100% Whole Wheat Pizza - Oven and Grilling Methods

Continuing from my previous post which included two methods of making pizza dough, I also have 2 recommendations for how to make the pizzas themselves. 

The first method is by using a pizza stone in your oven.  There is a big selection of pizza stones out there, starting around $15 (like the one I got at Bed, Bath, and Beyond) and going all the way up to over $100 (like the All-Clad set I registered for at Williams-Sonoma for my wedding)!  I highly recommend picking up a stone if you plan on making pizza in your oven - the cheap ones yield good results and I don't think you can get the same crust without it.  I would also recommend picking up a pizza peel if you have the space - even the cheap one in the picture below (also from B, B, and B) was much easier than the plate/sheet pan method I tried previously, but you can certainly make do without it!

The other method is on an outdoor grill, and I definitely suggest giving this a try if you can!  A big thanks goes out to my friend Nicole for teaching me about grilling pizza - it is so easy and comes out delicious.  The end result is a little different than the pizza stone version - it's more rustic and doughy, but the grill marks add some really great crunch and flavor.  With this method you can skip the peel and cornmeal (along with the fear of the pizza sticking when it's time to get it in the oven!), and the biggest benefit is that the mess stays mostly outside!  It is also easy to make 2 pizzas at a time if you have a full-size grill, which may not be a possibility inside if you only have one pizza stone.

We make 2 pizzas at a time - one to split that night, and one for leftovers.  We always eat it with a big salad (e.g., Caesar, Arugula, or just a mixed green with whatever toppings you like), which helps us to avoid overeating pizza and makes this more of a balanced meal.   Leftovers can be stored in plastic containers or wrapped in foil in the fridge, and reheat nicely in the toaster oven.

Overall, I have learned that with a little bit of practice, making home-made pizza is really one of the easiest meals to prepare, and it is always such a treat to have a guilt-free, wholesome version whenever I want.

100% Whole Wheat Pizza

Prepared 100% Whole Wheat Pizza Dough
Flour (for dusting)
Cornmeal or semolina flour (for dusting if using the oven method)
Olive oil (for drizzling if using the grilling method)
Salt & pepper (for sprinkling if using the grilling method)

When you are ready to make pizza, remove the desired number of dough balls from the refrigerator 1-2 hours before making the pizza, and keep them in their bags so that they don't dry out.  You may want to open the bags a crack if they are puffing up a lot as they warm up.  Frozen balls will obviously need longer, or else if you think of it you can defrost in the fridge overnight and take them out 1-2 hours before cooking.  Ideally you want the dough to be at or close to room temperature when you stretch out the pizzas.

Oven Method

About 30-45 minutes before you expect the pizzas to be ready to cook, place a baking stone on a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 450 F.  (If you do not get a crisp enough crust, you can experiment with a higher temp.) 

Generously dust a peel or the back of a sheet pan with semolina flour or cornmeal and get ready to shape your pizza dough. Unwrap the dough balls and dust them with flour.

Working one at a time, gently press a dough ball into a disk and, working in a circle, pull the dough out a little at a time so that you retain a lip at the edge but get the center as consistently thin as possible without tearing (I use a combination of putting the dough over my knuckles and just holding with one hand and pulling with the other).  You may even be able to see through spots - that's a good thing.  You should be able to get each pizza to be at least 12" across.  If the dough is being fussy and keeps springing back, let it rest for another 15-20 minutes and try again.  Place the pulled-out dough on the prepared peel or sheet pan, and shake the pan to make sure the dough will move around on the cornmeal ball-bearings (you don't want it to stick at all).

Add your toppings, being careful not too add too much - you should still be able to see dough through the sauce, and sauce through the cheese.  I have even used a cheese slicer on a block of mozzarella and used the thin slices in one layer - this was plenty.  Slide the topped pizza onto the baking stone - it's easiest if you can get it straight into the oven, but you could also remove the stone from the oven if that works better for you.  Bake approximately 10 minutes, until the crust is crisp and nicely brown. 

