Whole Wheat Pizza Dough Recipe

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough Recipe

1. 2 C regular flour
2. ~1/2 C whole wheat flour
3. 1 packet rapid rise yeast
4. 2 T olive oil
5. 1 C water at about 130 degrees

Makes two small/medium pizzas

Start getting the water ready. My tap water only gets to about 110 degrees, at best. To get the water to the right temp, I use a kettle. When it whistles, the water is boiling, which presumably means that it is at 212 degrees. However, I have found that when my kettle starts to make some creaking sounds, the water is about 120 or so. This is close enough for me. To check your water temps, I would get a kitchen thermometer, if you don't have one already.

Mix flour and rapid rise yeast together in a large mixing bowl. I don't have a fancy stand mixer, so I take the handle of a wooden spoon and try to simulate it. I rotate it in little circles around the outer circumference of the bowl. I know a lot of other bread recipes call for salt, but I have been skipping it. With the whole wheat, the dough doesn't seem to rise quite the same. And I heard that salt inhibits yeast.

Add the water to the flour and yeast. I like to add it slowly as I use the handle end of a wooden spoon to stir/mix - think spirograph, if you were nerdy enough to have actually played with that as a child. Once this starts to ball, it will be sticky. At that point, I add the 2 tablespoons of oil and start mixing with my hands in the bowl. You could pull the dough out of the bowl and mix as well, but I find this to be easier and less messy overall. Plus, my dog always barks when I knead dough on the cutting board. In the bowl, however, he doesn't seem to mind that.

Mix the dough around for about 5 minutes or until your arms get tired, whichever comes first.

Put the dough on a board or clean countertop. Most recipes call for you to use a clean towel to cover the dough while is rests/rises. This seems like a great way to create unnecessary laundry. Flip the bowl over and use that to cover the dough. Wait for about 20 minutes or so. The dough will get bigger.

At this point, lightly flour the cutting board and cut the dough in half. this will give you dough for two small/medium pizzas. lightly form one half of the dough into a ball and then start rolling the dough out. there are a million youtube videos on how to stretch out pizza dough. find a way that works for you. previously, i would toss the dough in the air to stretch it. this is fun, but it makes my dog bark, which makes my wife grumpy at me. so i hand stretch the dough. 

i don't have a fancy pizza stone, so i cook my pizzas on regular baking sheets lined with parchment paper. set the oven to 450, which is as high as i am comfortable setting my 30 year old oven. because i like a crispier crust, i bake the pizza dough with nothing on it for about 8 to 10 minutes. then, i pull them out of the oven, flip them over, and then top. there's really no wrong way to top a pizza, but unless you put down the sauce, then the cheese, and then the toppings, you're doing it all wrong. 

once topped, put the pizzas in the oven for another 8 to 10 minutes, or until other people in the house can start smelling pizza. these two events should occur at about the same exact time.

this pizza dough recipe is something i've been tinkering with for a little while now. the crust is not anything close to new york style, for several reasons. but it's serviceable. this dough prefers to be cut into squares rather than traditional slices. this is something that i have reluctantly come to terms with.