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Homemade Whole Wheat Pizza

We’ve been making homemade pizza since the first few weeks we were married and although it took me awhile to get mine to turn out as good as my mothers, we’ve finally found a recipe we love. We also found out that Lincoln loves pizza – no surprise there though, this boy loves anything he can get in his mouth.

…as opposed to “anything he can get his hands on” because while he’s great at picking things up, he’s not so good at letting them go. Imagine a fist full of cheerios …and a baby trying to put his full fist in his mouth. 
 
The recipe makes enough dough for two pizzas and we like to mix up the flavors. Usually we’ll do one classic cheese and the other something a bit more interesting. Our favorite the past six months has definitely been what I like to dub the “Christmas Pizza” (because we may or may not have had it for our low key Christmas this year …and because its red and green and all sorts of wonderful). The key to making pizza often enough is always having cheese in the freezer, yeast in the fridge, and pasta sauce in the cabinet. It means that when I have no idea what we should have for dinner, I can count on having the trappings for something delicious.
 
I’ve shared our favorite recipe at the end with plenty of modifications because I’m not too strict when it comes to making pizza (read: I’m not very consistent). The great thing though, is that means this dough is pretty fool proof and impossible to mess up.




 

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough

What You’ll Need:

  • 1 3/4 cups warm water
  • 1 package yeast
  • 1 tsp sugar (helps the dough rise by “feeding” the yeast), can substitute 1 tsp honey if desired
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 cups whole wheat flour
  • 3 1/4 cups white flour
  • 1 1/2 tsp salt
What You’ll Do:
 
I prepare my dough in a kitchen aid using the dough hook – if you don’t have one, just combine with a wooden spoon and knead well by hand(doubling the suggested kneading time). 
  • Mix warm water, yeast, and sugar until yeast and sugar are mostly dissolved. Let sit for a few minutes (usually about five, but I’ve forgotten about it and left it for ten or been in a huge rush and moved on to the next step in just three minutes).
  • Add in olive oil and salt.
  • Add in flour, one cup at a time.
  • Knead on low for 7 minutes. Dough should be sticky to the touch but not come off on your finger. Depending on your altitude, the moisture outside, and if you put exactly the right amount of water in, you may need a little bit of extra flour. I usually add 5 cups and then just keep adding a bit during the 7 minutes its mixing to make sure the dough remains sticky but not sticking (to my finger when I poke it).
  • Let dough rise until double. So ideally let it rise for two hours, covered, in an oiled bowl. If you’re in a rush you can put it in a warm place for one hour (I’ll preheat my oven to the lowest setting at 120 degrees and then turn it off and put in my bowl of dough with the door slightly open). If you’re trying to get it out of the way in the morning, you can refrigerate the dough for at least 5 hours (the dough will rise more slowly in the fridge).
  • Roll out and top as desired.
  • Bake at 500 degrees for 15 minutes on a pizza stone or greased pan. Most things recommend heating the pan in the oven. This will give you a crispier crust. However, I’m really bad at transferring my pizza to the pan ..so I prefer to roll it out right on the pan and bake it like that.
Bacon + Goat Cheese Pizza
 
What You’ll Need:
  • Pizza dough (recipe above)
  • 4 strips of bacon, crispy
  • 1 package of goat cheese
  • 10-15 grape tomatoes, halved
  • fresh basil for topping (or dried basil)
  • tomato and basil pasta sauce (we used this one)
  • 1 8 ounce bag italian cheese mix (parmesan and mozzerla)
What You’ll Do:
  • Roll out pizza dough to desired shape
  • Using a spoon, coat the dough lightly with pasta sauce
  • Coat with Italian cheese mix
  • Top with bacon bits, halved tomatoes, and goat cheese
  • Bake at 500 degrees for 15 minutes
  • Top with fresh chopped basil
 
 
 
 

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6 Comments

  1. Looks delicious and I love the pics of Linc. It looks like our Spanish exchange student loves pizza so we may be trying out several versions in the next few weeks!

  2. Pingback: 5 Favorite Things to Bake with my Toddlers | Elisabeth McKnight