Alternatively, if your toppings are cooking too fast for you to get a crisp enough crust, feel free to prebake the crust for about 5 minutes and then remove, add the toppings, and put back in the oven until cooked to your liking (there is no need to flip pizza).  This is an especially good idea if your pizzas are on the thicker side, or if you are using fresh mozzarella, which will melt very quickly.

Remove pizza from the oven and cut on a cutting board, not your pizza stone or pizza peel, which could get damaged.


Grilling Method
 
Preheat grill to medium-high heat about 15-20 minutes before pizzas will be ready to go on.  Drizzle a plate (or 2 plates if you'll be making pizzas simultaneously) or a large baking sheet with olive oil.  Unwrap the dough balls and dust them with flour.
 
Working one at a time, gently press a dough ball into a disk and, working in a circle, pull the dough out a little at a time so that you retain a lip at the edge but get the center as consistently thin as possible without tearing (I use a combination of putting the dough over my knuckles and just holding with one hand and pulling with the other).  You may even be able to see through spots - that's a good thing.  You should be able to get each pizza to be at least 12" across.  If the dough is being fussy and keeps springing back, let it rest for another 15-20 minutes and try again.  
 
Place stretched pizza round onto oiled plate/pan and use your finger tips to stretch a little more if you want (with this method you'll be lifting the dough off of the plate anyway, so you don't have to worry about pushing down and causing sticking).  Rub a drizzle of oil onto the top side of the dough and sprinkle with course salt and/or pepper.  Prepare your toppings and bring everything outside for grilling.
 
Place the pizza dough directly on the hot grill, trying to keep it as round as possible (we generally have slightly oblong grilled pizza from swinging it onto the grill - no biggie!).  If you are grilling two, follow the same method and just cook them side by side.  Grill with the cover open for about 4 minutes on the first side, until there are well defined grill marks on the bottom (you may want to check frequently the first time you do this to get the timing right for your grill and temperature, but do not lift the pizza until it releases on its own - once it's cooked it should not stick at all).  Flip pizza using tongs, quickly add toppings, close cover, and grill until the bottom is crunchy and toppings are heated through (approximately another 4 minutes for us).  Remove, slice, and enjoy!

Each pizza serves 1-2 people, depending on your appetite, toppings, and side dishes :)

100% Whole Wheat Pizza Dough

Well, the time has finally come for me to share the pizza dough recipe that I have been blogging about since April!!  After much practice and many pitfalls, I have finally gotten good enough at this that I can easily whip it up at any time and feel very comfortable sharing with you all what I have learned - hopefully that will mean your learning curve will be much faster than mine!  As a little background, this recipe is designed to rise slowly in your refrigerator overnight.  The advantage here is that the active prep time is minimal and you don't have to be watching the dough at all, but it does require a bit of advance planning.  On the plus side, the dough can easily sit in your fridge for several days or the freezer for weeks (months?), so it's easy to make some dough if you might want it that week, and you can always throw it in the freezer for another time if you change your mind!

Also, notice that the recipe includes White Whole Wheat Flour - read here for a little background on what this is if you haven't heard of it before.  It is really amazing stuff - all the nutrients of whole wheat flour, but with a much softer texture, closer to an all-purpose flour.  I have seen both organic and non-organic at Whole Foods, non-organic at Trader Joe's, and various versions in some other select health food stores.  The most common brand is King Arthur Flour.  It is by no means the cheapest flour, but still less expensive than buying pizza and way more healthy!

I'm including two methods for dough preparation below - the bread machine and a stand mixer.  If you have been following this story, you may recall that I also tried to make the dough in a food processor, but this was a bit of a disaster, so I wouldn't recommend that method!  My preference is definitely the bread machine version - it's easy as can be to add the ingredients, the machine doesn't budge while kneading, and the clean-up couldn't be easier.  However, I understand that many of you may not want to invest the money or space for one of your own (although I highly recommend you reconsider if you have the means!!), and you can definitely make this dough in a stand mixer as well.

