Whole wheat veggie pizza

For crust:
1 cup whole wheat flour
3 cups white, all purpose flour
1 packet active dry yeast
2 T sugar (can sub honey)
.5 tsp salt (I use less, I think)
.25 C powdered milk, dry
1 T olive oil or whatever oil you prefer
1.25 C water, heated in microwave

Toppings:
1 C pasta sauce or pizza sauce
8 oz part skim mozzarella cheese
1 C fresh mushrooms, sliced
025 C onion, diced
6 T sliced black olives (I had a small can, drained)
Italian seasoning, sprinkle over top of pizza
.25 C cornmeal

To make crust, combine 1/2 cup whole wheat flour, 1/2 cup white flour and packet of yeast. Add sugar, salt, and dry powdered milk (you don't have to use milk in this at all if you don't want to). Heat cold water in microwave until just warm to the touch...you don't want this to be too hot or it will kill the yeast, too cold and it won't rise properly. Pour into yeast mixture along with oil, mix. Add 1/2 cup whole wheat flour and 1 cup white flour. Mix...then gradually add white flour until dough forms a ball. Knead on lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic (takes 10-15 minutes)...depending on the weather and humidity you may use less or more flour to get the dough right...I can only give you a rough estimate of how much you'll need...it changes day to day. Once you have the dough smooth, put a little oil in a large glass bowl, spread it over bottom and sides, then put dough in bowl, turning dough over so top of dough has been coated with oil. Cover with clean, dry cloth.

I turn my oven (electric) on warm for just a couple minutes, then turn it off, put covered bowl in oven until dough doubles in size (may take 1 to 1.5 hours)...If you have a gas oven, the heat from the pilot light will likely be enough to give your dough a warm place to rise.

Once dough has doubled in size, punch it down, turn out on light ly floured surface and knead for a few minutes. Divide dough in half (if you're making a thin crust)...at this time you can wrap one of the dough balls in plastic wrap, then put in a freezer bag and freeze for later.

Sprinkle a little cornmeal on a large pizza pan. You can make your crust by stretching it between your balled fists (or tossing it if you dare), be sure you put a little oil on your fists first. If you choose to stretch your dough this way, you want to be careful not to tear it. A safer method would be to either roll it out on the counter top using a rolling pin or gently spread it on the pan, stretching until it covers the pan and you've formed a little lip around the edge. Cover and let rise for 45-60 minutes.

Prebake your crust in a hot oven (450-500 degrees)...it'll just take a few minutes. 5 or so, depending on how thin you made your crust. All you're doing here is baking it just enough so the crust won't be soggy under the suace and toppings.

Spread the sauce over the crust, then put part of the cheese on, put veggies over cheese, then a little more cheese over the top to hold everything together. Sprinkle with Italian seasoning.

Bake at 450 degrees for 10-15 minutes...until crust is done and cheese melted. I cut mine into squares...16 squares per pizza.

To keep the bottom of the crust crispy, be sure you remove your baked pizza from the baking pan...once mine is cut, I put it on a rack.

If you're making thin crust pizza, this recipe will make 2 pizzas,16 servings, 2 squares per serving.



Number of Servings: 16

Recipe submitted by SparkPeople user BETRME100.