The same weekend I grilled the pizza I came across this recipe for Grilled Asiago Rounds on King Arthur’s baking blog. While they were suggested for eating with a dip of some kind, I immediately thought that they could be split horizontally for sandwiches and figured I might as well go all out on the dough grilling and try these the same day as the pizza. This required some creative planning to make sure everything went on the grill in order (I wanted to cook the pizza last so that it would stay hot for dinner), but everything worked out perfectly and these rounds cooked up perfectly, and made for fantastic sandwiches.

Instead of all-purpose flour, I substituted the 12-grain flour blend for the overnight starter. This only made up a small part of the flour, so it wasn’t super noticeable in the finished product, but it probably lent a little more heft.

The recipe called for semolina to make up part of the flours that went in at this point, but despite searching I could not locate it in either of my two main grocery stores. Of course, several days later I found it in one, and I probably could have found it at Trader Joe’s, but I just substituted all-purpose instead and it worked fine. I’ll probably make these again, though, and I might try the semolina to see if it makes a big difference in the finished product. Also you can see the shredded asiago cheese that is mixed in at this point. I also completely forgot the parsley that would also be mixed in at this point. Oh well.

Mixed together by hand it made a sticky but cohesive dough that easily pulled away from the sides of the bowl.

After kneading the dough was as smooth as dough containing shredded cheese could be, but it was actually stickier than before. The bakers on the King Arthur blog suggested reducing the liquid a bit if I was substituting all-purpose flour for semolina, and I did to a small extent, but it was rather unscientific and the dough might have been stickier than it should have been. I ended up adding flour through the floured surface it had to be poured onto, and in the end it turned out fine.

I let the dough rise in its bowl, mainly because my dough rising bucket was currently occupied by the pizza dough.

My rounds, all divided. The recipe says you would get 16 four-inch rounds about 1/4″ thick; when I started dividing them I knew that was just not happening, at least not for my purposes. I got about 8 rounds that were probably 4 to 4.5 inches in diameter and somewhere between 1/2 and 1/4 inches thick. At this point they can be refrigerated until you are ready to grill them, but luckily my grill was ready and so was I.

In order to get them off my table and onto the grill I needed to oil up a tray and my hands with olive oil and basically cover these guys in a thin layer. This was also necessary when I put them on the grill to prevent them from sticking. I also cleaned and seasoned my grill with a half and onion, stuck on a fork and dipped in olive oil, before I put these on there. They got put over medium high heat (in between the high heat mounded coals and the low heat area) for 2–4 minutes, depending on how fast it looked like they were cooking. I tried to keep the cover on the grill as much as possible to cook them thoroughly. When they got flipped they moved over to the cool side to cook for another 4 minutes. I didn’t cover them with a metal pan to help them cook through – I tried, but there was no covering them all with a pan or covering them and putting the cover on the grill too – but if you keep the cover on your grill, I think it serves the same purpose. In any case, it worked!

They smelled amazing, and it was all we could do to keep ourselves from eating them right after they came off. I think their cool-down time probably helped them cook through a little more too, though. They were perfectly cooked and the cheese just kind of disappeared into the dough, imparting flavor but without any noticeable pieces. The grilled flavor was subtle but present, and the rounds held up great split in half as sandwiches. It was fun to grill the bread (and fast!) instead of baking it, and it was something I will no doubt do again.

Grilled Asiago Rounds (adapted from King Arthur Flour)

Ingredients

Starter

• 3/4 cup 12-grain flour, or all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/8 teaspoon instant yeast

Dough

• All of the starter
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup all-purposed flour
• 2 teaspoons instant yeast
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 1/4 cups bread flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 1/2 cups freshly grated asiago cheese
• 2 tablespoons dried parsley, or 1/4 cup chopped fresh

Directions

1. For the starter, in a small bowl, combine the flour, water, and yeast. Cover and let sit at room temperature for at least 8 hours, or overnight.
2. In the bowl of your mixer combine the starter, water, all-purpose flour, yeast, and olive oil, stirring until the mixture is smooth.
3. Add the bread flour, salt, cheese, and parsley, and mix until a soft dough forms. Knead the dough with a mixer for 6 to 8 minutes until it’s smooth and springy.
4. Place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover with greased plastic wrap, and let rise until doubled, 45 minutes.
5. After the dough has risen, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and divide it into 8 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball and let the dough rest for 10 minutes while you make sure the grill is hot and clean. You can refrigerate the dough, covered, for up to 3 hours at this point, if you need to adjust your timing or want to prep things ahead of time. Set up your grill so that one section is hot and another is low heat, with a medium-hot section between them.
6. Flatten the balls of dough to 4.5″ rounds about 1/4″ thick. Spray or brush the rounds lightly with some olive oil, and place a few of them on a medium-hot section of the grill. Cover the grill and cook for 2–4 minutes, flip the dough over and move to a low-heat portion of the grill. Cover the grill again and cook another 4 minutes, then remove from the grill and let cool somewhat. Repeat with the remaining pieces of dough.