Now the only problem is that my little munchkin DOESN'T LIKE PIZZA!!  She likes coffee, goat cheese, and tuna fish, but will not eat pizza.  I don't get it, but in the mean time instead of pizza being a weekly staple in our house as I'd hoped, it's become more of a twice a month treat for hubby and me when we are eating together after the little one goes to sleep.  But if you have a house full of pizza eaters, this is a great way to have a wholesome, delicious, and easy meal any time you're in the mood!


100% Whole Wheat Pizza Dough
adapted from 101 Cookbooks

1 3/4 cups cold water
1/4 cup olive oil
4 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
1 3/4 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon instant yeast*

Bread Machine Method

Place all ingredients in your bread machine according to the prescribed order for your brand (mine requires adding liquids first, followed by dry ingredients, with yeast going in last).  Create a custom cycle or manually set machine to knead only for 10 minutes - you do not need the preheating or rise time included in most pre-set "dough" cycles.

Continue with "In both cases..." directions below.

Stand Mixer Method

Stir together the flour, salt, and instant yeast in the bowl of an electric stand mixer. By hand, stir in the oil and the cold water until the flour is all absorbed.  Place in machine with the dough hook and mix on medium speed for 5 to 7 minutes, or as long as it takes to create a smooth, sticky dough.  Add a touch of water or flour to reach the desired effect. The finished dough will be springy, elastic, and sticky.  If it is so sticky that you wouldn't be able to handle it easily, add more flour.  On the flip side, a dough that tears easily is too dry and/or needs additional kneading time.

In both cases...

Remove dough to a smooth surface drizzled with olive oil (I use a piece of parchment paper for easy clean-up!).  Pat the dough into a symmetrical shape and cut into 4 equal pieces using a pastry scraper or large knife.  Drizzle the top with a little more olive oil, form each quarter into a ball, and drop them into individual sandwich sized storage bags. 

Place all 4 dough balls in the refrigerator at least overnight, or up to a few days until ready to use.  We generally cook two the next day, and at that point put the other 2 in the freezer for future use - this way the rising is already done when you are ready to use the dough and all you need to do is defrost.

Read on for instructions on how to cook pizzas in your oven or on your grill!

Makes four 9-ounce pizza crusts, and each pizza is enough for 1-2 people - when eating this for a normal weeknight dinner, we can easily split a pizza if we make a big salad to go along with it, but when serving to company we have averaged almost a whole pizza per person!

*You should be able to substitute 1 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast for the instant; just warm 1/4 cup of the water to dissolve yeast according to package instructions before using.

The Pizza Story (4) - The Trials and Tribulations of Making Pizza!

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After wrestling with my food processor and struggling with an incredibly sticky dough, it was finally time to try to make pizza. After an overnight rest, I pulled out my dough balls from the fridge when the munchkin ate dinner at about 5:30. After her 6:30 bedtime I got to work stretching out the first pizza while the stone preheated in the oven. The stickiness was a factor yet again, but after a little work I was able to create a sort-of round base for my pizza. The recipe recommended using the back of a sheet pan in the absence of a pizza peel (definitely no room for that in my apartment!), but I only had one with low sides, and I think that was not an appriate substitution. I also didn't use nearly enough corn meal so when it was time to get my pizza on the stone it stuck, which meant the pizza became totally lopsided and the cheese slid off onto the pizza stone while cooking. This led to a complete mess to clean up - notice the cheese boiling on the pizza stone at the top left:

Ugh.  The second pizza I made that night didn't stick quite as badly, but still wasn't a particularly exciting outcome. 

I had frozen 4 of the 6 dough balls I made, so when it came time to pull 2 from the freezer, things went a little more smoothly.  I got better at managing the stickiness and developed my skills at stretching the dough, and came out with some pretty decent pies!  Here's one from week 2 - hubby requested his half with olives:



It looks like pizza!  And tasted like pizza!  And didn't make a mess of my pizza stone! 

