Whole Wheat Pizza Dough

Somewhere in between dusting off the bread machine and buying a two-pound block of yeast this weekend, I decided that we’ll be making our bread at home from now on.  All of our bread.  This means that if I’m home alone for dinner because Lane is skiing with friends and I want pizza for dinner, I have to make the crust or order from our favorite local pizza place.  Once I’m in my comfy fleece pants, I’m probably not leaving the house barring an emergency, so picking up a pizza wasn’t an option.  I have made pizza crust dough before with plenty of success, but I hadn’t made whole wheat dough and since I was curious and getting hungry, I decided to give it a try.

I’m pretty pleased with the results overall.  I used all whole-wheat flour for this, but the original recipe says it will work with white flour or any combination of white and wheat flour, so I’ll try that out and report back.  Once baked, the crust was a little darker than the dough pictured below but it was a nice golden, chewy crust just the same. I also used the bread machine to mix this so I could work on some other projects while the machine handled the kneading, but a machine isn’t necessary for this recipe and I’ve provided directions for both methods below.

Once the dough is made, you’ll have enough for two 12-inch pizza crusts.  I like the convenience of mixing this up once and being able to get two meals out of it. You can make two pizzas if you have a crowd to feed.  You can make one pizza and either make another full pizza and freeze it for later, or freeze the remaining dough for another time.  If you freeze the dough, leave it in a warm place to thaw and rise before making your pizza.  Rolled out to fit a 12 inch pizza stone, this isn’t quite thin enough to call it a thin crust pizza but not quite thick enough to call it a pan pizza.  I thought it was just right, and it tasted great.  Also, I calculated my total cost for the dough and all of the toppings for two pizzas (I made my own sauce, and added mozzarella cheese) and it worked out to under eight dollars.  Even though you have to plan farther ahead to make your own crust than you do if you want to pick up a pizza somewhere, there is nowhere in this town to get a single 12-inch cheese pizza this good for under eight dollars, never mind two, so I think the local pizza place might be missing us for a while.

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 C. hot (80 degree) water 
• 1/3 C. olive oil
• 1/3 C. honey
• 2 tsp salt
• 4-4 1/2 C. whole wheat flour (you can use a combination of white and whole wheat)
• 1 Tbsp. active dry yeast
• 1 Tbsp. garlic powder

Bread Machine Directions:

Put all ingredients into the bread pan of your bread machine in the order listed.

Put the bread pan into the bread machine according to manufacturer directions.

Use the “dough” setting, and indicate a 2 pound loaf on the bread machine.

When dough is done, remove from the bread machine and cut it into two equal portions.

To make a pizza, heat the oven to 400 degrees.

Roll one half of the dough out to a 12 inch circle on a floured surface and place it onto a pizza pan or pizza stone (if using a pizza pan, spray it with non-stick cooking spray and sprinkle some cornmeal on it).

Top pizza with desired toppings and bake for 25-35 minutes, until the edges of the crust are a light golden brown, crust is cooked through, and cheese is melted.

Non-Bread Machine Directions:

Put all ingredients into a large mixing bowl or into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.

Mix until all ingredients combine into a slightly sticky dough ball.  If the dough ball is too sticky, add more flour 1 Tbsp. at a time until the dough is smooth and elastic but not sticky.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes (or switch to the dough hook and allow the mixer to knead the dough for about 10 minutes).

Cover and place the dough in a warm place and allow it to rise for about 30 minutes.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface (or into the bowl of the mixer fitted with a dough hook) and knead for about 15 minutes.

Return the covered dough to a warm place and allow it to rise again for 20 minutes before proceeding as above to make a pizza.

Dough makes two 12-inch pizzas.

Source: adapted from  The Happy Housewife