White Whole Wheat Pizza Crust

This recipe was submitted by our friend Hope. She makes balls of dough and freezes them in individual bags. Before use, she defrosts the dough in the fridge overnight and proceeds with the baking instructions.

Ingredients:


4 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour

1 3/4 tsp. salt

1 tsp. instant yeast
1/4 cup olive oil

1 3/4 cups water, ice cold

a few tablespoons chopped herbs (optional)

Semolina flour or cornmeal for dusting

Stir together the flour, salt, and instant yeast in the bowl of an electric mixer. By hand stir in the oil and the cold water until the flour is all absorbed. Add the herbs. Switch to the dough hook and mix on medium speed for 5 to 7 minutes, or as long as it takes to create a smooth, sticky dough. The dough should clear the sides of the bowl but stick to the bottom of the bowl. Add a touch of water or flour to reach the desired effect. The finished dough will be springy, elastic, and sticky, not just tacky.  You can also use the “dough” setting on your breadmaker to mix this together.  Or just knead the heck out of it with your hands!

Transfer the dough to a floured countertop. Cut the dough into 6 equal pieces and mold each into a ball. Rub each ball with olive oil and slip into plastic sandwich bags. Refrigerate overnight.  These can also be frozen.  When ready to use, set them in the refrigerator overnight and they’ll be thawed out by dinnertime.

When you are ready to make pizza (anytime in the next few days), remove the desired number of dough balls from the refrigerator at least 1 hour before making the pizza. Keep them covered or they will dry out.

At the same time place a baking stone on a rack in the lower third of the oven. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. If you do not have a baking stone, you can use a baking/cookie sheet, but will not need to preheat the pan.

Generously dust your pan/stone with cornmeal. Uncover or unwrap the dough balls and dust them with flour. Gently press a dough round into a disk wide enough that you can bring it up onto your knuckles to thin out - you should be able to pull each round out to 12-inches or so. If the dough is being fussy and keeps springing back, let it rest for another 15-20 minutes. Place the pulled-out dough on the prepared sheet pan, and jerk the pan to make sure the dough will move around on the cornmeal ball-bearings (you don't want it to stick to the pan).

Add your toppings and slide the topped pizza onto the baking stone. Bake until the crust is crisp and nicely colored. Remove from the oven.

Makes six 6-ounce pizza crusts. That means they’re pretty small. You probably want to double this and still use it for 6 good-sized pizzas.

Submitted by Hope