Grilling Pizza

[ddog27]

Has anyone used one of these for making pizza in a smoker?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...lance&n=286168

[kcquer]

I make a lot of pizza and unless your smoker is capable of reaching 500 degrees, a charcoal or gas grill with a stone is a much better way of making pizza.
If ya want some smoke flavor, just use a couple of wood chunks or some chips.

[queball]

Originally Posted by kcquer

I make a lot of pizza and unless your smoker is capable of reaching 500 degrees, a charcoal or gas grill with a stone is a much better way of making pizza.
If ya want some smoke flavor, just use a couple of wood chunks or some chips.

Absolutely right. Charcoal and a stone is the way to go. I have had mixed results trying to add smoke (seems like always too much) and have settled for using smoked meats on the pizza.

[nmayeux]

This is what I use, and pizza on the smoker is da bomb!
http://www.pamperedchef.com/our_prod...ategoryCode=FH

[ggeilman]

Maybe with the stone it would be ok, but it is hard to see getting a smoker hot enough to cook pizza. Needs to be around 475.

[RichardF]

I like doing pizza right on the grill with no stone. you need to flip the curst, and you need to be fast.

[queball]

Does anyone have a really good crust recipe?

[thirdeye]

My vote is for the stone too. As a little insurance against burning the crust (we make the thin crust ones) I went all-out for the 3 pack of screen's at WalMart for $.89. The package says "disposable" but I fooled those farkers at corporate headquarters and have been using the same 3 for almost 4 years. You can make two or three ahead of time & hold them in the fridge. With the screen you don't need a peel either.





Don't forget about using flour tortillas for mini-pizzas, or quesadillas on the grill either. Then everyone can pick their own toppings and build their own. They don't need quite the heat and simple ones like cheese and onion are good instead of bread with dinner.

[kcquer]

Copied this from a post I made at another forum. This is a really good NY style crust recipe (medium thickness). If your oven or grill will get to 500-600 it is awesome.

I've made bad pizza crusts for years. Finally decided I was going to learn to make something better. There dozens of different types of pizza, I wanted to make something like I got at a place in NoCal back in the 80's called Flatt's Pizza Factory. Some research showed that I was after NY style pizza.
NY style pie features a crust which is thin and foldable in the middle, with a rim that puffs high in the oven, that is crispy on the outside and light and airy on the inside.
The other big improvement I wanted to make was getting rid of the pasty flour taste my crusts have always had in the past.
Did pretty good on both accounts. Texture was good, flavor was excellent. Can't wait to try this again.


If you have kitchen scales, use them to weigh the flour and water, the ratio of these 2 ingredient is really important and weighing is the most accurate way to ensure this. I only have wal-mart cheapy scales and they worked great.
Look at your local grocery for a "bread flour". These have a higher gluten content and will greatly improve the finished product. If you can't find any, maybe you can find "vital wheat gluten" (comes in a small jiffy cornbread sized box) to augment all purpose flour. This will be better than AP flour alone, but not as good as the bread flour. I found pilsbury bread flour and Gold Medal "better for bread" (used this one) at Wally Super and my local grocery store, so hopefully you can find it too.

This recipe is a retarded dough (cold rise in fridge for 24 hrs), it's worth the wait.

Ingredients for 2 16" pies (my stone is only 15" and this recipe worked fine)

Flour 25.5 oz (5 3/4 cups)
Water (bottled or filtered if handy) 15.9 oz by weight or 1 3/4+ cups volume
Salt (kosher) 1 3/4 tsp
Oil (light olive oil or canola) 1 1/2 tsp
yeast (instant or acitvated dry yeast) 1 tsp
sugar 1 tsp (I used honey instead and really liked the results)

If using ADY (activated dry yeast, std individual pkg yeast) take a 1/4 cup or so of the total water, warm this to ~100* and dissolve yeast in small bowl.
If using IDY (instant dry yeast, fleischmanns from sam's) you can skip the above proofing step.

Put cool (60-65*) water in mixer bowl with dough hook, add about 3/4 of the total flour, mix on stir speed for 2 mins just until it look sorta like smooth pancake batter. Turn off mixer, wait 20 mins. Add yeast, sugar, salt and oil. Set a timer for 10 mins,mix on stir speed, gradually adding flour until you can up the speed without making a mess, then go to speed 2. Mix until timer expires.

NOTE: If like me, you're used to making bread in the KA mixer, this dough is going to look hopelessly wet, it will puddle in the bottom of the bowl, something that would normally cause me to add another 1/4-1/2 cup of flour, DON'T!! It's supposed to be this wet and will be suprisingly sturdy for something this wet due to the high protein flour.
Also, as you work with this stuff, try to add as little bench flour as possible for handling, its a bit sticky like canned biscuit dough but isn't as sticky as it looks.
Check the temp of the dough as you take it off the hook, you're shooting for 75* or so. You start with water cooler than that, as the friction from the mixer will add heat. Mine came out 84* (water too warm) but it worked out fine anyway.

Remove from bowl onto work surface and divide into 2 equal sized parts (using scales if you have them, 20-22oz each). Hand work (as little as possible) into smooth balls, and place in either gallon ziplocs (lightly sprayed inside) or better yet, round rubbermaid type sealable containers (i used 1.5qt no. 3 rubbermaid). When it comes time to make crusts, the already round shape is a great head start. Lightly spray containers and dough balls. Seal in containers and put in fridge overnight.

