Easy Wheat Pizza Dough

If you've been following my blog a while, you have probably put together that I like pizza.  I make it almost every week.  Never the same pizza either.  I love to experiment with sauces, toppings, crusts... pizza can be anything you want it to be.

However, one thing I haven't done until now is make my own crust.  I always just use a store bought package.  This is certainly not because I like store bought mixes.  Every kind we have made is never crispy enough, but the reason I keep buying them is because pizza is one of those go-to quick and easy meals.  If you make your own crust it's no longer quick because you have to let it rise.  This means planning ahead, which is not something I do when I am making pizza...

But it just so happened that I was craving pizza on a weekend, so I had plenty of time to make up some dough.  I really liked this dough because it is made with whole wheat flour, it turned out crispy, and the recipe makes two pizzas worth of dough so you can freeze the second batch and have something ready for any weeknight.

Wheat Pizza Dough
Start to finish: 90 minutes
Makes 2 pizza crusts

1 tsp sugar
1.5 cups warm water (110-115 degrees)
1 tbsp yeast
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup white flour

In a medium bowl (or oversized measuring cup), dissolve the sugar into the warm water.  Mix the yeast into the water until dissolved.  Let this stand until it starts to foam, about 5 minutes.  Then stir in the oil and salt into the yeast mixture.  In another bowl, mix together the flours.

Pour the yeast mixture into your mixer bowl.  Turn the mixer on with the dough hook attachment and start incorporating the flour.

Once the dough is well mixed, turn your mixer on the 2 setting and knead for a couple minutes, or until the dough forms a ball.

Oil your hands and coat the dough ball on both sides before covering the bowl with a towel and letting it rise for an hour.

The dough should have doubled in size after an hour.

Punch the dough down and cut it into 2 equal pieces.  Freeze one of the pieces for future use and get ready to make a crush from the other piece.

For this pizza I oiled a small cookie sheet and spread the dough with my fingers until it covered the bottom.  Start from the middle and work your way out.

Let the dough rest while you preheat the oven to 425 degrees.  Pre-bake the crust for 10-12 minutes before taking it out and loading it with toppings.

Bake the pizza for 7-10 more minutes, until the crust is browned and the cheese is melted.

Making your own crust takes a little more time, but it's way better than anything you can buy at the store.  What's your favorite kind of pizza?