Holiday Rising

Inspired By A Love Of All Things Pizza

We have tried A LOT of different pizza dough recipes. We’ve tried recipes for grilling, thin crust, deep dish, Chicago style deep dish – you get the idea.

There are recipes that call for all purpose flour, some that call for bread flour. There are some that use honey, or some that use sugar. Some that use olive oil, and some that use vegetable oil. There are a lot of recipes, and a lot of permutations of recipes that you can use for every type of pizza. We’ve tried A LOT of different recipes, subsequently, there have been A LOT of failures in the pizza crust department.

Granted everybody’s palate is different, so feel free to apply our philosophy of “You Do You” here, but in our opinion, not all pizza crusts are created equal.

We, do however, hold to the fact that you can cook a pizza 5 different ways (open fire vs. oven vs. in a pan in the oven vs. pizza stone, etc.) with the same ingredients and each one will taste differently. We believe that a thin crust pizza is not the same a wood fired thin crust pizza which is definitely not the same as a deep dish pizza. Honestly, we can cook a different style of pizza every day for 30 days, and not feel like we’ve repeated the same meal once.

Again, though a lot of trial and error, we feel that this is the BEST PIZZA DOUGH FOR THE GRILL.

If there is one thing we know here at The Loft Kitchen – It’s Pizza!

Ingredients:

• 4 1/2 Cups Bread Flour, Chilled
• 2 Teaspoons Salt
• 2 1/4 Teaspoons Instant Yeast
• 1/4 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1 3/4 Cups Water, Ice Cold (40°F)
• 1 Teaspoon Garlic Powder
• 2 Tablespoons Honey

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Stir together the flour, salt, instant yeast Olive Oil, Garlic Powder, & Honey in a 4-quart bowl. With a large metal spoon, stir in the oil and the cold water until the flour is all absorbed. If you are mixing by hand, repeatedly dip one of your hands or the metal spoon into cold water and use it, much like a dough hook, to work the dough vigorously into a smooth mass while rotating the bowl in a circular motion with the other hand. Reverse the circular motion a few times to develop the gluten further. Do this for 5 to 7 minutes, or until the dough is smooth and the ingredients are evenly distributed. The dough should clear the sides of the bowl but stick to the bottom of the bowl. If the dough is too wet and doesn’t come off the sides of the bowl, sprinkle in some more flour just until it clears the sides. If it clears the bottom of the bowl, dribble in a teaspoon or two of cold water. The finished dough will be springy, elastic, and sticky, not just tacky, and register 50 to 55F.
2. Sprinkle flour on the counter and transfer the dough to the counter. Prepare a sheet pan by lining it with baking parchment and misting the parchment with spray oil (or lightly oil the parchment). Using a metal dough scraper, cut the dough into 4 equal pieces. You can dip the scraper into the water between cuts to keep the dough from sticking to it. Sprinkle flour over the dough. Make sure your hands are dry and then flour them. Lift each piece and gently round it into a ball. If the dough sticks to your hands, dip your hands into the flour again. Transfer the dough balls to the sheet pan, Mist the dough generously with spray oil and slip the pan into a food-grade plastic bag.
3. Put the pan into the refrigerator overnight to rest the dough, or keep for up to 3 days.
4. On the day you plan to make the pizza, remove the desired number of dough balls from the refrigerator 2 hours before making the pizza. Before letting the dough rest at room temperature for 2 hours, dust the counter with flour, and then mist the counter with spray oil. Place the dough balls on top of the floured counter and sprinkle them with flour; dust your hands with flour. Gently press the dough (By Hand – don’t use a rolling pin) into flat disks about 1/2 inch thick and 5 inches in diameter. Sprinkle the dough with flour, mist it again with spray oil, and cover the dough loosely with plastic wrap or a food-grade plastic bag. Now let rest for 2 hours.
5. At least 10 minutes before making the pizza, warm up your grill. Try to keep it around 450 degrees, but you will have to monitor your grill the whole time while cooking your pizza so as not to burn the dough.
6. Make the pizzas one at a time. Dip your hands, including the backs of your hands and knuckles, in flour and lift a piece of dough by getting under it with a pastry scraper. Very gently lay the dough across your fists and carefully stretch it by bouncing the dough in a circular motion on your hands, carefully giving it a little stretch with each bounce. If it begins to stick to your hands, lay it down on the floured counter and re-flour your hands, then continue shaping it.
7. Brush both sides of your dough with Olive Oil.
8. Place your dough (1-2 at a time) onto the grill. Let sit for 1-2 minutes while the bubbles form on the top. Once bubbles start to form, slide your metal spatula underneath and flip. There should be a little bit of char marks on the top now.
9. Immediately top with your desired toppings, cook for 3-4 more minutes, constantly turning and moving around the grill so as not to burn the bottom. Once the cheese has started to melt, transfer your pizza to the upper rack of your grill.
10. If you like your dough a little crispy, cook for a few more minutes on the upper rack. If you like your dough a little more chewy, cook on the upper a little less.
11. Remove the pizza from the oven and transfer to a cutting board. Wait 3 to 5 minutes before slicing and serving, to allow the cheese to set slightly.