100% Whole Wheat Pizza Dough

For my first attempt at cooking with yeast, I made simple pizza dough similar to this one. However, as a yeast rookie, I did not quite fully understand the value of ‘warm water.’ When I added the yeast to the hot almost boiling water I did not get the described foamy solution. Mistake #1. I figured maybe I didn’t know what I was looking for and moved on to the next step. Ha, Mistake #2. I made my dough and left it to rise. Well obviously it didn’t rise, but I figured, hey I’ve come this far…I’m going to use it. Major Mistake #3. Needless to say, although it was edible, it was NOT very good. (I actually attempted some rolls on Thanksgiving following Mistakes 1-3 AGAIN believe it or not.)

This time around, I checked my water temperature (104 = good to go!) and actually saw this so called foamy solution. AND the dough actually rose! Woohoo! Mission accomplished: I successfully made a dough involving yeast!

Now that I have this perfect piece of pizza dough, I went on to make my pizza using my brand new ceramic pizza stone. This is where it gets interesting. I put the stone in the pre heating over as instructed and assembled my pizza on a separate tray. Well, I should have though that one through a little bit more because transferring the pizza from tray to stone was next to impossible. It was quite the comedy to watch both my husband and I attempting this. We managed to somehow get the pizza onto the stone, but it was not pretty. In stretched in some spots and bunched up in others. It turned into this lumpy piece of dough with a whole bunch of toppings on it (and the bottom of my oven!). The result was half a pizza thin crisp style and half deep dish style. Sigh, I’ll get this right eventually! Lesson learned.

As for the actual dough, I liked it. I thought the honey added a nice sweetness. Bryan wasn’t too enthused about the 100% whole wheat, so next time I might substitute some all purpose flour. Or maybe I’ll just cook it correctly, that might help too. ;)

Adapted from How Sweet It Is

Ingredients
1 packet dry active yeast
3/4 cup warm water (100 – 110 degrees F)
2 cups 100% whole wheat flour
2 tbl honey
2 tbl olive oil + more to rub on bowl
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning

Directions
1. Mix yeast and warm water and let sit until foamy.

2. In a separate bowl, mix flour, seasoning and salt together.

3. Once yeast is foamy, add in olive oil and honey and stir.

4. Mix into flour and knead to create dough. You may need to add a bit more flour if dough is too sticky.

5. Place in an olive oil-rubbed bowl and cover. Let rise for 2-3 hours.

6. Preheat oven and pizza stone to 425 for 10-20 minutes.

7. Roll dough to desired shape and thickness. Add toppings of your preference.

8. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until crust is golden brown and cheese is completely melted.

The Facts
(Dough Only)

6 Servings
**I used SparkRecipes.com to create a full customized nutrition report. I plan on using this for all future recipes**