Wednesday Pizza on the Gas Grill with a Baking Stone
We had not made pizza in some time and it had been way longer since we had made YW/SD combo levain for the dough and even longer since we made it on the gas grill but it is summer and there is no way we are heating up the kitchen to ramming speed for a couple of hours.
The recipe is easy enough. 9% pre-fermented KA bread fkour levain using 2.2% NMNF starter and YW for the liquid – in our case half FIG and half apple YW. The dough flour is half LAFama AP and half KA bread flour at 70% overall hydration and 2% PH sea salt. We added re-hydrated dried rosemary and sun dried tomatoes both chopped medium. We did not put in any shopped garlic like we normally do for some reason.
Once the levain had tripled we added it to the 20 minute autolyse that had the salt sprinkled on top and then mixed it with a spoon before doing 40 slap and folds. We then did 2 mores sets of 20 slap and folds and 2 sets of double Sleeping Ferret folds all on 30 minute intervals adding in the rosemary and sun dried tomatoes during the first set of 20 slaps.
We then let it rest for an hour in an oiled SS bowl for an hour before going into the fridge for a 13 hour retard. Take it out 4 hours before you want to make pies and leave it in the counter for an hour before dividing into, in our case (3) 250 g pies. Shaping into a boule and putting them back into the bowl oiled up a bit so they don’t stick together as they rise over the next 3 hours.
These make large 14”pies which is the largest that will fit on our round stone. With the 3 hour proof the dough was strong yet very extensible and they formed nice very thin crusts that didn’t tear even with the add ins. I transfer them to a wood peel that had flour rubbed into it and corn meal for the ball bearings so it will slide off easily before we put the toppings on.
These 3 pizzas were the same in most ways. DaBrownman’s spicy sauce goes down and spread thinly first, followed by 75 g each of fresh whole mozzarella and part skim mozzarella. Then the chopped smoked onions and crimini onions go down.
The first pie had smoked hot Italian sausage on it, the 2nd one had Guisto’s, a large, thin pepperoni from Whole Foods and a great pepperoni, the 3rd was our version of margarita even though it had smoked veggies on it. Then we showered each pie with real grated Parmesan.
The margarita had basil leaves dropped on the pie after it came out and all the pies got some additional Parmesan as well. The grill is the best way to make pizza around here because we can get it up to 650 F with the 4 burners on and the pies take 5 minute to bake on the hot stone instead of the 8 they take in the 550 F oven.
That is a big slice with no bend and no fold - crisp like a potato chip!
These pies came out super crisp and the crust crunched like potato chips – just the way it should be. The pepperoni was the best in my book because the meat was thin enough to crisp up and it was delicious. The margarita was second favorite with he hot Italian smoked sausage bringing up the rear - but it was still great.
Sadly my daughter was in surgery until after midnight and missed it. M y wife and I could only eat 10 of the 24 slices and the remainder hit the freezer for left overs. After slicing, we have learned to keep then on raised cooling racks so that they stay crisp as opposed to leaving them on a plate where they get soft.
And Lucy has this thing about salad with ever dinner too! This one is peach, blueberry, shaved Parmesan, carrot, red pepper, crimini mushroom, green onion, cucumber and tomato slices
Comments
My keyboard is covered in drool from these luscious pictures and descriptions. Wow! Even Lucy's salad is gorgeous.
Best wishes for your daughter.
6:30 AM the next morning. They put her on call today because they knew they were being horrible and she was wiped out! Friday unexpected possible day off if they don't call her in, is pretty nice I guess. My wife took her over some pizza last night to warm up and toast to crispy again. We like this crust the best so far and we have Bianco's toppings down pat. Why spend $60 on pizza when you can make them at home on the grill for 1/3rd the price? Because you don't have to make them:-) These aren't easy as pie even though they are pies - lots of work in them for sure!
Glad you like them Clazar123!
I love love crisp pizza crust. We haven’t fired up our pizza oven this summer yet for some reason. We need to do that and this post is perfect to gets us going on that!
So delicious looking! And I am sure, tasting as well!
It snowed in Japan last night! Get the oven fired up before you can't find it in the snow! Thin Crisp Crust is the best. When you bite into it and it crunches like a potato chip you know it is near perfection! Then the stuff on top has to be nice too but it is all about the crust! We like the YW / SD single levain the best. No whole grains in this one though so 15% of them would even be better. So get that fire going and make an even better crust with some Whole grains in them!
Happy WFO baking Danni
I haven't had pizza in a while... that looks really yummy.
it better! It was terrific! This is why pizza is the most loved food in North America if you discount poutine:-) Glad you like it. Millie and Tilly would love it because Lucy sure did - she only got a piece of crust from the rim though:-)
Happy baking NMG
I like pizza and it is not easy to make a good pizza on gas grill! Looks delicious!
