CharcoalPie-deas: A White Pizza and a Buffalo Cup-n-Char Pepperoni on a Pellet Grill
Two pizzas from our Green Mountain Grills pizza oven. A white pie with a garlic olive oil sauce you can measure in tablespoons, and Buffalo's own cup-n-char pepperoni. Temps, the sauce ratio, and where we buy the dough.
A pellet grill is a wood-fired oven that happens to have a lid. Put a pizza oven attachment on top and you have the one thing a kitchen oven cannot give you: 600 to 700 degrees and a floor that sets a crust in minutes.
We have been running "Pie-deas" on our page all summer. Two of them earned a full write-up. A white pizza built on a garlic olive oil sauce, and the pepperoni pie every Buffalo kid grew up on, the one where the pepperoni curls into little cups and chars at the edges.
Both were made on our Green Mountain Grills Ledge Prime 2.0 with the pizza oven attachment. Both work in any oven or on any stone that can hold 400 degrees or more. Higher is better.
The setup: how hot, and how to get there
On a Green Mountain Ledge with the pizza attachment, you set the grill to 300 degrees. The attachment concentrates that heat into a stone chamber, and the oven inside reads 600 to 700. That number is what you want for a pizzeria crust.
No attachment? A pizza stone on the grate at the grill's highest setting gets you into the 400s, and the pizzas below still work. They take a few minutes longer and the crust comes out more bread than blister.
Pit note
Preheat longer than you think. The stone needs 20 to 30 minutes at temperature before the first pie, or the bottom comes out pale while the top burns. Use the wait to proof the dough.
Pie one: white pizza with garlic olive oil sauce
No red sauce. The base is an olive oil sauce you mix in a cup, and it is the reason this pie tastes like a restaurant made it.
Ingredients
- Pizza dough (we buy Wegmans dough)
- Olive oil
- Mozzarella
- Garlic powder and minced garlic
- Italian seasoning (we use Dad's Seasonings Italian)
- Bell pepper, onion, and broccoli
- Grated Parmesan
The olive oil sauce
| Ingredient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Olive oil | 1 cup |
| Garlic powder | 1 tablespoon |
| Minced garlic | 1 tablespoon |
| Italian seasoning | 1 tablespoon |
| Grated Parmesan | 1 tablespoon |
Stir it together and let it sit while the dough proofs. It makes enough for several pies and keeps in the fridge.
Method
- Cut the dough to the size you want and proof it 30 to 60 minutes at room temperature.
- Pound and stretch it out on a peel dusted with cornmeal so it slides.
- Spoon on the olive oil sauce, edge to edge.
- Add the peppers, onion, and broccoli.
- Cover with mozzarella and a sprinkle of Italian seasoning.
- Into the preheated oven until the crust is golden brown and blistered.
- Slice and serve.
Pie two: Buffalo-style cup-n-char pepperoni
If you did not grow up here, cup-n-char is the pepperoni that curls into a cup as it cooks and chars around the rim, so each slice holds a little pool of rendered fat. It is the Buffalo pizza signature, and it needs high heat to happen. A pellet grill pizza oven delivers it.
What we used
- Dough, sauce, and cup-n-char pepperoni from Wegmans
- Cheese from Restaurant Depot [CONFIRM the cheese, whole milk mozzarella or a blend]
- Dad's Seasonings Italian
- Green Mountain Grills Ledge Prime 2.0 with the pizza oven attachment
Method
- Proof and stretch the dough the same way as the white pie, cornmeal on the peel.
- Sauce edge to edge. Buffalo pizza is not shy with sauce.
- Cheese, then pepperoni, and more pepperoni than feels reasonable. The cups need to crowd each other.
- Dust with Italian seasoning.
- Into the oven. Turn the pie once with the peel when the far edge starts to color.
- It is done when the pepperoni cups are charred at the rim and the crust is spotted brown underneath.
How to keep dough from sticking to the peel
Everybody loses one pie to the peel. Cornmeal is the fix the caption calls for, and it is the right one. Dust the peel, build the pizza fast, and before you walk to the grill give the peel a short shake. If the pie slides, go. If it grabs, lift the edge and throw more cornmeal under it.
Build on the peel, not the counter. Moving a topped pizza is how the toppings end up on the deck.
What goes wrong at 700 degrees
- Burnt bottom, raw middle. The stone is hotter than the air. Turn the pie halfway, and if it keeps happening, drop the grill setting 25 degrees.
- Toppings sliding off. Too much sauce under too many wet vegetables. Cut the broccoli small and go lighter on the oil for the white pie.
- Crust like a cracker. Dough stretched too thin for a stone this hot. Leave the edge thicker than you would for a home oven.
When a pizza oven attachment is not worth it
If you make pizza twice a summer, a stone on the grate gets you most of the way for a lot less. If you already own a countertop pizza oven, you do not need a second one on the grill. And if your grill is not a Green Mountain, check that an attachment exists for your model before you fall in love with the idea.
If you cook pizza every week, the attachment pays for itself in dough you no longer throw away. Come see the Ledge and the pizza oven on the floor inside the McKinley Mall, and bring your own Pie-deas. We will put the good ones on the page.
