With the warmer weather on its way I’m anxious to find reasons to be outside at the grill. Scratch that. My hubby does the grilling ’round here. I should mention though that this recipe works in your oven just as well. The recipe is from Cuisine At Home but the grill technique is the hubby’s.

For thin, crispy, chewy pizza crust with smoky flavor.

Makes enough for four 12-inch pizzas
Total time: 15 minutes + 3 hours for rising

Ingredients

1 cup warm water (105-115º)
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 pkg. of active dry yeast (2 1/4 tsp.)
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup cake flour
1 Tbsp. kosher salt
2 Tbsp. olive oil

Directions

Combine water, sugar, and yeast. Proof until mixture turns foamy, about 5 minutes.

Mix flours and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook.

Add oil to proofed yeast mixture; (if kneading by hand, knead dough the same amount of time.)

Place dough in a lightly-oiled bowl. Turning dough to coat surface. Cover dough with plastic wrap. Let dough rise in a warm place until doubled, about 2 hours.

Punch dough down and divide it into four balls, pinching the bottom closed. Cover with plastic wrap; let rise in a warm place another hour. Prepare pizza toppings.

Preheat one side of grill to medium-high, the other side to low. Preheat with lid down. Prepare work station by setting your toppings, tongs, pizza peel, and other tools you might need, near your grill. Timing is everything.

Roll out the dough on a flour dusted surface. Shape it into a 10-12 inch rustic circle or rectangle.

Transfer the dough directly onto the hottest part of the grill. Close lid and cook 1-3 minutes. The crust will bubble and grill marks will appear underneath. If your grill has hots spots use tongs to rotate the crust.

Flip crust and move to the cool side of the grill (or a baking sheet if you don’t have a cool side). Brush crust with olive oil before adding toppings. Be light handed with the toppings because of the quick cooking time or just precook your toppings. We recommend keeping this simple. Homemade marinara, thin slices of mozzarella, and basil.

Place dressed pizza back on the hot side of the grill and cover for 30 seconds to a minute. Watch the crust carefully. Total time on the grill is as little as 2 1/2 – 4 minutes.

Slide finished pizza onto your peel using tongs,. Add finishing toppings such as red pepper flakes or Parmesan cheese. Now it is time to enjoy it.

Hints
There are so many variables in this recipe. Play around with the thickness of your rolled out pizza dough. Thinner dough = more crackery; thicker dough = more chewy. Also, Medium-high on our grill is about 375º. It cools to 300-325º each time the lid is opened. Be sure to put the lid back down between pizzas to allow for proper reheating. If you are adapting this to your oven the temperature should be much higher, 450º-500º depending on your oven. Put a pizza stone in the oven to heat up and transfer your pizza dough to the warm stone. Adapt where necessary.  If you don’t have a pizza peel just use a rim-less cookie sheet or the back of a regular cookie sheet. Have fun.