Alright friends. I hope you’ve all made it through the holiday food coma. The last thing I want to do after a semi-stressful holiday weekend is go out to eat. I remember growing up we would come home from a day of bouncing between grandparents houses totally exhausted and like a true american family would order a pizza or chines food. Why order out when you can make your own?!? Here’s one to make if you’re trying to impress and still be thrifty. It’s definitely going down as one of my meals to make if you’re cooking for someone for the first time. I love making pizza. I also am that person who would rather take a little extra time to make the dough rather than buy a 99 cent bag of dough from trader joes. I just feel so accomplished when i have this final beautiful pizza that I created 100% from scratch.
Honey Whole Wheat Pizza Dough
1 teaspoon honey
1 1/2 cups hot water
1 packet dried yeast
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
Combine hot water and honey in a medium bowl stirring until it is dissolved and incorporated. Open the yeast packet and sprinkle it over the top of your water. Let stand for 10 minutes-when you come back it should be foamy on top. Add salt and olive oil to the yeast mixture. Slowly mix in whole wheat flour and 1 cup of all-purpose flour until the dough starts to come together. I find this is the point where 1.) I wish I had one of this crazy lovely kitchen aid mixers with the pizza dough hook or 2.) I end just end up using my hands and kneading the dough. After about 10 minutes of kneading the dough all the flour will be absorbed and it will form into a ball. Place the dough ball in an oiled medium bowl, cover the top of the bowl loosely with a cloth, and let stand for an hour. —-I find this hour is a great time to have a glass of wine and prep whatever toppings you’re going to use.
When you come back to your dough you’ll notice that it has risen and doubled in size. Transfer the ball to a well floured surface(I’ll usually just put a bunch of flour on a cookie sheet with edges in order to not make a massive mess in my kitchen). Using a rolling-pin, roll out your dough to the desired pizza size. Transfer to a cookie sheet sprayed with nonstick spray and pinch the edges to create your crust. Use a fork to make little prick points all over your dough so that air won’t get trapped under everything and it won’t puff up like a piece of bread.
Preheat the oven for 425 degrees. Pre-bake the dough for 10-12 minutes until it’s just barely crisped. It’s important to pre bake the crust so that when you put all of the toppings on it you still get a healthy crunch and it doesn’t turn into a soggy mess.
Remove the precooked crust from the oven and spread marinara sauce over the top. You can really put whatever toppings you like onto this pizza. For the pizza in the picture I used sautéed Portobello mushrooms in balsamic and garlic, grilled zucchini and onions, fresh basil leafs, and grilled eggplant. I like to use a bag of the five cheese blend to top it all off but i’ve made pizzas shredding a cheep block of cheddar cheese and slicing up some mozzarella too. When you’re ready to cook the topped crust lower the heat to 375 degrees and bake for about 8-10 minutes until the cheese is melted and starting to brown.
Enjoy!
~Charlie
Thrifty Foodies 