Recipe of the Week: Whole-Wheat Pizza Dough

Whole-Wheat Pizza Dough

makes two 1-pound balls

With one batch of dough, you have enough to make two large pizza shells or eight individual ones.

*1 1/2 cups warm water (115) water
*2 packets (1/4 ounce each) active dry yeast
*1/4 cup olive oil, plus more for bowl
*2 tablespoons sugar
*2 teaspoons coarse salt
*2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for kneading
*2 cups whole-wheat flour (spooned and leveled)

1. Place water in a large bowl; sprinkle with yeast. Let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. Brush another large bowl with oil.

2. In a bowl with yeast, whisk sugar, oil, and salt. Stir in flours with a wooden spoon until a sticky dough forms. Transfer to oiled bowl; brush top of dough with oil. Cover bowl with plastic wrap; let stand in a warm spot until dough has doubled in size, about 1 hour.

3. Turn dough out onto a well-floured surface. With floured hands, knead until smooth, about 15 seconds; divide into two balls.

To freeze 1-pound balls: Set balls on a plate (they should not touch); freeze until firm, about 1 hour. Then freeze in a freezer bag up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in refrigerator.

To freeze individual shells: Divide each ball of dough into 4-pieces. Using your hands, stretch each piece into a 5-inch disk (if dough becomes too elastic to work with, let rest a few minutes). Freeze shells on two parchment-lined baking sheets. Stack frozen shells between layers of parchment paper. Freeze in a freezer bag up to 3 months. Bake from frozen.

To bake preheat oven to 450. Spray your pizza pan with non-stick spray. After dough ball is thawed, stretch the dough to form your crust. If the dough isn't stretching to the length desired, let it sit to rest then try working with the dough again. Once the crust shape is formed, poke it with a fork several times. It tastes good if you rub olive oil and sprinkle garlic salt on the edge of the crust. Bake until crust is golden, 18 to 20 minutes.

Recipe found in 2009 January/February edition of Everyday Food magazine

From My Experience: Pizza is sadly my favorite food, but it is not a very healthy choice. For this reason, this recipe for whole-wheat pizza dough was intrigueing to me. I tried this recipe with my friend who is a chef. We made 8 batches so that we could save some pizza dough for a pizza party later on. If you are going to make homeade pizza dough, you might as well double the recipe so you have it on hand for a quicker pizza in the future. I made two pizzas to eat that night and a calzone, then we froze the rest in balls. The pizzas came out pretty good. One of the pizzas had a thinner crust and I liked it better because it didn't have such a strong wheat flavor. This recipe made me feel less guilty about eating pizza so I will probably make it again; I love pizza!