Our family loves pizza.
Even the dairy free kids. (They get special cheese.)
There is just something about pizza. The crust, the sweeter sauce, the cheese, the flavor explosions from the toppings.
Or maybe this Americanized Italian food somehow transports us to a world across the ocean to the boot shaped country…and we dream and long for a vacation or trip there. {Oh wait, maybe that’s just me.}
I had the fortunate pleasure of visiting my sister when she was overseas. I was transitioning between 2 jobs after college and snuck over to Italy and Spain to see her. We bummed around (literally!) with our backpacks and dirty laundry. But Italy…I loved Italy so much…I’ve been wanting to go back ever since.
When my husband and I were considering our move back to the US after living in the Dominican Republic for 6 years, I would sneak peeks at school positions and openings over in Italy and Spain. Anything to get me back there.
One day, perhaps.
Until then, I’ll just dream about it with every bite of pizza that I take. đŸ˜‰
I finally found a whole wheat pizza crust that I love. It’s very similar to the white flour recipe that I’ve used for a l.o.n.g. time. With a bit more liquid…leaving you with the perfectly spongy dough.
Note: I do use a bread machine. One, because I’m lazy. Two, because I seem to be developing arthritis at a young age (big sad face!) and prefer not to knead bread by hand, from scratch. {There is a bit of kneading below, but not too much!} Three, I’m in that ‘set it and forget it’ phase of life…where I need to set the ingredients up in the bread machine and have it help me for an hour and a half. Then I can take it from there.
You can watch as I go along…
Flour on counter. Dough cycle complete in the bread machine.
Flip the dough out of the bread machine box.
LOOK at how perfectly spongy that dough is.
And yes, it’s hard to tell in the photos, but this is whole wheat flour, 100%.
Flip the dough around, coating the stickier parts with the flour on the counter. Knead lightly to tighten up the sticky spots.
Knead the dough into the shape of a ball.
Smooooooooosh the ball.
Flatten the ball.
Roll ‘er on out.
Get it thin…it will pull back together some as you transfer it to the baking pan/stone/sheet.
I fold mine like I fold my pie crust.
The lift carefully and place onto the baking stone/pan/sheet.
Unfold.
And form the dough all the way to the very edges.
Because this is a thick crust, I like to bake it first for about 10 minutes at 400, then add toppings and bake another 8-10 minutes.
Perfect whole wheat pizza crust y’all.
Now, off on a mental vacation to Italy I go…but before I do, I’ll leave you with the recipe!
Homemade Freezer Friendly Whole Wheat Pizza Crust
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cup lukewarm water
- 3 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp 1 tsp salt
- 3 cups whole wheat flour
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning (or 1/2 tsp basil, 1/2 tsp oregano)
- 1 Tbsp active dry yeast (1 packet)
- 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
Instructions
- Place all of the ingredients into the bread machine, in the order listed. Set on dough cycle and run it.
- Preheat oven to 400. If necessary, spray baking pan or dish with non-stick cooking spray.
- Once complete, add some whole wheat flour to the counter and knead the dough into a ball, coating the sticky spots well with the flour.
- Roll out into a large circle (or whatever shape your baking dish is) and transfer to the baking dish/pan/stone. Prepare the edges of the dough and roll out evenly.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes. Add sauce, cheese and toppings, then bake for another 8-10 minutes or until cheese has melted.
- Slice and serve Whole Wheat Pizza.
- To Freeze Dough: Take the kneaded and floured dough and place into a plastic freezer baggie and freeze. Thaw completely before reshaping and baking.
- To Freeze Crust: Bake the crust for the 10 minutes as specified, then let cool completely before wrapping in plastic wrap and freezer.
- To Freeze Pizza: Bake as directed and let cool before slicing and adding pizza slices to plastic freezer baggies and add to freezer.
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