Pizzas and calzones grilled on a pizza stone should have a crisp, flavorful, golden brown crust. We have found success with both homemade and store-bought dough. We encourage you try different kinds of dough until your find your favorite.
Many store-bought pizza dough products are quite tasty, convenient to use and moderately priced. Most grocery stores offer fresh or frozen dough balls, often found in the produce or deli sections. Pre-made packaged pizza crusts, like the Boboli Thin Crust round, turned out well during our testing. Be cautious of any dough that is quite thin, like the Pillsbury refrigerated tube crusts. While they may work well in a 425° oven, they could not withstand the high heat of the grill and during our tests, burned before the toppings were heated through and the cheese melted.
Homemade pizza dough should be flavorful with a smooth, firm texture. Any additional ingredients that you add to the basic yeast, flour, and water mixture, such as salt, sugar or honey, and olive oil, will go a long way in adding flavor to what could otherwise be a very bland pizza crust. It’s very easy to make your own dough. You can make it in advance, and refrigerate or freeze it until you’re ready to use it. I often use my bread machine to make a quick pizza dough. It is ready in less than an hour, and I can start preparing pizzas and calzones right away. I always make a 2 lb pizza dough recipe, and freeze any unused dough. It’s easy to defrost pizza dough for a quick, delicious grilled pizza or calzone!
My favorite dough recipe can be used for handmade dough or for the bread machine. Follow your manufacturer’s directions for the correct order of ingredients.
Roll out dough in advance
Rolling out fresh dough in advance is a great way to save time when planning for a party or a large family meal.
I have tried different methods, and stumbled through some ‘sticky’ situations. These two techniques have worked well for me. If anyone has used a different method with success, please tell us about it in comments.
Sprinkle some flour on a clean, dry surface (like a kitchen countertop). Use your hands to flatten and shape the dough until you have a 6 inch disc. Pick up the disc and gently use your fingers to stretch and pull the dough into a thinner, larger disc. Try to avoid poking your fingers through it. Finish by rolling the dough out with a lightly floured rolling pin to about ¼” thickness. Take this opportunity to fix any holes or thin spots in the dough.
Take a baking sheet or plastic serving tray, and cover its entire surface with a piece with plastic wrap. Sprinkle a little flour on it, lay out the first rolled pizza dough, and sprinkle a little flour on top. Begin a second layer, starting with a large piece of plastic wrap. The plastic wrap should overlap all edges to provide a seal to prevent the dough from drying out in the refrigerator. Add a sprinkle of flour, and the rolled pizza dough. Continue to stack your layers – plastic wrap, flour, dough, flour. Cover the topmost pizza dough with plastic wrap and put the tray into the refrigerator until 15 minutes before use. If the dough has risen while in the fridge, roll out to the ¼” thickness as you construct each finished pizza.
I have also tried using the plastic wrap method using spray olive oil instead of flour. Just a little bit kept the dough from sticking, and provided some moisture to help prevent the dough from drying out in the refrigerator.