We just returned from a camping getaway with all four teens and the pooch. In an effort to prepare food ahead of time to streamline the camping cooking experience a bit, while still pleasing the teen palate, I researched recipes that would meet everyone's needs. We settled on a new camping menu that proved to be pretty easy but delicious!
This Grilled Pizza recipe was concocted by using a pizza dough recipe that I mixed up just prior to our departure. We only had a two-hour drive, which was perfect for the dough to rise without having to be refrigerated in between, however, it could have stayed in the cooler, if needed and then brought back to "room" temperature later.
We have a camping stove that has a griddle on one side and a burner on the other. Using a flat frying pan would have worked just as well.
This dough has a slightly sweet hint to it which I loved. I used my hands to shape the dough and I didn't have anything other than a paper plate to flatten the pizza crusts with as we improvise while camping!
Homemade Pizza Dough for Pizza Crust for the Grill
1 cup flat beer or water (the beer gives it a great flavor and I think helps with the rising too)
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoons salt
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour (You can use bread flour for a chewier crust.)
1 package active dry yeast (2-1/4 teaspoon)
Instructions:
1. To make by hand, dissolve yeast in warm beer (105º to 115º). I open a can of beer in the morning and let it sit out for a few hours to make it "flat". Add butter, sugar, salt, and flour. Mix until dough forms a ball and cleans sides of bowl. Turn onto floured surface and knead for 2 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning to grease top. Cover; let rise in a warm place, free from draft, until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour. Punch down dough.
(To use the bread machine, add ingredients to pan in order listed. Use dough setting.)
2. For cooking while camping, divide the dough into 8 equal dough balls. Shape or form dough to the size of a paper plate. I used my paper plate as a preparation surface and molded the dough according to the size. I thought that the pizza dough would cook more evenly if the dough was pre-baked a bit prior to putting the toppings on, so we added each shaped pizza circle to the griddle and let each side cook about two minutes each.
3. I then set up a station and had each person come through spreading their pizza dough surface with prepared spaghetti sauce/pizza sauce, a generous sprinkling of grated cheeses (while camping it's perfectly fine to use the store-bought pre-grated cheese blend such as Italian Four Cheese. Who wants to grate cheese, let alone wash the cheese grater while camping?!?). I had salami, pepperoni and Canadian bacon as my topping options and each kid picked out what they wanted and how much.
4. The hubs had the griddle all warmed up for the pizzas and we cooked each pizza individually on the griddle. He experimented and decided that the cheese melted much faster with the lid on the griddle. Each grilled pizza took no more than 3-5 minutes with the pre-cooked crust. No one complained and our fellow camping friends were a tad bit jealous of the concoction our kids were filling up on (although we did offer some to share).
Alternative cooking option: For cooking in a home kitchen, the instructions are to turn dough out on floured surface. Roll or press into a prepared pie pan, forming a collar around the edge. Brush lightly with olive oil. Cover dough; let stand 15 minutes. Proceed with your favorite pizza recipe.
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