Summer Grilled Pizza Dough Challenge

It’s the last installment of the Summer Grilled Pizza Dough Challenge (you can hardly contain your excitement, right?)! This latest recipe is from Fine Cooking.

For the last six weeks, I’ve been turning out dough from Food Network, Food & Wine, Epicurious and The Kitchn, my personal favorite from Week One. To mix it up this week, I remade The Kitchn recipe to pit against the Fine Cooking dough in a side-by-side taste test.

Check out previous week’s results and recipes:

Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5

Pizza Dough Challenge 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

The Recipe for Week 6

At first glance, the steps to put this dough together are a little fussy…

It calls for adding the yeast mixture and olive oil to the flour alternately – why not all at once, together?
Once you stretch the dough, it has to rest again then get stretched a second time. Not sure this did much in the end.
Finally, they recommend layering your rounds of dough between parchment or wax paper on a sheet to transport to the grill. In a previous week, I placed the rounds on a lightly oiled inverted sheet pan — this was a great method, in my humble opinion.

On with the recipe…the yeast proofs for 15 minutes. This is much longer than any of the other recipes called for.

The flour and salt are combined in the bowl of stand mixer. The yeast mixture and olive oil are gradually added alternately.

The dough was only slightly sticky after kneading for 6 minutes in the mixer. Two minutes of kneading by hand with a little flour turned out a lovely, soft dough.

After a one hour rise, I gave it the poke test and the impression held. On to the next step!

I then divided and stretched the dough, covered with plastic wrap and allowed to rest for 5 minutes. After stretching it to its final shape, I layered the rounds (or rectangles, in my case) between sheets of wax paper to transport to the grill. The dough stuck to the wax paper, so in the future, I’ll place the dough on a lightly greased sheet pan instead.

week 6 layers of pizza dough and wax paper

It held up well during grilling — produced nice air bubbles and a crispy crust.

Criteria for the Perfect Pizza 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)

So, how did this Fine Cooking recipe fare in a side-by-side taste test against The Kitchn? First, here’s a quick recap of all the recipes…

To try these yourself, visit each week below for my fails + successes and links to each recipe:

Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5

In the end, it all came down to flavor. Wouldn’t you know it, after six weeks of homemade dough, this last recipe was amazing and is our new go-to for grilled pizza! Can’t wait to try some more exotic toppings, too.