Store-bought pizza dough or make your own?

[JimBuck]

I'm looking at grilling some pizza's this weekend and was wondering what you folks do for pizza dough. Store-bought or make your own? If you buy store-bought, any recommendations on brands? I've thought about making my own but have little experience with making dough from scratch. Thanks!

[solbes]

I've done it both ways and like the results over all frozen pizzas, even most delivery pizzas. Certainly the store bought ones take less time, but I don't get quite the same bready aromas from a made from scratch deep dish dough. Plus I enjoy taking my time on a Friday or Saturday night if we're not going anywhere.

This one only really gets used Fall through Spring, as the oven really heats up the house. Never tried grilling a pizza, but maybe you could give some insight there.

Flieshmans Rapid Rise Yeast packet

1 cup of water

1/2 tsp sugar

2.5 cups flour

garlic powder

Italian seasoning

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp butter

Heat up 1 cup of water in a glass cup (I use a 2 cup Pyrex measuring cup to allow for yeast to expand). I zap it in the microwave for about 40 seconds to get the water nice and warm. Thoroughly mix in the 1/2 tsp of sugar. Add the yeast packet and gently mix it up. Set the timer for 10 minutes to get those yeast cells working. It should have a 1/2" thick krauesen layer on top after 10 minutes.

While you are waiting for that, mix up the 2.5 cups of flour, 2 Tbsp of olive oil, and 1 tsp of salt. I like to add garlic powder and Italian seasoning to taste, cooks discretion of course. Once the yeast is ready, mix it up and dump it in. Start mixing it up. Add some flour as you are doing this to keep it from sticking (~ another 1/4 -1/2 cup?). Knead the dough for 8 minutes. Form into a ball. Place ball into bowl and cover outside with 1 tbsp of melted butter. Cover and place on top of pre-warmed oven for 30 minutes. Then punch down the risen dough with your fist. Reform into ball and wait another 5 minutes.

Your dough is now ready. Make the pizza with your toppings of choice. I like to put the dough on a pizza stone, as this avoids adding a bunch more butter to the recipe. Cook for 16-19 minutes at 450 F. Enjoy!

[pushbutton]

I use a recipe basically the same as Solbes, except essentially make a naan bread instead by adding about a quarter cup of yogurt/thick powdered milk slurry and sometimes about a half of an egg. These ingredients help to firm and bind up the bread and allow it to hold up to the grill a little better. An added bonus is simply that it tastes really good.

A couple of little tips:

Like anything practice makes perfect in that i really dont know how much flour i use but it is around 3 cups. When you first mix up the dough it should still be a little sticky and add more flour in the second knead and in the rolling of the dough. This way it wont become dry.

I also add the oil at the very end of the mix, it really helps the dough from sticking all over your hands when kneading. Likewise i really do not knead it a whole lot, maybe a couple of minutes.

Similarly, i preheat the oven on the lowest setting for a few minutes(then turn off) and hasten the rising process. The dough will double in about 35 to 45 minutes, but It is important to let it rest for 10 minutes or so before rolling, it will firm up much better and allow for easier rolling.

When making a pizza i usually brown up one side on a cast iron pan before grilling. This helps keep a little firmer crust and not allow the sauce to soak in.

Related, make sure your sauce is pretty thick. If i have time will start the sauce from paste and add water and spices accordingly. If in a hurry will just add paste to a spaghetti sauce and maybe a few extra spices.

When cooking i have found high indirect heat is by far the best.

make sure the sugar/yeast mix gets nice and frothy

a little sticky is not that bad

brown up the topping side

Have fun and enjoy!

Also.....don't limit your self. I got really creative this week with all of the heat. Actually smoked a calzone today

[Jim Almquist]

Homemade

Basic Pizza Dough

2 1/2 tsp fresh cake yeast or 1 package of dry yeast

1 cup lukewarm water

pinch of sugar

1 tsp of salt

3-3 1/2 of unbleached white flour

1. Warm a medium mixing bowl by swirling some hot water in it. Drain. Place yeast in the bowl, and pour on the warm water. stir in the sugar, mix with a fork, and allow to stand until yeast dissolved and starts to foam, 5-10 minutes.

2. Use a wooden spoon to mix in the salt and about 1/3 of the flour. Mix in another third of the flour, stirring with the spoon until the dough forms a mass and begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl.

3. Sprinkle some of the remaining flour onto a smooth work surface. Remove the dough from the bowl and begin to knead it working in the remaining flour a little at a time. Knead for 8-10 minutes. By the end the dough should elastic and smooth. Form into a ball.

4. Lightly oil a mixing bowl( olive oil ). Place the dough into the bowl. Stretch a moistened and wrung-out dish towel across the top of the bowl, and leave it to stand in a warm place until the dough has doubled in volume, about 40-50 minutes or more depending on the type of yeast used. If you do not have a warm enough place , turn on the oven for 10 min before you knead the dough. Turn it off. Place the bowl with the dough in the turned off oven with the door closed and let it rise there. To test if the dough has risen enough, poke two fingers into the dough. If the indentations remain, the dough is ready.

