Sunday, January 2, 2011

Whole Wheat Pizza Crust... YUMMM

D and I were both craving pizza awhile ago, but we try to eat as healthy as possible and have been trying to not eat out... We were stuck trying to make the pizza at home.  Mind you neither of us have ever worked with yeast.  I had such little knowledge about yeast that I actually searched the grocery store for it (I really thought I remembered seeing it in the fridge section like by cheese??  Apparently, its in the baking aisle, why would I look there?).  I wish I had a picture of the first dough we tried!  It was awful, we used a recipe that had oat bran and wheat bran in addition to the whole wheat flour.. BIG FAILURE!!   Luckily when you buy yeast you have 3 packets!  So it was on to trial #2.... (had I known we were going to start a food blog there would have been more pictures).  This dough is perfect and the pictures below are actually from the 2nd time we made the pizza.  

The dough before we spread it out.  Notice extra flour everywhere!

Whole Wheat Pizza Crust from Wheat Foods Council
Ingredients:
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 package active dry yeast/instant yeast
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup hot tap water (120 - 125°F)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon honey or granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 425°F

To prepare pizza dough, stir whole wheat flour; lightly spoon into a measuring cup and level flour.

In large mixing bowl, combine whole wheat flour, yeast and salt. Blend in water, oil and honey or sugar. Stir by hand vigorously until all ingredients are well mixed; about 3 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise to desired size.

Place dough in greased 15 x 10 x 1-inch jelly-roll pan or 12 to 14-inch pizza pan. Press dough to cover bottom of pan and up sides to form a rim.
Add pizza sauce of your choice and your favorite pizza toppings; bake in oven 15 to 20 minutes or until crust is golden brown and toppings are done.

Before we pre-baked the crust.



NOTES:
  • The dough is very sticky we've had to up the flour both times.
  • We used a cooking stone so no grease for us.
  • When shaping the dough more flour is required.
  • We cut the oil and honey in half.
  • After the first pizza we also decided to bake the crust for about 5 minutes prior to topping..  The first pizza was a little soggy in the center.
After the pre-bake with all the toppings..


This pizza was topped with an olive oil and garlic sauce and fat free mozzarella, spinach and artichokes.




5 comments:

  1. looks fabulous. we'll be trying this. we usually get the Weisenberger Mill pizza crust. it's yumo too!

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  2. Hi, this looks great. I am on the lookout for a good whole wheat pizza recipe. I'm wondering how long it takes for the dough "to rise to the desired size". Thanks!

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  3. @ sarah- We have made it a few times.. The first time we let it rest about 20-20 mins, we just watched it and let it almost double (we were in a hurry to eat dinner). The second time we let it rest for about an hour and then dumped it into a ziplock with some olive oil and placed it in the fridge overnight. It is a very sticky dough so make sure to have some extra flour to work in as you stretch the dough! Hope that helps! Let me know how it goes and if you have any other tips after making it!

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  4. I saw your reply on Aggie's Kitchen FB page, thank you for posting about your site and your pizza crust.

    I will certainly be back, as well as trying this recipe.

    Due to health reasons, I am having to step away from processed foods, which includes white & brown sugar as well as white flour. THANK YOU!

    Yolanda

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