Hearty Veggie Whole Wheat Pizza

Dough:
1 teaspoon white sugar
1 1/2 cups warm water
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1 tsp/spray olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Sauce:
Some olive oil (like 1/2 T or something)
2 cloves minced garlic
1 (6 ounce) can of tomato paste
1/2 cup of crushed tomatoes
1 cup of water
1/8 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 T of honey
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt

Toppings:
2 cups mozzarella
1/4 cup parmesan
2 baby bellas
1/4 cup sliced green pepper
~ 5 sliced black olives
1 clove of garlic
~ 3/4 sliced roma tomato
~ 15 thin slices of onion

DOUGH.
The recipe I used this dough recipe: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/amazing-whole-wheat-pizza-crust/detail.aspx.

Step 1. Dissolve the sugar in warm water. Sprinkle the yeast on top. Let it sit for 10 minutes. When its frothy, add the olive oil and salt.

Step 2. Mix in all but 1/2 cup of the flour. Put that flour on a clean surface. Put the dough mixture on the surface and knead the remaining 1/2 cup into the dough until it is smooth.

Step 3. Spray a bowl (or lightly cover) with olive oil. Roll the dough into a ball. Place in bowl. Roll around in the oil. Cover bowl lightly with a towel and let it sit and rise for an hour @ room temperature.

SAUCE: Combo of these 2 recipes: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/exquisite-pizza-sauce/detail.aspx and http://budgetbytes.blogspot.com/2011/08/thick-rich-pizza-sauce-240-recipe-020.html

Step 1. Cook the garlic in some olive oil.

Step 2. Mix the spices. My spice calculation are an estimate. The amount of spice is really up to you and how bitey you want it. We like ours bitey. If you like the sauce, I

Step 3. Mix the spices, garlic, water, crushed tomatoes, and tomato paste in a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let it sit for 30 minutes.

While you're waiting....

DOUGH.

Step 4. If its been an hour, the dough should be about 2x the size like this:

Step 5. Roll it out onto a lightly floured surface. With a butter knife, cut in half. Save half for a 2nd pizza (or whatever). I put mine in the fridge for later use.


Step 6. Roll dough into a ball and place back in bowl. Cover and let rise again for 45 minutes.

While you're waiting...



TOPPINGS.

We went veggie style...

baby bellas
green pepper
black olives
garlic
roma tomato
onion

Also, sometime... Pre-heat your oven to 425° F.


PIZZA ASSEMBLY

Step 1. After you've waited about 45 minutes, your dough should be about 2x bigger. If you haven't already, preheat that oven to 425° F.

Step 2. We tried the whole spinning the dough thing, and it didn't go very well. I suggest taking your ball, lay it on a some parchment (or something that'll make it easy to slide), and roll it out with a rolling pin. Ours still got nice and round. We didn't use parchment, however, so it was tricky getting it onto our pizza pan.

Step 3. Lay down your sauce. We only ended up using about 1.5 of the sauce, but you can always dip your pizza in the amount that is left over, or lick it with a spoon. Its yummy enough for that sort of thing.

Step 4. Apply the cheese (we used ~ 1/4 c. parmesan and 1.5 c. mozzarella) & toppings.

Step 5. We added more cheese. ~ .5 cup of mozzarella. I think this step is important because I love it when there's some bubbly browned cheese on pizza. This is the cheese that does that. :)

Step 6. Bake. Our oven cooks quickly. It was ready in about 15 minutes.

Step 7. Let it cool. Seriously, be patient, let it cool. Go pour a drink if you need to distract yourself.

Serving Size: Makes 6 medium to large slices

Number of Servings: 6

Recipe submitted by SparkPeople user CAFFEINEVICTORY.