Grilling Pizza

We LOVE grilled pizza.  In fact, we make it about once a week.  We usually make pepperoni but sometimes we throw on whatever veggies we have on hand.  It’s really not hard to make.  I know the first time I did it, I was convinced the dough was going to fall through the gates and make a huge mess of the grill but it’s never happened.

I use my usual dough recipe ~ Pizza Dough I always make it in my bread machine but I’m sure it would work making it by hand although I have never done it.  I would think that frozen dough, dough from a can, and the dough you can sometimes buy at a pizza place would work as well but I haven’t tried it.

When the dough is done in the machine, I take it out and put it in a greased bowl and cover it with greased plastic wrap and let it rise until doubled.  I punch it down, and take it out of the bowl onto a floured surface and roll it out.  I brush olive oil on the WRONG side of a cookie sheet and put the rolled out dough on it.  I take it out to the preheated grill (Somewhere between 375º and 400º) and slide it onto the grill.

Dough ready to go on the grill:

Dough on the grill:

I close the grill and let it cook for a few minutes.  Using tongs with rubber ends, I check the bottom of the dough every few minutes and when it looks crisp and has grill marks, I carefully turn it over.  Don’t be surprised if the top of the dough bubbles up ~ you don’t have to pop them as they will go away on their own.

The dough after is it turned over:

Now I am ready to add toppings:

I use my regular pizza sauce recipe ~ Super Easy Pizza Sauce I put toppings on in this order:  sauce, cheese (2 cups) and half a bag of pepperoni.  I like to put the cheese under the toppings since it helps them to stick but you can do it in whatever order you like.  It also has to be done rather quickly so the bottom of the crust doesn’t burn.  I may help to turn your grill down a bit.

Toppings on and ready to finish baking:

Close the lid and let it continue baking until the cheese is nice and melted and it looks done.  Here’s the finished pizza:

Using the tongs again, slide the pizza back onto the back of the cookie, let it sit for a minute or two and it will be easier to cut.

A couple of things I have learned along the way:

*Use tongs with rubber ends.  Regular tongs will rip the dough.

*Saute any veggies that you want to put on the pizza.  It cooks so quick that the veggies will still be very crunchy (unless you want it that way, then don’t saute).

*The dough can be made early in the day and put in the fridge until later.  Make sure it has come to room temperature and has risen some before rolling it out.  Cold dough will not roll out ~ it will keep shrinking back.

*Don’t be afraid of trying this ~ my DH and I have lots of fun doing it and we’ve done it enough that we have it down to a science, LOL!

Happy Cooking!