I thought I was quickly getting the hang of things until it was time to try making dough again.  I was very excited to find that the second time around I didn't have nearly the same issues with the dough sticking to everything, but unfortunately that translated into it not tasting very good, either.  Instead of being springy and sticky, it tore very easily and tasted very bready when cooked, instead of the chewy/crunchy combination you'd expect from pizza.  The dough kept climbing up the center shaft while it was mixing, so I'm wondering if I didn't get a good enough knead?  Made me think that maybe the dough shouldn't have been quite so sticky the first time around, though.

One more try in the food processor, and this time not only was the machine bouncing all over the counter, but dough got into the center shaft, slowed down my motor, and caused a burning smell because it was working so hard.  Very scary!  The dough that time came out tasty again, but I started to think pizza making should be put on hold until I had access to a stand mixer. 

That opportunity came as soon as I moved in with my parents this summer.  I pulled out my mom's mixer so I could make pizza for everyone and was very disappointed to see the heavy mixer bouncing all over the counter, too - I felt like I couldn't let go of it for a second!  I tried one more time with my newer mixer when we got to the new house.  This was a little less scary; I think my mixer might be a little more sturdy, and the resulting dough was really good.  Plus, I also had a chance to try out a new cooking method - we made pizzas on the grill, which were delicious!

But with the new house I also got a bread machine, which people have been telling me for months would be great for making dough - I had to check it out!  This has turned out to be the best option yet.  I will be telling you more about my love for my bread machine in other posts, but for now let's just say that 10 minutes in the bread machine has yielded delicious dough with no kitchen appliances bouncing around my counters, and the easiest clean-up - a few measuring cups/spoons and the non-stick loaf pan and beaters.  I am totally sold on this approach, but will post the stand mixer option as well for those of you who I don't manage to convince to invest in a bread machine :)  Detailed pizza recipes will hopefully be on their way soon, including how to make dough in the stand mixer or bread machine, and how to cook pizza using a pizza stone in the oven or directly on the grill.

The Pizza Story (3) - Making Dough

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Once I had all of my ingredients, it was time to figure out what to do with them!  The recipe I was working from was based on a stand mixer, but my stand mixer is in storage until I move out of the city in a few months.  However, I recently bought a new fancy food processor which came with a dough blade.  I am nerdy enough that I actually watched the instructional video that came with the food processor, and I remembered that one of the examples they showed was making pizza dough - perfect!  I had to do a little digging on the Cuisinart website to find the clip (I'm pretty sure that dvd became a toy for the munchkin at some point), but it seemed like the recipe could be adjusted easily enough.

So the night before pizza night, I pulled out my food processor and all of the dough ingredients and got to work.  I carefully read the instructions on the back of my yeast packet on activation, and was really excited when it actually started to foam like it was supposed to (this took a few minutes, long enough for me to get nervous and google how long it was supposed to take!).  I measured out my flour and salt, blended in the food processor, and added my yeast, water, and olive oil.  I had to stop and scrape down the sides to get it to come together...I also had to hold onto my food processor which looked like it was about to jump off the counter!  Not sure if that's supposed to happen, but after several minutes of kneading, like magic, a sticky ball did form. 

The next stop was getting it onto the counter to cut into pieces.  Did I mention the dough was sticky?  When I say sticky, I mean ridiculously sticky!  I had to stop yet again to wash my hands and then thoroughly coat them with flour, in addition to coating the pile of dough with flour.  Ahh, I was finally able to cut it into pieces, roll them into balls, coat with oil, and get them into plastic bags.  I have to say that once I got the stickiness under control, playing with the dough was pretty fun :) 

Two bags went into the fridge for the next night, and the other four into the freezer for future weeks.  I couldn't wait until dinner the next night to see how it would go!

