Perfect Whole Wheat Pizza Crust

Since the response was so HUGE for my perfect whole wheat pizza dough, I figured I’d go above and beyond my normal “couple of pictures and a recipe” post, and just for you, because I’m nice like that, I decided to do a photo tutorial.

You’ll thank me in a little while! For those of you who want to jump ahead and just get the recipe, scroll down and it’ll be there, I promise.

So, start out with 1 cup of warm water in the bowl of your stand mixer, or a large mixing bowl if you’re doing this by hand. The water shouldn’t be warmer than 110 degrees Fahrenheit or else your yeast will die. The water should feel slightly warm to the touch.

Then, sprinkle one (1) Tablespoon of active dry yeast on top of the water. If you’re using packets instead of bulk yeast, use two packets.

Then, add one (1) Tablespoon of white table sugar or honey. I prefer white sugar.

Allow this mixture to “bloom” and get foamy for about 10 minutes. It will start smelling pretty bread-y.

Here’s the key ingredient: Vital wheat gluten. I spent a lot of time playing around with different mixtures of white and wheat flour to try and get that stretchy, soft, chewy pizza crust. Many recipes call for equal parts white and wheat flour. This, to me, defeats the purpose of having whole wheat pizza! So, on a whim, I added a touch of vital wheat gluten (which looks like this at the store, by the way)

Vital wheat gluten adds back to the whole wheat flour the necessary (vital as it may be) gluten to create the long strands of gluten in the dough, which in turn creates chewiness in the final product and staying power for those delicious bubbles in the crust. And, the best part, is that the vital wheat gluten flour can do this in a very small amount rather than replacing half the whole wheat flour with white.

Add 1/4 cup vital wheat gluten to the bowl with the yeast, sugar, and water.

Mix the yeast/water/sugar/flour mixture until nearly smooth.

Add whole wheat flour (I like King Arthur Flour brand or Bob’s Red Mill. They actually taste like wheat.) 1/4 cup at a time, taking care to completely mix in each addition. The mixing and kneading develops gluten strands which we want here.

After the last addition of flour (3-4 cups total) add in one (1) tablespoon olive oil

And about 1 teaspoon of salt. This might be a little more.

Knead the dough for about 10 minutes in a stand mixer, or until it’s smooth, soft, and still a little sticky (TWSS?) Place the dough in a well-oiled bowl.

Cover the bowl with a towel or loosely with plastic wrap, and allow to rise in a warm place for about 45 minutes.

While it rises, pre-heat your oven to 500* F. Yes, 500, preferably with a pizza stone. Then, prepare the toppings you’ll be enjoying on your crust. Tonight at our house, we had salad pizzas, so many veggies needed chopping!

Let’s check that dough now, shall we?

Carefully punch down the dough (you might want to lightly oil your hands for this) and divide it into two equal parts for dinner-sized pizzas. Stretch the dough on a cornmeal-covered board to the desired size, top with your desired toppings, then transfer it to the pre-heated pizza stone. I just used a small drizzle of olive oil and a bit of low fat mozzarella cheese.

See those gorgeous bubbles and the huge pouf of the dough? Thats what a good pizza crust does! Bake it 8-10 minutes or until it reaches your desired doneness. For our salad pizzas, I didn’t want them too browned, but regular pizzas I cook longer.

Puffy, chewy, hearty and perfect! Then, since we were having salad pizzas, I got to topping! First, I breaded a 2 ounce round of goat cheese and briefly sauteed it.

I made some savory roasted pecans as well. A mixture of butter (about 1 tsp), soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, and oregano went onto some pecans, and then into that 500* oven.

And a dressing! I made dressing!

• 1/4 c. soy sauce
• 1/4 c. balsamic vinegar
• 1 Tbsp. mayo
• 1 tbsp dried basil
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil

Put all the ingredients into a covered jar and shake shake shake!

Ok, back to the salad. Remember those onions up there? I caramelized them.

And I cooked and crumbled some bacon. And then, the beautiful salad pizza was born…

And another angle:

And in action (thanks to hand model Adam)

All together now:

Perfect Whole Wheat Pizza Crust

**Online Flea Market Information**

To help me fundraise for the PanCan Chicago Purple Strides event benefitting pancreatic cancer research, I’ll be hosting an online “flea market” next Thursday, April 21! This will work much like the ever-popular blogger bake sales hosted by Meghann and Tina, and very similar to Gina’s recent Luon for a Cause auction.

Bloggers and readers alike will donate baked goods, crafts, services, or whatever else you can think of. You can then all bid on the item(s) you’d like, and I’ll keep a bids page updated during the day.

So, are you interested? Do you have something to donate? If so, please send an email to fleamarket@imadedinner.net containing the following:

• Your name
• Your blog (if you have one)
• Item or service being donated
• Where you’ll ship, or for services, where you’re located
• A photo of the item
• A brief description

All bids on 4/21 will start at $10.

Thank you in advance for your donations and support of this cause! Much love to you all!

Tagged as: Baking, bread, dinner, goat cheese, pizza, salad, sauce, vegetables, whole wheat