Almond Flour Pizza Dough on the Grill!

Making grain free pizza just got easier with the Simple Mills Pizza Crust Mix.  I have several of their mixes in my pantry and this is the first one I have tried and I am so glad I did. It was excellent.

This is the dough before it is baked on the grill (or in the oven).

The box makes 2 - eight inch pizzas.  I followed the package directions and parbaked them first on the grill at about 350, then added the toppings and baked for close to 15 minutes as they were a bit heavy on the toppings (I seem to get a bit carried away when it comes to adorning my pizza!! :)

I had two sets of toppings for these 8 inch wonders.  The first was pizza sauce (just a little - I don't like a lot of sauce!), parmesan cheese, sauteed sliced red pepers, mozzarella cheese.  After baking I added a little more parmesan along with chopped fresh basil.

Roasted red pepper and cheese pizza

The second one had pizza sauce, uncured natural pepperoni slices, mozzarella cheese and parmesan cheese.  So simple and so delicious.

Pepperonii and cheese pizza

No "grain-free" or "gluten-free" crust is going to taste as wonderful as "regular" gluten flour bread pizza crusts, but this was actually a better than expected alternative.  The toppings were so good that the "different" crust didn't matter as much - and it was honestly tasty.

I will continue my experimentation, but it's nice to know I have something reliable to fall back on as needed when that pizza craving hits! Pin It Now!

Simple and Easy Pizza on the Grill

I admit to being a little more than intimidated by this Traeger wood pellet grill initially.  I knew NOTHING about cooking on one and had never even tasted something grilled on one.  Yet I trusted my new neighbor and bought a small one.  Talk about a leap of faith, but it was one of the best leaps I have taken - and, I might add, I landed safely!

I had no idea that a pellet grill could actually take the place of an oven - what a concept.  If you don't know or aren't familiar and are living in the dark ages like I was (!),  let me tell you. This amazing creation can be your new best friend!  I plan to spend a good portion of the summer getting to know it very well, and look forward to baking on it as well as grilling, roasting and smoking. 

I cheated a bit on this meal as I had a batch of premade pizza dough in the freezer so this isn't totally from scratch, but sometimes you just need a little shortcut, right??  This is the third time I have made pizza on my new grill, and it has turned out better each time.  I think I am finally getting the hang of it.  Practice makes perfect.... or at least better!!

There are a few things I have found that work well.  Using a pizza stone helps the crust cook quicker and more evenly and you don't have to prebake one of the sides first before adding the topping.  It allows you to put the raw dough straight onto the stone - toppings and all.

Whether you make your pizza sauce or use it straight from a jar, you are not going to need much of it.  A tip for the extra is to pour it into an ice cube tray.  Freeze until firm and then pop the pizza sauce cubes into a freezer safe bag. Then you have easy to use pizza sauce in small increments whenever you need it. That method works for a wide variety of things and will save you from throwing out massive amounts of jarred foods.

So for this pizza the ingredients are simple.

Pizza dough (homemade or ready made)

Easy pizza dough

Ready to become a pizza

Pizza sauce (homemade or bottled)
Roma tomatoes, thinly sliced (or homegrown even better!)
Fresh mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced
Parmesan cheese (optional)
Fresh basil, oregano and/or parsley for garnish

Fresh oregano, basil and parsley

That's it - You can certainly add chopped veggies or cooked meat to it, but you don't want to overload it so the toppings are too heavy for the dough.

Preheat your grill with the pizza stone inside so it warms up with the grill. Now...assemble your pizza.

On a well-floured surface, pat the dough into a circle , 12-14 inches approximately.  You don't want it too thick or too thin.  Put a thin covering of fine corn meal onto a pizza peel or whatever you are using to transfer the pizza dough to the grill. Place the dough on the cornmeal.

Topping ready...

Put just 3-4 tablespoons of sauce on the dough and spread  to cover.  Add thin tomato slices (no need to cover all of the dough) and thin slices of mozzarella.  You can also sprinkle shredded mozzarella over the top.

Time for the grill...

When the grill temperature is 400-450, carefully transfer the pizza dough to the stone and cook 8-10 minutes, depending on the temperature of your individual grill. The dough should look lightly browned and the cheese well melted on top.  Remove the cooked pizza from the stone (pizza peels are wonderful transferring to and from the stone), slice, and enjoy!

Cooking on the grill...

Wish you could smell this....YUMMMMM

All that's left is to eat!

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Homemade "A Little of Everything" Pizza

So far this year,  I have clearly on a bread kick, be it loaf or crust. (stay tuned for more varieties of the no knead crust bread to come).  I had gone to the store to get a different variety of toppings for an "everything" pizza to fulfill a request.  :)  I am not a huge pepperoni fan ( I know - borderline shameless) but I acquiesced and got some turkey pepperoni along with new Italian salami (new to me), mild Italian sausage, mushrooms, red onion, a variety of colored peppers (mild) and fresh mozzarella cheese - that makes such a difference when you have a chance to grab some.

I haven't made pizza dough in ages so am clearly out of practice. The last time I made some I used my bread machine to do the kneading. This time I did it the old fashioned way and that was fun - and equally delicious. I had forgotten how gratifying it is to work with dough.  The crust was a bit thicker than I like, but it was still delicious.

I will admit that this pizza was a bit "ingredient variety heavy,but because I didn't put a lot of everything on, it didn't taste like too much. The flavor was fabulous. And pizza is very forgiving - lucky for me.  It is hard to mess it up!

Hope this will inspire you to create your own soon. It's an easy treat for a cold winter's night....

This is the pizza -  it's in stages of creation starting in the lower left:

homemade sauce and parmesan cheese, sopressata (a new salami to me and delicious!), tri-colored pepper slices, red onion slivers and mushrooms, turkey pepperoni, fresh mozzarella (YUM!) and cooked mild Italian sausage.  And then of course the end result.  Are you hungry yet??

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