Aaaannnd, we’re back with Week 5 of the Summer Grilled Pizza Dough Challenge where I tested this recipe (dough only) from Epicurious. If you’re playing catch up, you can find the recipes and results for previous weeks here: Week One, Week Two, Week Three + Week Four.
Here’s a refresher on testing method and judging criteria…
THE METHOD
To keep things fair, I’ll mix each dough recipe and grill it exactly as it’s written. A few other variables will remain the same week to week:
- Toppings – I’ll use the same brand and amount of toppings (pepperoni, Italian sausage, fresh mozzarella, organic store bought sauce)
- Whether or not the recipe calls for it, I’ll split the dough into 4 smaller portions (way easier to handle)
- Once all pizzas are cooked on the grill, I’ll transfer them to the broiler for a couple minutes to get that bubbly, slightly toasted top
CRITERIA FOR THE PERFECT DOUGH
This is certainly subjective, but here’s what I’m looking for:
- Easy to mix & knead (the dough comes together as described and maintains its texture / form)
- The grilling process results in a crispy shell, chewy interior and holds up to the toppings — no soggy dough!
- It’s got to taste good (different flours may have an impact here)
WEEK 5
This recipe calls for two different types of flour, whole wheat and bread flour. It is machine mixed and formed by hand on a lightly floured surface.
Mixing the yeast, sugar + water in the bowl of the stand mixer eliminated one dish to wash (yay!). The yeast performed as expected as did the dough in the mixer.
The dough was slightly sticky after the total machine kneading time, but came together beautifully with a small amount of hand kneading on the board — per the recipe instructions.
The dough doubled in size in just over an hour (quite possibly more than doubled).
At this point, I divided the dough into four equal portions and set it aside to rest for another 20 minutes before forming the dough for the grill. This is where things began to get a little tricky.
This dough was a little unruly from forming-to-grill. I ended up with a couple of comically misshapen pizzas because it continued to stretch as I was placing it on the grates. It also got very thin in spots because of this, as you can see here…
In spite of its thinness, the dough didn’t get crispy and the end result was a foldable style pizza. The flavor had a slight nuttiness — I assume from the addition of whole wheat flour — that was pleasant. It was moderately difficult to work once I began forming the dough into rounds. Overall, not our favorite or even a runner-up. I wouldn’t mind trying this recipe again baked on a pizza stone in the oven.
If you’re cooking along with our Summer Grilled Pizza Dough Challenge, next time I’ll be making Pizza Dough for the Grill from Fine Cooking. It’s the last in our lineup before we declare THE BEST PIZZA DOUGH FOR SUMMER GRILLING!
Top photo by Argan Yoga Nugroho on Unsplash
