We have pizza every Friday night. It’s been a tradition for as long as I can remember in our family. Usually Dave brings some home on his way home from work.  It’s nice to have a night off of cooking.  Especially since on Friday night it seems our house is filled up with neighbor kids.  And believe it or not, they like pizza too. Sometimes we make our own pizza.  Sometimes we make it easy and load up bagel halves with a layer of spaghetti sauce and our fav. pizza toppings, sometimes we use Trader Joes pizza whole wheat dough rolled out, and sometimes we use pitas for the crust. (All of these are cooked at 425 degrees until the cheese melts and the crust is slightly browned around the edges). And sometimes, when I’m a little over-zealous and am looking for a way to talk to kids in the kitchen, we make our own dough.

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My sister-in-law sent me a link to a recipe that looked too good to pass up.  I mean, who can turn down a recipe given almost five stars by 651 people on allrecipes.com?  (Maybe I should call Thursdays “sis-in-law recipe Thursdays” since the first two are from my sis-in-laws who I adore 🙂 This recipe is a little time consuming because the dough has to rise, but I have found that baking in the kitchen is the best way to casually extract information about my children from their friends, so hey, a little time in the kitchen where they hang out isn’t a bad thing in my book 🙂 All the kids running around our house loved this pizza crust.  Not one of them even turn their nose up that it’s made with whole wheat.

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Ingredients”

  • 1 teaspoon white sugar
  • 1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
  • 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 cups whole wheat flour
  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Directions:

  1. In a large bowl, dissolve sugar in warm water. Sprinkle yeast over the top, and let stand for about 10 minutes, until foamy.
  2. Stir the olive oil and salt into the yeast mixture, then mix in the whole wheat flour and 1 cup of the all-purpose flour until dough starts to come together. Tip dough out onto a surface floured with the remaining all-purpose flour, and knead until all of the flour has been absorbed, and the ball of dough becomes smooth, about 10 minutes. Place dough in an oiled bowl, and turn to coat the surface. Cover loosely with a towel, and let stand in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
  3. When the dough is doubled, tip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and divide into 2 pieces for 2 thin crust, or leave whole to make one thick crust. Form into a tight ball. Let rise for about 45 minutes, until doubled.
  4. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Roll a ball of dough with a rolling pin until it will not stretch any further. Then, drape it over both of your fists, and gently pull the edges outward, while rotating the crust. When the circle has reached the desired size, place on a well-oiled pizza pan. Top pizza with your favorite toppings, such as sauce, cheese, meats, or vegetables.
  5. Bake for 16 to 20 minutes (depending on thickness) in the preheated oven, until the crust is crisp and golden at the edges, and cheese is melted on the top.

I was excited I had my basil plant to add to the toppings with fresh mozzarella cheese.  I adore those two things that go together like peanut butter and jelly.

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Many more recipes I make with this delicious stuff back in this q&a. Claire, with her newfound photography skills, snapped this picture of me at work.  I wish I had one of the kids eating up the pizza.

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We had two pans of this…the other was just cheese.

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Yum.