Happy baking Dab!
Joze
pizza in the oven any more, It is just so good in the grill and a WFO like you have would be the cats meow! Get yours fired up and get those grand kids busy making pizza! Glad you like the post and
Happy baking Joze
10 out of 24 slices were gone when there were just 2 persons in the house... We know how tasty they were!
I agree with you: the curled up pepperoni is one of the best parts of pizza! It's been over a month since I made pizza so maybe it's time for it to happen.
they were really loaded, kitchen sink, thick ones. Now I really struggle to eat 75% of one pie and they are thin as can and nowhere loaded!. But they are way tastier for sure. Each slice has just 31 g of wet crust and probably only 18 g each after baking all the water out so 8 slices weighs less than a bagel:-) And the cheese is only 18 g a slice before baking too. Still, I was full... but when younger i could east 2 of these pies no sweat!
We love the bigger around and very thin spicy pepperoni that bakes up as crisp as the crust! I really need to figure out a way to get the spicy Italian sausage bigger around and sliced thinner after smoking, it would be so much better that way.
I can't even imagine what your pizza would look like bt it would have to have shrimp and quail eggs on it!
Happy pizza making Elsie
One might still be left with an half-empty stomach after consuming 2000 kcals or so...
The fact that you started to feel full after having a more reasonable serving means that your pizza is healthy enough to eat on a regular basis :)
I have a craving for pizza now, Dabrownman.
Lovely.
It really is amazing! I had a friend from Ireland and when we went out for pizza he ordered pineapple, green pepper and Canadian bacon. When I asked if he was crazy, he said that this was the most popular pizza combination in Ireland, I said it's no wonder you guys drink so much Guinness! I still don't believe him either.
So what is the most popular pizza combination in the UK?
Glad you like the post Abe and happy pizza making.
But I'm certain that you are taking all the credit. I haven't made a pizza at home in too long, so the time may have come. I came across a Ken Forkish video the other day of how he shapes his pizza dough, and that already had me thinking about it. And now you come along with this baby.
A lovely pie with a perfectly charred bottom and proof that imperfections in shaping are somewhat irrelevant. Although I think that Chris Bianco would turn you away if he ever saw that shape. Of course you can always blame it on the furry little assistant, can't you?
alan
but is was her fault the that the wine ran out after the first pie and I had to stop and open another bottle. The shaping was fine but because it was on the peel so long, as we put the toppings on, they stuck a bit and when shaking the peel to loosen them up and slide them on the stone they got wonky. Lucy would have them put on parchment for some reason but,next time, we will do one that way just so we can photo one that is a circle for you:-)
The best shaping technique I ever saw was Niecco Capone shaping my dough over the 90 degree edge of a granite counter at POMO's.... It looked like he was shining a shoe. The granite corner was the shoe and the pizza dough was the buffing cloth!. It really was amazing. 30 seconds from touching the rested dough, it was a perfect 12" circle with a great rim. In his 950 F oven, it was baked bold in less than 60 seconds too. Niecco loved the dough with the rosemary, garlic and sun dried tomato add ins. Mine's way thinner than his though and 2" bigger all the way around as a result. Now get that pizza crust going Don Baggs and don't let it stick to the peel!
You never fail to impress with your creative pizza. I have been meaning to make some myself but it keeps raining or it's just too damned humid to stand in-front of my kettle grill when it get's up to 800 degrees. Love the topping choices and the thin cracker crust is my favorite too.
Happy Baking and 28 paws up from the LI gang.
close lid, go inside and have a Chianti for 5 minutes, open lid take out pizza go back inside:-) I like it when it is so predictable so you you don't have to stand there sweating! I can see why you like your pizza kettle topper pizza oven. The grill just makes better pizza than the oven by a large margin. I have my grill under the covered patio so if it rains during monsoon - no worries! The rest of the time it hardly ever rains:-)
Lucy sends her best to the lack ones and the 5 furry kitties too! Happy baking Ian
Great pizzas for a Wednesday!
I think my favorite would be the margarita. The color is so nice and the cheese is melt to perfection.
was our least favorite but it sure was good as a left over. Saw your margarita with anchovies from this weekend and it too was gorgeous!
Happy baking Pul
Those pizzas look delicious. I'm biased toward the margherita and the salad though ;) but i'm sure the meat eaters may have a different opinion!! LOL!!
I'm sure your daughter enjoyed the pizza when she finally got to try it!!
Happy baking
Ru
for those of us in the peanut gallery. That pepperoni was just too good not to like it the best for Daughter and Dad. Lucy's salads are always a show stopper too. We have been posting proper, pizza porn for years but it never gets old. Pizza remains the best food people have ever devised for each other. It never gets old or stale....... even if frozen as a left over as the daughter and iI will attest:-) Glad you liked it Rue and
Happy baking