5. Punch the dough down with your fist to release the air. Knead for 1-2 minutes.

6. If you want to make 2 medium pizzas, divide into two balls. With a rolling pin, roll out to a thickness of about 3/8 to 1/4 inch.

When we get them to the right thickness we lightly cover them with olive oil before throwing them on the hot side of the grill. Flip often until browned and then you bring them in to load up with the toppings. Return to the grill but put them on cool side of the grill to cook. Usually when the cheese is melted it is warmed up enough to eat.

[JimBuck]

Thanks for the recipes guys. I made a margherita pizza last night and didn't have time to whip up some dough so I used some pillsbury pizza dough in a tube. Ended up really scorching the crust but the rest turned out well. I'll chalk it up as a lesson learned to keep a closer eye on grilling the dough. Do you guys flip your dough on the grill or just cook it through on one side? My attempt at thin crust was a bear to flip without messing up the integrity of the crust.

That Calzone looks great pushbutton. I might have to give that a go this weekend. I like the idea of using a naan bread recipe as it seems like it would be easier to handle.

[OnAFly]

I've got a pizza stone that we've never used before. Anyone have any experience with these things? I'd like to make some home made pizza on the grill. I assume I just blast the stone with high heat for a few minutes before throwing the pizza on. Any advice?

[TooTallTom]

I haven't started making my own dough yet, I use Boboli thin crusts from the dairy cooler section. Anyone got any recipes for a thin crust?

As far as pizza stones go, I worry (maybe needlessly) about cracking with a short, intense temperature change. We've always put them on the grill/ in the oven before we turn it on, so that it can come to temp slowly. Like I said, this might be an un-necessary precaution...

[OnAFly]

Yeah, I would put it on a cold grill, then bring it up to temp.

[JimBuck]

I have often wondered if a quick, sudden temp. change would cause a pizza stone to crack as well. I've used my pizza stone on quite a few things and I've always just preheated my oven with the pizza stone on the grill. I don't think you would run into anything like that right now but in the late fall/winter it could be an issue to have a sudden temp change?

[OnAFly]

I don't think it would be a problem if you set the grill to low and brought the heat up to high over the coarse of a few minutes. As long as the temperature increase (and therefore the expansion) of the stone were uniform over the whole stone, it should be fine.

Does the dough stick to the stone at all? I've never used it before. Should I liberally coat it in flour or something?

[Jim Almquist]

I never use a stone except in the oven. Just throw the dough right on the grate with a good coating of olive oil. Flip often to avoid burning.

[JimBuck]

Speaking from limited experience, I had my dough stick a little bit to my stone. I think in the future I'll lay down some cornmeal or sprinkle with olive oil to prevent sticking.

[Dark Cloud]

I love making things from scratch, but pizza dough ain't one of em, lol...

I typically buy Naan bread for on the grill. A good tip for getting the cheese to melt without scortching the bread/dough is to have your ingredients out of the fridge closer to room temp first...

[KEN W]

I have a large Red Sky pizza grill stone.Put it on the cold grill....set on low for 5 min.Raise to med for 5 min.Raise to high for 5 min.

I have a 3 burner grill....turn the middle burner down to low.Leave the outside burners on high.

I make my own crust....Pizza Hut clone.....

1 1/3 C warm water

1 pkg quick rise yeast

1 Tbs sugar

1/4 C oil

1 tsp salt

1/3 C milk

4 C flour

Stir the water,yeast,milk,oil,salt,sugar together.Add the flour a cup at a time

Important to kneed for at least 8-10 minutes.Pinch off a golf ball size piece and stretch to get the "baker's window."If you can see light through it and it doesn't break....it is ready.cover and let rise until doubled.

This will make 2 medium or 1 very large pizza.I usually cut in half and freeze half in a zip lock bag sprayed with Pam.Then make the second half.

On a day when you want pizza for supper....take out the frozen dough in the morning.Spray with Pam and let rize in a covered bowl.With a second rize,you will get the most tender crust you will ever eat.

Put corn meal on a pizza peel and stretch out the dough.Put on the sauce and other ingredients.Sprinkle corn meal on the pizza stone.Slide the pizza onto the grill.If you are makeing more than 1,you will have to brush off the burnt cornmeal each time.

[solbes]

I've never tried the pizza stone in the grill. It's a Pampered Chef one my wife bought years ago, actually we have two. Never did anything real special with it. In fact I just put the pizza and stone into an already pre-heated oven at 450. I've never had cracks, maybe I'm just lucky. You need to get them seasoned and through a few cycles to keep the pizza from sticking. Wipe em with a little olive oil the first couple of times. Don't clean them with soap as this removes the oil from the stone, just use the scraping tool and lots of warm water to get the residue off between uses. Similar to a cast iron setup.

[IamZombie]

For premade crusts I really like the Boboli thincrust.

I heard you can buy a wad of pizza dough from trader joe's for pretty cheap.