I am slightly neurotic. Nothing new there. BUT with a baby on the way you throw a bit of nesting in with my compulsive need to have everything done and perfect and well that is my life now.
A few weeks ago I spent over an hour in my kitchen with my favorite Cuisinart Panini Press making grilled pizza dough to stock my freezer for when baby Zoey arrives. I told you I have issues.
Pizza is a staple in our house and personalized sized pizzas are even better. Everyone can have exactly what they want and we can cook exactly how much we need. Perfect. Walmart sells my favorite pizza dough, it's cheap, delicious and sometimes if you are super lucky you can find their whole wheat dough that I just adore. I believe I pay about 88 cents a package and can make 8 good sized individual pizzas from each package.
On pizza dough grilling day I like to take out my giant cutting board and mini rolling pin (technically meant for rolling out fondant). The giant cutting board contains the flour mess for the most part and the mini rolling pin is perfect for the small dough balls. Despite making 5 packages of dough that day I don't ever cut up more than one package at time for fear of them drying out in between grill sessions.
My other MUST is a cookie sheet drizzled with olive oil, salt and pepper. Now you can definitely get fancy and add a little garlic or even pizza seasoning to the oil but I was lazy and didn't.
After I roll out each piece of dough nice and thin (definitely thin, I promise it will be okay) I flip and flop it into the lightly drizzled olive oil pan.
Onto the griddle it goes. Like I said I use my panini press so I can cook 2 crusts at a time but you can definitely use a griddle pan on your stove or even the grill. Yes the grill. That's how we used to do this in the time before my panini press and I promise it works just as good.
Once your dough begins to bubble flip it over and admire your beautiful grill marks. Doesn't that just look so pretty!
Then to the cooling rack. Normally I just make one package of dough and we use it for dinner but this was freezer stocking day so I made a TON.
Once the crusts are cooled you can either make your pizza for dinner and enjoy it right then or do like me and layer it between pieces of parchment paper and toss them in the freezer.
Grilled pizza dough is my personal favorite and frankly I think the only correct way to make pizza, lol! I love that no matter how much sauce and toppings I toss on the crust is never soggy. You can take a single crust out of the freezer, top it and toss it straight in the oven (at 425) to make a pizza for lunch or take a few out for dinner. I know these will be fantastic when Zoey arrives in a few weeks. Between now and then I will probably be grilling up some more too!
4 comments:
Grilled pizza is awesome! That's a very good idea making them ahead of time like that. I'm having baby #5 and I'm not nearly that organized! I don't really like to cook so I drag my feet about it! You know what else is really good? Grilled tortilla pizza. If you like salsa. You put a tortilla wrap on the grill (or panini press in your case!), spread your favorite salsa or sauce on it and sprinkle mozzarella or your favorite cheese and cook until the tortilla is crisp and the cheese is all melty!
I love the idea of freezing it!
OHHHH! I hope our Walmart carries that! Sounds delicious and so easy!
Aw man, I was just at Walmart this morning! I've never seen this there...what section is it in? I mean, clearly it's refrigerated lol, but what else is it near?
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