Pizza! Made on your gas barbeque!!

When I tell people that one of the best things you can put on your grill is a pizza I get a lot of blank stares. It seems a lot harder than it really is and the results will leave you turning you noses up at fast food pizzas forever. Pizza is fun to make outside and chances are that grill in your backyard is the perfect tool for making the perfect pizza. 
  
All pizzas start with the dough. With a little bit of effort, my dough can easily be mastered. However, if you don't have time or are intimidated by working with yeast, call your local pizza place and see if they will sell you some of their dough. In some areas you can buy refrigerated dough, but the tube kind is not so good. If you use a heavy, bready, prebaked, vacumn packed pizza crust...it just won't be the same.
Here is the recipe for the dough I make, I like it as it has a little wheat in it, but not enough to make the dough tuff.


JJ's Pizza Dough

Makes four 8-10 inch pizzas

1/4 C. whole wheat flour
3 1/2 c. all purpose flour, plus additional for rolling
2 tsp. yeast
2 tsp. kosher salt
2 tsp. sugar
2 tsp. olive oil
1 2/3 c. luke warm water
Corn Meal for the stone and paddle

Proof the yeast; put the yeast in about 1 cup of the luke warm water. MAKE SURE THE WATER IS LUKE WARM, NOT TO HOT TO THE TOUCH, BUT NOT COLD!

Place the whole wheat flour, all purpose flour, yeast, salt and sugar in the food processor, pulse a few times; then with machine running add the oil  and water. Once combined completely, turn off the machine and remove to a oiled bowl.

Cover with a tee towel, and put in a warm area.  It will rise in 2-3 hours.

 Take out of bowl, form a ball.

 Divide with a pastry cutter or knife into four parts. Form into four balls.

Roll out to about 1/4" thickness with a rolling pin. Pizza is a very forgiving dish, so, you don't have to break out the calipers for this!! Just keep the dough uniform and well floured.

This dough is far wetter than you'd expect; but, makes a crisp, light crust. It may take a few times before you get it right, but be patient!! Err on the side of under processing the dough, so that it is not too tuff.

On this evening, I let my guests create their pizza from condiments I had ready prepared. I roll out the dough, put the cornmeal on the pizza paddle and place the pizza on the paddle. Then, let them create their own masterpiece! I learn a lot about my guests during this process!!

I grated several different cheeses, provolone, mozzarella, Fontina, a lovely Petit Basque from France, and crumbled some blue cheese. Other condiments include, Yukon gold potatoes, red bell pepper, chopped chicken, pepperoni, ground sausage, snipped chives, garlic, caramelized onion, chopped raw onion, truffle oil, basil leaves, tomatoes. Just pick out what you like!! It's really fun!!

Some guests perfer to just sample all the creation's that others make and relax. Most guests jump right in and start their creative juices flowing!

Tink, my daughter, made the first creation! It was perfection at it's finest!

When I lived in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, I would make pizza in my oven.  I really hated the smoke that would billow out of the oven, from the cheeses. I thought, why not just put the stone in the barbeque??? An AHAA  moment!! I took my round stone out to the barbeque and realized the lid on the barbeque would not fit all the way down, it rested on the stone. But, I was able to get the temperature up to 500F, which was good!! I was thrilled! Now, if I had applied that knowledge, at that time and patented a square pizza stone, I would be wealthy!! 

This is a "Villa Ware" stone that was given to me as a gift, everyone knows how much I love pizza, and I just love this stone. It can be bought at Sur la Table, Williams Sonoma, Kitchen Kaboodle or most kitchen shops. It has a temperature attachment, but, my barbeque has a temperature gauge on the outside, so I did not attach.

Put your stone on the barbeque and heat the barbeque to 500 F with lid down. Have your corn meal ready!

 Over the years, I developed my own technique to slide the pizza onto the stone. Using one paddle generously sprinkled with cornmeal. Put the pizza dough round on the paddle and put your toppings on. Use another paddle to slide the pizza off on to the cornmeal laden stone. Put the corn meal onto the stone just before you slide the pizza onto the stone, or the cornmeal will burn.

If you watch the pizza maker at your local pizza wagon. He uses one paddle, I found that works well for them, as they have a large landing area. This is a small landing and when you use their technique the pizza slides off and hits the back of the grill deforming your pizza. My two paddle technique gives you more control of where the pizza lands.

Nate Dogg created this master piece!

My creation: brush olive oil and garlic on the dough round. Next, grated mozzarella and grated Petit Basque, place cooked and sliced Yukon gold potatoes, then chopped chicken. Bake in the barbeque about 5-7 minutes, garnish with truffle oil, caramelized onion and snipped chives.

 Needless to say, lot's of fun can be had when you have a pizza party!!

 Wednesday, I am bringing you a "Dessert Pizza", to round out your pizza party!!

Over the weekend my golf partner Agueda and I won the 2012 Overall Net Championship at TPC Snoqualmie Ridge, Washington, Ladies Invitational! We were so excited and happy!

Cheers! Love this Life! JJ