pizza

Animal Eater

I grilled a few pizzas Saturday. This was my maiden attempt and the results were mixed. I didn't use a pizza stone. Instead I just placed the pizzas directly on the grill. I used the indirect method on one pizza and a direct method on another pizza. The direct method produced a more desirable crust. The toppings were the easy part. My trouble was with the crust. My dough recipe came from The Joy of Cooking and it left a lot to be desired. It was very flat and had zero body or character. Not sure why. When making pizzas, do you typically let the dough rise after you shape the round? Maybe my yeast was just lazy. Any input would be appreciated.
Thanks

Unknown

Animal Eater, to each his own, but I suggest you pop for a pizza stone...15 bucks or so. Personnaly I use a plate sitter and a pizza stone with terrific results. Iffin your dough was too gooey I'm surprised you even got it off the grate.

Unknown

Animal Eater,
Sit tight for a few hours. A couple of months ago there was quite a bit of talk about pizza, and many posts about technique and dough. I am sure they will follow soon.
Seth

Painter

Animal Eater, Here is some archived pizza discussions to keep you busy.
Bob

[ul][li] google pizza search[/ul]

Painter

Animal Eater,
Sorry about all of the "page cannot be found" on the searches. I didn't dig deep enough into the results of the google search to realize they won't let us access.
Sorry
Bob

The Naked Whiz

Animal Eater,
I am under the impression that the pro's make pizza dough by letting it have a slow overnight rise in the refrigerator. [p]TNW

Shelby

Animal Eater,
I'm curious at what temp did you cook the direct pizza? Most of us use a plate setter and pizza stone together, cooking at around 500 degrees. Seems to me, that sort of heat would totally burn a direct pizza.
As for dough, I put the goodies in a bread machine, set it for "dough" and in 90 minutes, it's ready. I take it out, shape it and cook. Wish I could be more help...just telling you how I do it and have great results! Speaking of which...getting hungry.

Unknown

Animal Eater,cool handle you have. I usually buy the chef boy ardee pizza kits. The dough in them seems very good to me, although i'm no commonsewer. We spread it out and put it in an iron skillet, add mucho toppings, preheat aigburt to 425 with pizza stone (or firebrick), and cook 25 minutes. Every time we think that it is the best one yet.
this is not a pizza for the faint of heart, you can forget about picking up a piece and walking around with it, it would be dripping off of your elbows. Lots of fun experimenting with.

Strmn2Smoke

Animal Eater,[p]Your first priorty should be a pizza stone and not one of those thin cheap things from Tar...Wal...etc. Additionally yeast doughs are very "finicky"; yeast, measurement of ingredients,temperature as well water must be insynch. I use bottled spring water to avoid all the chemicals in tap water killing/inhibiting the yeast growth. Hope this helps..nde

nikkig

Animal Eater,
How do you keep the raw dough from drooping through the grates doing it direct? I agree with everyone else. You really need to get a pizza stone and a plate setter. Makes pizzas a whole lot easier.[p]~nikki

Banker John

Animal Eater,
Making bread or any variation of bread is a different style of cooking; it is chemistry. The recipe and ingredient amounts and order should be treated as a formula more than 'a little of this & little of that' to make it taste good. For a good education on making bread, read the owners manual for a bread maker. If you don't own one, buy one.
I have a Kitchen Aid to make dough with but it collects dust. Why spend $$$ on a kitchen aid when Wal*Mart has a breadmaker for $30. I use the breadmaker to make the dough only.

Unknown

Animal Eater,
I like using good quality flour tortillas and people can make there own personal pan pizzas, my family loves'em and gets to put on'em what they like and I grill'em up.
Jon

Animal Eater

Shelby,
The cooking temp for both pizzas was 375. For the indirectly grilled pizza, I used a device similar to your plate setter and placed the pizza directly on a fine-mesh grill. The directly cooked pizza was cooked perfectly, I just didn't like the consistancey and thickness of the crust. [p]

Animal Eater

nikkig,
Yeah, I'm gathering that I need a 'stone. I appreciate the input. I used two grates that were 90 degrees opposed so the spacing was "finer" than the stock BGE grate; nothing fell through. I did use a difuser, much like your plate setter, for the indirectly cooked pizza; this resulted in sufficiently cooked topings and undercooked crust. That's why I removed the difuser and cooked the second pizza directly.

Gloria

Banker John,
I totally agree with you on the bread machine. But what I wish I could learn is how to roll out the pizza dough to where it is really, really thin, like the pizza crusts in Italy. When I try to stretch mine and/or roll it out it just spring back and no amount of cussin' has helped. The dough is delicious but just not thin like we would like. Also on the pizza stone; I had two, one from Target and one from Cost Plus World Market that is too dadgum small and the one from Target is already broken. My daughter has a nice big on that she got at Williams-Sonoma when she was in college and she is 38 now! God forbid that she know I put this out in public!!! But, PLEASE, if anyone knows how to stretch that pizza dough out to where it is extra thin, I would sure love to learn how.

Shelby

Animal Eater,
I'm still trying to picture putting an uncooked dough directly on the grill and it not going thru the openings or burning.
You say you didn't like the consistency or thickness...did you like the indirect method better?

Shelby

Animal Eater,
Just reading your post to Nikkig...I think most use a plate setter and pizza stone, allowing both of them to heat @ 500 degrees for about 20 minutes. This gets all the ceramic mass heated and when you slide the uncooked dough on, it cooks the bottom.
Like all other less than perfect results off the egg, the only way to improve is to cook again and again! And I could think of a lot worse things to have to "suffer" through.

Banker John

Gloria,
There is a great video clip at http://www.taunton.com/finecooking/pages/cvt033.asp
on how to shape your pizza dough and get the super thin cracker crust consistency you are looking for. Let me know what you think.

Strmn2Smoke

Gloria,
You are probably not letting your dough "rest" long enough prior to "strecthing or rolling" the gluten in the dough has to have some time (20-30 minutes)to "relax" properly. Hope this helps.NDE

Gloria

Banker John,
I tried to play the video on the website you suggested but I can't get Windows Media Player to run it. Drat. Wish I knew more about this darn computer!

Strmn2Smoke

Gloria,
Try using Real Player, it works well...nde