Whole Grain Pizza Dough

Recipe: Whole Grain Pizza Dough

Adapted From:  "Peas and Thank You: Simple Meatless Meals the Whole Family Will Love" by Sarah Matheny and "Cook without a Book: Meatless Meals: Recipes and Techniques for Part-Time and Full-Time Vegetarians" by Pam Anderson

Tested: Feb. 2013 and 3/22/13

Servings:  16 small pizzas (about 3-5 inches each)     Prep Time: 15-20 min

Notes: I've been looking for a good easy whole grain pizza dough recipe for a long time! Part of it was sheer laziness and fear. Baking with yeast is scary for me because I don't do it often enough. I'm sure I've killed many yeast packets in my attempts to hurry through bread recipes. This one though, is pretty awesome and we tried it once with all rye flour, and again with all spelt flour. The spelt flour pizza dough rose more, but I have to admit, my husband made this one and has been known to follow recipes better (and takes twice as long to cook/bake). It's also really fun to make this with kids because they love to roll and smash the dough and put on the toppings. And then of course, it's delicious!  The dough will keep about 4-5 days in the refrigerator or about 2-3 months in the freezer.

Ingredients: 1 yeast packet 1/2 cup warm water 1 tsp date sugar 1 cup warm water 2 tbsp olive oil 3 1/2 cups whole grain flour 1 tsp salt

Instructions: 1. Mix yeast, 1/2 cup warm water, and date sugar together and let sit for 5 minutes. The mixture should get foamy. 2. Add the 1 cup warm water and olive oil to the yeast mixture. 3. Mix the flour and salt together in a separate bowl, then slowly add the wet to dry ingredients a little at a time, mixing and kneading for about 2 minutes. 4. Oil a container to hold the dough and place the dough inside and cover and let rise at room temperature for at least 1 hr.  5. Roll/smash out the dough with your hands and add tomato sauce and desired toppings. 6. Bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes.