The Jolly Kitchen

This pizza was so good and the closest thing to pizza from a true pizzeria. The reason those pizzas are so good is that they are cooked at really high temperatures in stone ovens. Your oven at home can never come close to that. The next best thing is using your grill.

White Wheat Pizza Dough Recipe

4 1/2 cups King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour
1 3/4 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon instant yeast
2 Tbsp Honey
1/4 cup olive oil
1 3/4 cups water, ice cold
a few tablespoons chopped herbs (optional)
Semolina flour or cornmeal for dusting

Stir together the flour, salt, and instant yeast in the bowl of an electric mixer. By hand stir in the oil, honey, and the cold water until the flour is all absorbed. Add the herbs. Switch to the dough hook and mix on medium speed for 5 to 7 minutes, or as long as it takes to create a smooth, sticky dough. The dough should clear the sides of the bowl but stick to the bottom of the bowl (to me it looks like a tornado). Add a touch of water or flour to reach the desired effect. The finished dough will be springy, elastic, and sticky, not just tacky.

Transfer the dough to a floured countertop. Cut the dough into 6 equal pieces and mold each into a ball. Rub each ball with olive oil and place in a bowl. Cover the bowl with a dishtowel and let rise for at least an hour in a warm place. I like to put really hot water in a baking dish in the lower rack of my oven (do not turn oven on) and place covered bowls with dough on rack directly above. After the dough has risen, roll out the dough. Take each ball and form into a disk and roll out. I like thin crust, but thick works as well.

If you do not want to grill your pizza, then preheat your oven to 450 degrees and bake for 10-15 minutes on a pizza stone or baking sheet.

Makes six 6-ounce pizza crusts.

Toppings:
Really, anything goes here. We did sauteed mushrooms, ham, mozarella cheese, and tomato sauce. The best thing to do when grilling a pizza is to use less toppings. Do not load the pizza.

Grilling:
Turn on all the burners of your gas grill to high and let heat for 10 minutes. Bring out the rolled dough and all of your toppings. It is best to have your toppings already cooked. For example, I sauteed the mushrooms beforehand. I put all of the toppings on a plate so they were ready as soon as the crust was ready. Once you get the dough on the grill, everything goes really fast.

Ok, so you have preheated the grill for 10 minutes on high. Turn the burners down to medium heat.

Rub olive oil onto top of dough and put that side down on the grill. Close the grill. Check the dough about 2 minutes later by using tongs and peeking under the dough to make sure it is not burning. If you need to, rotate the dough. Don't worry about grill marks-you are supposed to get them. Close the grill again and wait 1 minute and check again. At this point, if you have a thin crust, it will probably be done. Take the dough off the grill and now rub olive oil onto the top (ungrilled) of the dough.

Flip over so that you have the grilled side up and put your toppings on. Turn off 2 burners (if you have a 3 burner grill or turn off 1 burner if you have a 2 burner grill). Place pizza on the grill over the burner that is turned off and close the lid of the grill. You will be using indirect heat to finish the pizza. The key is to get your cheese to melt BEFORE the crust burns. Keep checking the underside of the crust to make sure it is not burning. When your cheese melts, the pizza is done. If your cheese melts and the crust does not seem done on the bottom, slide it over to the burner that is on for 30 seconds to a minute.

I know this seems like a lot, but it is actually very easy and goes really, really fast. We were really nervous about it at first because we had never grilled a pizza, but it was really easy and so delicious.