Since the beginning of our marriage, I’ve been making this pizza dough. Way back then when we were two adorable married college students who had no clue what was in store for our lives and honestly couldn’t afford to buy a lot of meat, we’d make this pizza dough and throw a bunch of veggies on it. Homemade pizza is one of the hubby’s favorite meals, and he loves to top it with trusty ol’ Trader Joe’s BBQ sauce. In fact, every time he comes home from basic training or a long away rotation, he always requests this meal.
Over time, of course, we’ve added some yummy chicken or sausage to it.
The best part about this pizza dough? It’s whole wheat!
And, it is incredibly easy to make. Like, it’s much faster to make this homemade dough than to load all your kids in the car, drive to the grocery store, take the kids out of the car, buy already made pizza dough, chase one kid down and tell him, “No, you cannot have that box of cookies,” face the consequences of telling cookie kid ‘no,’ pay for the dough, put the kids back in the car, drive home, and realize you still have to chop up all the ingredients to put on the pizza.
Ingredients:
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 1/4 teaspoons rapid rise yeast (equivalent to one envelope)
1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt
1 cup hot, hot water
1 tablespoon sugar or honey
1 tablespoon olive oil or grapeseed oil
Olive oil spray
Instructions:
1. Heat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Stir in flour, yeast, and salt in large bowl.
3. Add hot water, sugar and oil.
4. Mix together well with hands or a wooden spoon.
5. Sprinkle a little flour over the dough and form it into a ball. Spray some olive oil around the edges of your working bowl.
6. Let the ball of dough sit (I typically cover the bowl with a large dish towel) for 40 minutes to 1 hour. **Note: Heat rises, so put it on top of your fridge OR even stick it in the dryer right after you’ve done a load of clothes … this also prevents wandering little hands that grow to reach your kitchen counter and then knock your beautiful culinary creation to the ground** You can certainly let it sit longer, but the minimum is 40 minutes.
7. On a floured surface, roll out the dough.
8. Throw on your toppings.
9. Bake for 15-20 minutes.
Voila! Enjoy experimenting with different toppings.