Remove containers from fridge 2 - 2 1/2 hrs before making pies. When the dough is 65* it's ready. This stuff doesn't really do much in the way of "raising" like one is used to with bread dough, don't worry it's gonna be fine.

If you have a pizza stone, pre-heat it for an hour while the dough warms up, to the max your oven will go (mine goes to 550).
I use a stone, but my OL complained about the cornmeal mess using a peel left in the oven so a few years ago, I started prepping crusts on parchment paper precut to the size of the stone (maybe a touch smaller, and leave a tab to use for handle, kinda like a capital Q) and just sliding parchment, pizza and all directly from a peel, rimless pizza pan or upside down baking sheet onto the stone. No mess, no grief from the Boss!!
If don't have a stone, you can use a pan, although the amount of "oven spring" that produces the airy nature of this crust won't be as good.
4 8" unglazed quarry tiles from Lowe's or Home Depot will work in lieu of a stone just fine, and a lot cheaper than a stone too.

When dough reaches 65* put dough on pan (lightly sprayed) or parchment (lightly floured and dusted off). Gently as possible begin squishing the dough towards the edges of the pan or paper, if necessary lift it a little and allow it to stretch under its own weight around the perimeter (like shuffling your hands on a steering wheel as you make a turn). You want the thinnest area to be the center working gradually toward the thickest area at the edge. You don't need to make a pronounced rim on the raw crust, this will happen on its own in the oven if you leave the edge thicker than the rest of the crust.

Top with sauce, toppings and cheese as you like. Bake until the edges of the crust begin to brown a bit, (mine took maybe 4-6 mins total, but i never time pizza as it varies each time so I just watch it) check the bottom of the crust by lifting with a spatula. If it looks done and the cheese isn't as done as you like, just move the pie to an upper rack, and use the broiler for a bit.

[kcquer]

Here's a thin crust recipe I've made a couple of times that's pretty good too, but I prefer the NY style.

http://pizzamaking.com/thincrust.php

[queball]

KC: Now thats a farkin recipe. I will be heading to Bed, Bath and Beyond for a kitchen scale a little later and digging out the old KA tonite. Outstanding detail. I cant wait until tommorrow night. Thanks.

[Smoker]

Most pizza places here will sell you their dough. Im sure it's the same all over the country. If u want to make your own dough these recipes sound good.

[JohnMcD348]

My wife has a recipe that she uses to make pizza's with that's just Fan"damn"tastic. It's a quick riser that has to be seprated 2-3 times before we roll it out for pizzas. I'll have to see if I can find it and post it sometime.

[kcquer]

Here's a few more pizza tips that are worth mentioning.

If you have a stone and a high temp setup (450+) resisit any temptation to precook your sauce. With a hot oven and stone a very thin sauce will cook a lot in just a few minutes even under toppings. If you precook the sauce you'll get something verymuch the consistency of tomato paste or even drier. Traditional pizza joint sauce is usually just raw crushed tomatoes with herbs and garlic. I use canned (jarred) commercial pasta sauce and it works well, some brands can benefit from a little added water. A little parm or romano sprinkled over the sauce is a really nice touch.

Cool pizzas on a rack. I set one of the racks from the oven on some cans on the counter. If you cool the pizza on a cutting board or on the counter, condensation develops betweent the crust and the surface it's sitting on and makes the nice crispy crunchy crust you've worked to get soggy. Cool for 5-7 minutes depending on size of the pie and the toppings won't try to migrate off the ends of the slices as bad.

Don't use too much cheese, and there are lots of cheeses that are good on pizza besides mozzerella. I use mozz but always with some other stuff to go with it. A little colby or cheddar will help the top brown up and gives great flavor. Pepperjack (especially sargento's new jack with jap & habs) is awesome on smoked chicken pizza.
When possible shred your own cheese or use slices. Pre-shredded cheese has been dusted with a flour mixture (to prevent shreds from sticking) that gums up the cheese and changes the taste some too.

KC: Now thats a farkin recipe. I will be heading to Bed, Bath and Beyond for a kitchen scale a little later and digging out the old KA tonite. Outstanding detail. I cant wait until tommorrow night. Thanks.

Hope it works as well for you as it has for me!! I owed you a recipe anyway. I printed up you jambalya recipe the other day and plan on giving it a try. I love the stuff but have never tried a traditional recipe without tomatoes.

[queball]

Originally Posted by kcquer

Here's a few more pizza tips that are worth mentioning.

Hope it works as well for you as it has for me!! I owed you a recipe anyway. I printed up you jambalya recipe the other day and plan on giving it a try. I love the stuff but have never tried a traditional recipe without tomatoes.

Thanks alot KC. You know tomatoes or no tomatoes is the cultural divide in jambalaya. Tomato based is the more traditional creole/New Orleans form and often has seafood. Brown jambalaya, as it is called here, is favord in the acadian/cajun areas in middle of the state and nearly always uses pork. I love and cook both. Be sure and render that pork until you build up a good gradoo on the bottom of the pot. Thats where the unique coloration and flavor come from.