Easy Whole Wheat Pizza Crust: Perfect for Pizza Night!

Who doesn't love pizza? We love to have pizza night every couple of weeks. Since we normally have tons of different veggies left over from other recipes during the week, we like to make our own pizza and use them up as toppings. Plus, making a pizza is one of those things that my daughter can really help out with. She enjoys cooking and loves to roll out the dough, spread the sauce, and add all of the toppings!

I am always trying to incorporate whole grains into our diet. Here is a recipe for a whole wheat pizza crust that I have developed. If you are newer to whole grains, you can switch out some of the whole wheat flour for all purpose flour.

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp brown sugar
1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees F)
1 Tbsp dry active yeast
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
3 cups whole wheat flour
1/8 cup cornmeal

Directions:

In a large bowl, dissolve the sugar in the warm water. Sprinkle in the yeast and let the mixture stand for about 10 minutes. It should be foamy.



Next, stir in the olive oil and salt. Then, mix in the flour and cornmeal. Flip the dough out onto a floured surface. Knead in any flour you could not mix in. Knead until the dough becomes smooth--this should take about 10 minutes. Roll dough into a ball and put in a bowl. Cover it loosely with a towel and let it stand in a warm place for about an hour. It should double in size.

Once it has doubled, you can tip the dough out. If you are making a thin crust, divide it into two. (I usually divide it into two.) Form the halves into a tight ball and let rise 45 minutes.

Preheat oven to 425 F. Roll one ball of dough out with rolling pin. When you can roll no further, drape the dough over your fists. Stretch lightly with your fists while rotating. After stretching to an adequate size, I place the dough on our pizza stone.

Next, I bake the crust a little before adding topping. I place some aluminum foil on top of the crust and place a bowl on top of it. (This keeps it from bubbling.) Then, I place it in the oven for about 10-15 min, until it looks set.

After, I take it out and put on the toppings. After putting on the toppings, I put the pizza back in the oven for about another 15-20 minutes, taking it out once the crust is golden and the cheese has melted. We tend to load it with a ton of toppings, so it does take a little while to bake!

Please be aware that baking times will vary based on thickness!

I usually freeze the other portion of the dough to use a couple of weeks down the road! Once the dough is made, making your own pizza is a piece of cake. It is nice when I have some dough waiting for me!

Another great thing---each of likes our own toppings, so by making our own pizza, we can put whatever we want on our section!