Pizza, Pizza!

I crave pizza on a pretty regular basis.  Even more so than my kids!  In fact, my oldest child doesn't even really like pizza unless it is without sauce and loaded with cheese.  So....I guess that means she likes cheese bread, not pizza.  Anyway, I frequently make homemade pizza b/c I can accommodate everyone's preferences, while making it healthier than take-out/delivery or frozen varieties.  

I use the dough setting on my bread machine, which makes it super convenient as well.  However, a bread machine isn't necessary. There are even lots of "no-knead" recipes on the web.

This particular pizza dough is a new one for me, and I have to say, it is one of the best I've made!  I will definitely be using this one again - and the best part...it has whole wheat and very little oil.  Most whole wheat recipes I have tried have been dense and super....'wheaty'. Which according to spell check isn't a word, but we are totally making it a word.

This crust is soft and fluffy on the inside with a nice crisp (but not hard) outside.  It has great flavor, and reminded me of Pizza Hut, minus the grease. 

The recipe is from the Dr. Oz website.  My dad loves Dr. Oz!

Whole Wheat Pizza Crust slighty adapted from Art Smith's Whole Wheat Pizza

1 package of active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups of white whole-wheat flour
1 1/2  cups of unbleached all purpose flour
1 tbsp of agave nectar honey
1 tsp sea salt
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 1/4 cup of warm water at approximately 110 ° F

Additional flour for kneading

*See original recipe for notes on making dough without a bread machine

I added all the ingredients into the bread machine with liquids on bottom and ending with yeast on top and set it for the dough setting, which is about 1 1/2 hours.

Once dough was ready, I divided it into 3 sections.  I ended up using 2/3rd of the dough to make the above pizza, which was pretty thick and probably abt 14 inches.  The remaining dough I used to make my daughter bread sticks - which also turned out delicious. 

I set my oven at 475 degrees (F) and preheat with my pizza stone.  Once to temp, I add my dough with a little corn meal on the stone and pre bake my crust for abt 7 minutes.  Then I add my toppings and bake for another 7 minutes or until the cheese is nice and melted.  

The above pizza had some ricotta and pizza sauce as the base, with spinach and arugula, mozzarella and asiago & red pepper flakes as toppings.  I added some additional arugula, asiago and basil to the cooked pizza.  It was pretty awesome. Except I don't think I like ricotta on my pizza. That was an experiment!

So, definitely a keeper pizza crust recipe! Can't wait to make it again....carbs, carbs, carbs.  So awesome.

I'm linking up this recipe with Everything Under the Moon, Homemaker on a Dime, A Southern Fairytale, Delightfully Dowling, Making the World Cuter, Mandy's Recipe Box, It's a Blog Party, All the Small Stuff, 33 Shades of Green, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, From Mess Hall to Bistro