Choose Your Own Grilled Pizza Adventure

We got word that the replacement part for our broken oven was backordered for several more weeks. Admittedly, I did not take this news well.

Even though the weather here in Colorado has occasionally been unseasonably warm, I longed for us to be able to bake again: chocolate wacky cake, olive oil cake, berry cupcakes, pudding chômeur, spanakopita, roasted broccoli and tofu, cheese and leek pie, lemon potatoes.

Instead, we counted our blessings that we still had a functional stovetop and hail-battered outdoor grill.

The internet assured us that nothing could be easier than grilled pizzas. After a goopy disaster one summer involving store-bought dough that lacked active yeast, Guillaume would like to politely disagree.

With trips to the store still limited during the pandemic, our best bet seemed to be making pizza dough from scratch using precious supplies. Deb adapted Jim Lahey’s recipe on Smitten Kitchen, but altitude does stuff to dough. Guillaume took the lead — this is for him what the Greek beans were for me — and made the 12-hour version.

Working together on assembly and grilling four modest-sized pizzas with different toppings, we learned several things during a second round that used the 6-hour version of the dough.

One, grill the dough on aluminum foil sheets brushed generously with olive oil, especially if food tends to stick to your grill. Two, grill one side of each pizza first to buy time later for the toppings stage. Uncovered dough dried out quickly here.

Our first leisurely round using the full amount of Deb’s dough recipe produced two margarita pizzas, one Greek pizza, and one topped with the creamy mushroom mixture from the savory Dutch baby recipe in Deb’s “Smitten Kitchen Every Day” cookbook.

The second round gave us more uniformly sized pizza crusts: three margarita pizzas and one topped with the creamy mushrooms. Having two people made everything go faster because I could get the dough ready while Guillaume grilled. We were a veritable pizza-making assembly line. With a little side salad and a glass of Chianti, it was perfect. To reheat leftovers, we did a quick pass in the microwave and then put the pizza slices back on the grill.

Guillaume measured the grill temperature: 450°F. Glad we didn’t need the oven for that.

High-Altitude Homemade Grilled Pizzas

Makes 4 personal pizzas

Dough
375g all-purpose flour plus extra for finishing
½ tsp. active dry yeast
1½ tsp. kosher salt
1¼ C. water, plus an additional 1-2 Tbsp. if needed

For Grilling
Olive oil
1 C. tomato sauce
Red pepper flakes
8 oz. mozzarella ball, not in brine
~2 oz. Parmesan cheese
~2 oz. Romano cheese
Creamy mushrooms from “Smitten Kitchen Every Day”
Salt and pepper
Fresh basil leaves

Make Part-Day Dough: In a large glass bowl, mix the ingredients together with a spoon. If the dough feels too rough, add another tablespoon or two of water until it comes together into a shaggy ball.

Cover the bowl with plastic and let it rest at room temperature for six hours or until the dough has more than doubled in size. At altitude, it was ready much earlier. (If you’re not finishing the pizzas the same day, you can wrap the dough ball in plastic and refrigerate it.)

Prep Toppings: About 30 minutes before you think the dough will be ready, prepare the toppings.

Season the tomato sauce with salt and pepper. Finely grate the hard cheese using a microplane and mix them together in a small bowl. Gently shred the mozzarella on a grater with generously sized holes. Have the creamy mushrooms cooked and ready.

Preheat the grill to medium-high. Put a few tablespoons of olive oil in a small bowl along with a brush. Get out the aluminum foil and a cookie sheet for transport.

Prepare the Dough: Have a clean work surface ready that has a bit of all-purpose flour in the corner. Push the dough gently with your hands to deflate it. Pull it out onto your work surface and divide the dough into quarters with a bench scraper dusted lightly in flour.

For each pizza, place a large sheet of aluminum foil on top of a cookie sheet for transport. Brush the top of the foil sheet generously with olive oil.

With floured hands, stretch a ball of pizza dough into a thin layer and place it on the oiled foil. Re-flour your hands to continue pressing it out into the desired shape. Pinch together any holes. Try to avoid big bubbles. Repeat this process with other three dough balls.

Brush the tops of each piece of stretched-out dough with a thin layer of olive oil prior to grilling.

Pull the aluminum foil from the cookie sheet directly onto the grill surface. Grill uncovered for 3 minutes or until lightly browned on the bottom.

Carefully slide the foil back onto the sheet. Bring it to a work surface and flip the pizza over using a nonstick spatula. Repeat this process with the rest.

Finish the Pizzas: With the grilled pizza dough on a piece of aluminum foil, prepare each one with toppings according to your preference.

For margarita pizzas, use less sauce than you think you’ll need. Sprinkle the top with some grated hard cheese, scatter some mozzarella on top, and sprinkle with some red pepper flakes, if desired. Season the top of each pizza with a little coarse salt and ground black pepper.

For the creamy mushroom pizza, sprinkle on some grated hard cheese and use a spoon to spread the mushroom mixture evenly over the top.

Slide the foil with the loaded pizza onto the grill and cook, covered, for 4 minutes or until the cheese is melty and it looks done. Finish the margarita pizzas with torn pieces of fresh basil. Cut into servings — we did slightly rectangular pieces.