.
And this is the pizza destined for greatness.
GRILL
Now you take your pizzas and you put them back on the grill. (This is why you only grilled one side. Now the second side shall be grilled while the toppings are heating up and the cheese is melting.) Now you close the lid. It takes about 3-5 minutes for the toppings to melt and the bottom to get that perfect shade. Just find the balance of watching it and not opening the lid too much.
We only grill the main meal pizzas and save the dessert for after the meal so that it is nice and warm for when we put it with ice cream. Advise: don't put it on the grill and turn the grill to low before you start eating. Soon billows of smoke will issue forth from the grill and the pizza will be a blacken husk that not even birds will pick at the next morning. Yes this is more personal experience. I am realizing that all of my personal experiences of sad days occurred because my dad thought that it was a great idea while drunk...
So moral: DO NOT DRINK WHILE MAKING THESE! BAD, SAD THINGS HAPPEN WHEN YOU DO!
ok now back to pizza.
Once they are done, bring them back in and cut them into slices. They will not be perfect slices, but they will be tasty.
*drum roll*
*angels sing*
It was too dark to grill by this point, so we just popped it into the toaster oven and cooked it in there. And this is when i learned that this whole thing can be done just fine in a toaster oven (or technically even your regular oven, if you want to heat up your whole house), but you will lose the grilled flavor that just adds to the pizza.
Note: dessert pizza is good with vanilla or (my favorite) coffee ice cream. Also if you put caramel pieces on it, they will harden once they touch the ice cream and become teeth breaking hard.
NOW ENJOY!
