Whole Wheat Pizza Dough

Hello gorgeous.

Holy yum! As I was standing in the peanut butter aisle trying to talk myself out of buying another jar of White Chocolate Wonderful, this little gem caught my eye. I'd been ignoring it for awhile now, but somehow it ended up in my cart and, well, the rest is history.

I am fairly sure they misplaced this item in the grocery store, because it tastes like chocolate frosting. Clearly, it should be in the baking aisle.

                   

That pretty much says it all. Although I am not so sure about the "every day" part. It is definitely an indulgence. It is also proof that you don't need butter or shortening to make frosting. I want to spread it on a cupcake.

     

The ingredient list isn't too bad. Sugar (evaporated cane juice) is second on the ingredient list, though, so it will be for treat time.

Recipe:

I am still catching up on recipes I tried out last weekend, so without further ado, here you have it.

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough

(from Rhodey Girl Tests)

Ingredients:

1 package (2 1/4 teaspoons) active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups warm water
2 cups whole wheat flour
1.5 cups bread flour
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon sugar
olive oil for greasing the bowl before rising

Directions:

1. In a small bowl add the water and sugar and sprinkle the yeast on top. Let sit for 5-10 minutes until the yeast has dissolved and the water mixture is slightly bubbly. Stir to dissolve if needed. Meanwhile, mix the whole wheat flour, bread flour, and salt in a large mixing bowl.

2. Add the water/yeast mixture to the flour and combine. As the dough starts to come together dump it out on a floured surface and knead until the dough becomes smooth and elastic, about 1-2 minutes.

3. Put the ball of dough in a large bowl coated with olive oil seam side up (I just wash the one previously used for the flour). Flip the dough over so that both sides of the dough are coated with the oil. Cover the dough directly with plastic wrap and leave in a warm place until the dough has risen, about one hour.

4. Once the dough has grown in size, press it down, split into two for thicker crust pizza and into four for thin crust pizza*, and reform each portion into a ball. Place each in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap, letting it rest for 15 minutes.

To make pizza:

1. Pre-heat oven to 500 degrees.

2. Roll out dough on a floured surface. Brush with olive oil and place on pizza stone. Puncture in a few places with a fork so that the dough doesn’t bubble too much. Bake for 5-6 minutes until the bottom of the crust is lightly brown.

2. Pull the pizza stone with the crust on it out of the oven and add toppings of choice. I topped mine with pesto, broccoli, red bell pepper, feta cheese, onions, kalamata olives and mozzarella cheese.

3. Put back in the oven until the cheese is bubbly and brown, about 5-7 minutes. Enjoy!

Making my own pizza dough was easy. Shaping it was a little harder. This was one of the better dough recipes I've tried, though, so its a keeper. I divided it into 4 pieces and froze 3 of them. When I am ready for pizza all I need to do is set the dough out to thaw. I tried it today and it was just as good! I didn't make it quite so thin and it puffed up a little more in the oven. Yum!

P.S. I updated my About Me page today. Check it out here.