There are essentially three staple meals in our house: chips and salsa (don’t judge), burrito bowls, and homemade pizza.  This recipe makes the latter incredibly easy and delicious and it’s adapted from 100 Days of Real Food.

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough

• Servings: 6-10
• Time: 1hour 30mins
• Difficulty: easy
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Whole Wheat Pizza Dough

We make this at least once a week and this batch usually makes 2-3 “medium” size pizzas.  You can also use the same dough for calzones, bread sticks, and more!  We’ve often made one batch of dough for a pizza big enough for the two of us, bread sticks, refrigerated the remaining dough and made a calzone the next night.

Ingredients

• 3 cups of Whole Wheat Flour (remember, whole wheat is important!)
• 1 cup of warm tap water (around 100 degrees)
• 2 teaspoons or one packet of yeast (active dry yeast is fine here)
• 1 teaspoon of honey (optional)
• 2 good pinches of salt
• 2 tablespoon of oil (we use olive oil)
• Pepper
• Garlic Powder (we use Simply Organic or Thrive Market brand)

Dough Instructions

1. If you have a stand mixer, use the dough hook.  If not, you can use your hands in a bowl.  Whisk or us a fork to mix the yeast in the warm water to activate it.  Add the honey (optional) to ‘feed’ the yeast.  Set aside for now.
2. In the mixing bowl, weigh or properly measure the whole wheat flour to 360 grams / 3 cups.  I like to add several good shakes of garlic powder (use to your preference, we like garlic) and pepper for an added level of flavor.  You could add any spices or herbs to your liking here in addition or instead.
3. Once yeast has started bubbling, add the salt and oil, and mix well.  Turn on your mixer or dig a well in your mixing bowl and slowly add the water/yeast mixture.  In a mixer, the dough should mix until it is being ‘chased’ around the bowl.  If doing by hand, good luck – basically fold until you can’t and then fold a few more times.
4. Set in a warm dry place and cover with a towel for at least an hour.  Check it at the 30 minute mark to make sure it is rising.  After an hour to hour and a half you should see it double or triple in size.

Tips for Cooking Pizza

This is super important – set your oven to 500 degrees or as hot as it will go.  The hotter, the better.  We use a pizza stone and it takes time to heat up to temperature, which is also important; if you use one too, make sure you allot for that time.

Once your dough has risen, you should be able to get 2 large pizzas or several smaller pizzas out of the total yield.  Flour a working surface and pinch off as much as you need for the pizza you want.  I typically divide in three equal portions and work it from there.

Roll your dough.  If you like thin crust, roll your dough thinly and evenly in the shape you want.  If you like thick crust, leave the edges a little thicker.  Personally, I always like Papa Johns’ style crust, so I’ll leave a bit of a ring around the edge.

Top your dough.  Don’t do this until the oven and stone are ready to go, because if the dough sits too long it will be soggy and hard to slide onto the stone.  I like to put my pizzas together right on the peel so I can transfer easier to the pizza stone.  The sky is the limit on toppings, but I recommend starting with a thin marinara, good mozzarella cheese, and sliced organic veggies.  We buy a lot of frozen vegetables, so I will saute those first so they are cooked.

Cook the pizza.  If you get the temp high in the oven as recommended, the pizza can cook in as little as 4-5 minutes!  Be safe and smart here – if you have raw meat or foods that have to be cooked, either pre-cook them or make sure they reach proper temp.  Otherwise, when the cheese starts to brown, you’ve hit the jackpot.  The higher temp should make the dough spring up too, giving you a nice crisp but fluffy crust that looks and tastes delicious.

Enjoy!