How to Get (Almost) Perfectly Round Pizza Dough | Grilled Margherita Pizza Recipe
Are you having trouble keeping your pizza dough round, or intact when making pizzas? We are going to show you how to make a perfectly round pizza every time, and how to make a quick grilled pizza on the Napoleon Grill.
If you get premade dough, or do it fresh and homemade, you can follow similar techniques for either. Just keep in mind that fresh homemade dough will be different, and we are using the store-bought in the bag kind to demonstrate this. If the dough is frozen, place this in the fridge either overnight, or for a few hours before you plan to use it. It needs to be soft so that way you can spread it out and shape it how you want.
You should also leave it out at room temperature for a bit to bring it to temperature before manipulating the dough. Once you’re ready to use the dough, take it out of the bag and place it on a sheet tray coated with oil so it doesn’t stick.
Form a ball to prevent air pockets and to keep the dough from drying out. Let your dough sit for a few minutes, and you’ll notice it will puff up and double in size.
It’s now ready to be stretched into our pizza shape. Flour is going to help out tremendously in this process. Whenever you notice your dough is getting too sticky that it won’t form or stretch, just sprinkle more flour on our board or surface you are stretching this on. Press down and out on the dough to start flattening it.
Sometimes it can be difficult to get a round pizza shape. If you pick the dough and move your hands around in a circle around the dough, this will utilize gravity for that circular shape. Be aware that you can also work the dough too much. If you’ve done this, it might start to get holes in it, or tear easily. When you feel the dough start to get tough, stop doing this circular motion to prevent this.
Then drape the dough over both of your hands. Using your knuckles, pull the dough outwards to stretch it. Don’t use your nails, or the tips of your fingers, because you can poke holes in the dough that way. Using your knuckles allows it to expand without it breaking apart.
One of the most fun ways to stretch and shape your pizza though, is by tossing it. Again, drape the dough over your knuckles, then raise one hand above the other. Use the lower hand to gear up your throw, then toss it in the air. If you have practice with this, you hopefully won’t drop your dough. Sometimes you have to drop a lot of pizzas before perfecting the toss.
Pizza dough can be easily overworked. So after getting the desired shape, let this sit for a few minutes. You can top this from here and bake it. But we are going to show you how we grill it. Preheat the grill to anywhere between 550 and 600 degrees. Well place our dough down for 2 to 3 minutes on each side. We just want our dough to be slightly charred from the grill, and crispy.
Take this off the grill, and then add your toppings. We went with a homemade San Marzano tomato pizza sauce. Spread your sauce out to the edges and leave no bare spots. You can top this with anything you want, but we went Margherita style with some mozzarella cheese and fresh basil. After you add your toppings, place this back on the grill for 2 to 3 minutes to melt your cheese and cook whatever toppings you place on top.
Hopefully these tips helped you get a perfectly round pizza, with the ease of the best techniques for forming your dough. And next time you make pizza, try it on your grill.
Ingredients:
- 1 pizza dough ball
Optional:
- Homemade pizza sauce or any pizza sauce of your choice
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese
- 1 bunch fresh basil
Method:
- Let dough rest in fridge overnight or until completely soft
- Remove from fridge and let reach room temperature
- Remove dough from bag and form into a ball
- Let ball rest before manipulating
- Sprinkle flour onto a flat surface, and knead dough down with fingers until almost flat
- Pick up dough and use hands to go around edges of dough in circular motion
- Drape dough over both hands and use knuckles to gently pull the dough apart in every direction
- Flip dough into air to stretch and form circular shape
- Apply toppings or if grilling place on grill for 2 – 3 minutes to cook on each side
- Remove from grill and add toppings of your choice Place back on grill for 2 – 3 minutes or until toppings are fully cooked/melted
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