Read here to find out how it turned out!

The Pizza Story (2) - Ingredients

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The first step in my pizza dough adventure was to find a recipe.  I wanted my crust to be 100% whole wheat, which is apparently a tall order. Almost every whole wheat recipe I found had a combination of whole wheat and refined white flour, until I found one on 101 Cookbooks that uses white whole wheat flour.

Before you stop me and say that white whole wheat is a contradiction, let me share what I've learned: most traditional flour is made from hard red winter wheat.  Producing all-purpose flour requires stripping away the nutritious bran and germ to leave only the endosperm, which is then ground up.  This produces a much lighter and softer flour than the whole-wheat flour produced from the whole grain.  But there is another kind of wheat - soft white wheat, or albino wheat, which is lighter in color and has a texture and taste closer to refined white flour. This flour has virtually the same nutritional benefits as the hard red variety, allowing it to be used in its whole grain form without compromising the texture to the same degree as regular whole wheat flour. Sounds pretty amazing, right?

So, despite the fact that my small apartment-sized pantry now houses all-purpose flour, stone-ground whole wheat flour, whole wheat pastry flour, whole wheat bread flour, cornmeal, and coconut flour, I decided I had to add white whole wheat flour to the collection. This was not as easy as it sounded - I had to look in about 6 grocery and health food stores before I finally found it!

The other ingredient I needed to find was yeast.  Not having any experience with yeast, I bought the first one I found, which was active dry yeast.  Upon rereading the recipe at home I realized that it actually called for instant yeast.  I had no idea if these were interchangable or completely different, so I did a bit of reading.  Apparently the instant variety is more potent, so you can add it directly to dry ingredients rather than activating it first in water.  But you can substitute one for the other, adjusting the recipe to use about 20% more active dry yeast and activating it first using some of the liquid in the recipe.  Next time I will try to find instant yeast since it seems like it would be much easier to skip the activation step!

I was now set to give it a try, as the other ingredients - salt, olive oil, and cornmeal - were all in my pantry.  More to come on how it went in the next installment!

The Pizza Story (1) - Introduction

A few months ago, I read Barbara Kingsolver's book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, which is about the author's family's decision to move to a farm in West Virginia and subsist almost entirely on home or locally grown and produced foods for one year.  I found their commitment to organic, local, and sustainable food to be incredibly inspiring.  And while my lack of green thumb and current residence in a high rise apartment building without outdoor space to call my own does not really facilitate my ability to grow food, reading this book did reignite my motivation to purchase local food and make things from scratch whenever possible.

One of the Kingsolver family's traditions was to have homemade pizza every Friday night.  For many people, making pizza at home means throwing a frozen pie into the oven.  The somewhat more motivated might use pre-made crust, jarred sauce, and some shredded processed mozzarella.  The Kingsolver family, however, took this about 100 steps further, even making their own cheese and growing their own tomatoes!  I think that that pizza is one of the most universally loved foods throughout much of the world - even my father who doesn't like tomato sauce or cheese (I know, hard to believe, right?) ranks pizza on the top of his list!  But it also often falls under the unhealthy category, presumably because it generally consists of white crust loaded with tons of cheese and other unhealthy toppings.  But just like mac & cheese, I believe pizza can be a very wholesome meal when made properly (whole grain crust, moderate cheese) and topped with veggies and/or served with a big salad.

One day I hope to eat a pizza in which every component was created from basic ingredients in my home.  Before reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle I didn't even know it was possible to make cheese at home, but I now have a cheesemaking book tucked away on my shelf for a future project :).  But just as every journey starts with a single step, I've decided to start with figuring out how to make my own wholesome crust.  Given my lack of dough making experience (I have never made anything using yeast!) I have a feeling it's going to take me a while to get this right. 

Please feel free to join me on this pizza journey as I document each step along the way in a few blog posts to come over the next several weeks, or months, or maybe years :)

Read on for part 2 - the ingredients!