BB Bonus: Grilled California Pizzas
The Barefoot Bloggers August (yes, I’m late) Bonus Recipe sounded like it would be a fun one to try since I’d never made my own pizza dough before. And the pizzas were cooked on the grill, which I’ve also never done.
The dough was easy enough to make since the mixer does all of the work. I didn’t go adding any extra flour during the 10 minute mixing period. Since it was my first time and I don’t quite trust my culinary skills 100% just yet, I thought it best not to go messing around and end up adding too much. (Well, I did add one little pinch of flour just in case it needed it. Plus I thought it would make me look like I knew what I was doing, even though nobody was here watching me.)
In the end, not adding extra flour was such a mistake. It was an absolute necessity. Without it, working with this dough really frustrated me and kicked my ass. I was able to add a lot of extra flour during my attempts at rolling this out so eventually it was workable. I decided to bake it in the oven at 450 degrees for about 4-5 minutes first before putting it on the grill. I thought it would be safer than just throwing it on the grill and hoping that it didn’t sink through the slats all the way down to the bottom. For the toppings I used shredded mozzarella cheese, red onions, yellow peppers, tomatoes, crushed red pepper flakes, garlic and turkey sausage.
After a rough time with pulling this all together, I would say taste wise this recipe was a success. The dough was really good. A lot of people on Food Network reviews said this was their pizza dough recipe from now on and I can see why.
I want to try this again someday after I forget or can laugh about how frustrated I was on this first attempt. 
Many thanks to Rebecca of Ezra Pound Cake for choosing this as August’s Barefoot Bloggers Bonus Recipe Challenge. Make sure you stop to see how her pizzas turned out and check out the rest of her blog while you’re there, she writes some great posts that always make me giggle.
I didn’t get a lot of good pics of this pizza, unfortunately.
Ina Garten’s Grilled California Pizzas
TV Show: Barefoot Contessa Episode: Grilling/Hasta La Pizza Baby
For the dough:
1 1/4 cups warm (100 to 110 degrees F) water
2 packages dry yeast
1 tablespoon honey
3 tablespoons good olive oil
4 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for kneading
2 teaspoons kosher salt
For the toppings (select 8):
1 red onion, thinly sliced
1 pound fresh mozzarella, grated
1/2 pound Italian Fontina, grated
1/2 pound mild goat cheese, such as Montrachet, sliced
1 red or yellow bell pepper, cored, seeded, and julienned
1/4 pound prosciutto, thinly sliced and julienned
1 bunch arugula, cleaned and dried
6 plum tomatoes, sliced 1/4-inch thick
4 pork or turkey sausages, cooked and sliced
1 bunch basil leaves, cleaned and dried
4 garlic cloves, roasted
Crushed red pepper flakes
For prep:
1/2 cup good olive oil
Cornmeal
Click here for Directions!
Note: Watch your grill temp very closely. My grill definitely needed to be on low heat, I had it higher than that and the bottom of my first pizza came out completely black.
