Barbecue and Lava Pizza

Barbecue and Lava Pizza
 

I love love love pizza. Love making it, love eating it.

I've got a few pizza dough recipes up my sleeve, some of which I'll save for another day.

This is more of an article about a cooking experiment with a barbecue and lava than a recipe.

Its a follow on from my dutch oven bread article in which I made extra dough after the main loaf to play around with. Rather than make 2 loaves, I split it into 4 pieces, put in sealed tubs and threw them in the fridge.

It was at least 4 days since making the bread to pulling it out the fridge to make pizza.

So with my dough removed from the fridge to warm up, I set to work trying something a little different.


Step 1 - Setup the Barbecue

Instead of using the oven with a pizza crisper (which works very well too and is much simpler) I thought I'd go outdoors and make fire. I knew that I could get my barbecue up to about 280C so I wanted to make sure that I had a good supply of heat underneath but still not direct from the fire, even with a pizza stone. Enter the lava rocks.

These had been kicking around my garden for around ten years unopened. I filled the two holders usually used for holding hot coals, with the lava rocks, put these in the centre ready for my pizza stone to sit on.

  • Heat up the charcoal in a kettle

  • Fill up the charcoal holders with lava rocks and place at the centre

  • Open up the vents on the barbecue to get maximum burn

  • When the charcoal is red hot, pour in around the edges, add some more on top

  • Cover and give 40 minutes for it all to take

  • Finally add the pizza stone on top of the lava rock and cover again

  • Whilst this continuing to get hot, it’s time to prep the pizza

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Step 2 - Your Pizza

  • On a chopping board or pizza peel, cover with fine semolina. This helps prevent sticking and also gives a great chewy coating and taste to the pizza

  • Tip out the dough and give it a top coating of semolina

  • Work it by hand into a rough pizza shape, being careful not to make it too thin
    Tip : Make sure there are not too many bubbles otherwise the pizza ends up pretty thick. Keep these on the very edge for the crust

  • Add your favourite base and topping and it’s ready to rock

    The pizzas were for the kids so it was straight up margherita but this was a technique experiment rather than a topping exploration. Adding a quick spoonful of sauce and spreading it around almost to the edges followed by some grated mozzarella, topped with a few basil leaves and it was ready to go

  • TIP: Quick recipe for pizza sauce: Blend a decent tin of whole plum tomatoes, a glug of extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper and a good pinch of dried greek oregano

Step 3 - Cook

  • Check your temperature. Anything above 250C will do

  • Slide the pizza onto the pizza stone and cover

  • Cook for around 5-6 minutes, just as bits start to char.
    The thinner your dough and the hotter your barbecue, the quicker it will cook

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Results

So, any good experiment you should show your results, pass or fail.

  • Did it taste good?
    Yes, it was a definite pass. Luckily the children weren't mega hungry so I stole more than the customary slice.

  • Can you use over proofed dough and not throw it in the bin?
    Using over proofed dough that's been sat in the fridge a few days works well enough for a good pizza

  • Can you cook a pizza using lava and a barbecue?
    Yes

  • What would I change next time?
    I will be investing in a pizza peel, any excuse to add the the arsenal.
    I will also be getting some solid chunks of cooking wood to add on top of the coals