(Photo: Korean Barbecue Brisket Pizza)
Text and photography by Hudi Greenberger
Styling by Shaina Maiman
Assisted by Shiffy Dembitzer

Wow, it’s been over a year since my last Mishpacha appearance! I took a break to focus on building out my food and product photography studio. Baruch Hashem, things are running as smooth as French butter, so…I’m back!

Besides building the biz, I’ve been majorly upgrading my pizza game. I’m all in with the Gozney Dome (an outdoor pizza oven), making my dough and sauce from scratch, and learning to make my own fresh mozzarella to top it off! I even have a few basil plants growing on my windowsill. My wife is the best!

I considered writing a grilling article this season, but then I thought, Who needs another article telling us how to grill a steak and how to get the perfect burger? Been there, done that! How about we do meat pizza!

(And FYI — the secret to the steak is to salt it 24 hours in advance, and for the burger it’s no seasoning and no recipes… Just form patties from 70/30 beef and add salt a second before it hits the insanely hot pan. Yes, pan. Not grill! Add amazing toppings on that bun!)

So off I was researching how to make pizza on a grill top.

A Crunchy Crust

To get a great crunchy crust on the bottom of your pie, you need an abundance of heat coming from underneath, which a grill obviously has plenty of. Seems like this is doable!

So you basically have three options: a pizza stone, a pizza steel, and dough straight on the grill grates.

To go straight on the grill, you need a much stiffer (lower hydration/less water) dough, which is not my style. So that was out.

A stone requires less maintenance than a steel, but steel gets to a much higher temp and holds heat way longer than stone does. So steel it was!

It created such a perfect crust that I bought another one for my dairy Gozney Dome! I now hit 850 degrees instead of 725 in there.

The maintenance is really rough, though. It’s raw steel, almost like a cast-iron pan, so it rusts very easily. You need to clean and season it between each use. Not so fun (it weighs a ton!).

But I don’t cut corners, so steel it is.

Stone or steel, get 14 by 14 inches.

I won’t judge you (too harshly) if you buy a stone. Or go straight on the grill. Or even if you just buy the dough from the freezer section in your grocery and don’t make it from scratch.

Dough from the Pro

Pro tip — if you’re going to buy it, pick up your dough in advance and let it sit in your fridge for three to four days before using it. It will ferment a little and develop a stronger gluten structure. Which means it will be easier to stretch and taste better. The instructions for balling the dough are the same as the ones I give below for fresh dough.

But if you want to make your dough from scratch, here’s how I do it (modified slightly for simplicity):

• 24 oz (3 cups) high-gluten bread flour
• 16 oz (2 cups) water
• 0.6 oz (1⅓ Tbsp) kosher salt
• ¾ tsp active dry yeast

Pour all the ingredients into the mixer with a dough hook and mix for 8 minutes.

Put the dough into a large, covered container at room temperature to rest. Every hour or so stretch the dough and fold it back into itself to form a rough ball (do not knead, just stretch).

Do this 2–3 times.

Let rest overnight at room temp.

In the morning, punch the dough back into a rough ball and split into 5 even parts, each of which will become an 8-oz (225-g) dough. Roll each part into a ball and lightly coat in flour.

Flour the surface of either 5 covered containers or 2 9x13-inch (23x33-cm) pans and place the balls inside. They should be placed far away from each other so they won’t touch when they expand.

Place in the fridge for 3 hours before you plan to bake them. (The dough can be made up to 3 days in advance but is best if used within 24–48 hours.)