I want to try my hand at grilled pizzas. I know the dough has to be extremely cracker-thin to do so, but I don’t know how to get my dough that thin without tearing it.
To achieve a very thin dough characteristic, without the dough tearing during shaping, start off with a high-protein pizza flour. The dough absorption should be something close to the 58 to 60 percent range. Adjust the water temperature to give you a finished, mixed dough temperature within the range of 80 to 85 F. Then, immediately after mixing, divide the dough into desired weight pieces and form into balls. Place the dough balls into dough boxes and lightly wipe the top of each dough ball with salad oil, and cross stack in the cooler for about 2 hours. Then, down stack the boxes so they nest and cover the top box to prevent drying of the dough balls. On the following day, remove dough from the cooler and allow it to warm at room temperature for about 2 hours or until the dough reaches a temperature of 50 F. The dough is then ready to shape into skins.
By following this method of dough management, or something similar to it, you should have a dough that is very extensible and easy to form, especially when made with a sheeter or by hand. I like to use a black, non-stick pizza disk for the first part of the bake. I leave the pizza on the disk just until it begins to develop some crust color. By then it is firm enough to take off of the disk and put directly onto the grill without having to worry about the dough falling through the grill slats.
