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I’m baaaaaaack and I missed you!
I’m currently suffering from Empty Nest Syndrome since my family left yesterday. Luckily, the Bachelorette and some leftover wine consoled me last night.
Saturday night, I threw a ‘Build your own pizza party’ with my family. Initially, I was worried that the pizza wouldn’t turn out and everyone would be disappointed, but my worries vanished as soon I saw the beautiful pizzas come out of the oven and the kids faces light up!
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If you followed my Project Food Blog journey last year, you may know that I used to be terrified to make my own pizza dough crust from scratch. Actually, any type of bread baking involving yeast terrified me for years! I stuck to buying pre-made crusts at the grocery store. It was only when I was faced with Project Food Blog’s Pizza Challenge, that I had to face my pizza dough fears and dive right in.
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That night, I tried out 5-6 pizza dough recipes right there in my kitchen with a bottle of wine. It was fabulous. I created all kinds of flavours like herb and cheeze, chocolate, and cinnamon sugar. Most of them tasted horrible, but I was learning!
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After 10 trials of pizza dough, I finally conquered my pizza dough fear and I discovered that sometimes you just have to get flour in your keyboard, dough stuck in your hair, and polish off a bottle of wine until you find your groove. it’s a life mantra, really.
After talking with my family this weekend, I discovered that so many of us have this same fear about making pizza dough from scratch. Today, I’m going to show you step by step how to make the pizza dough of your dreams!
I’ll wait here for a second while you get your apron on and pour yourself some wine.
Ready?
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Let’s begin.
How To Make Homemade Whole Wheat Pizza Dough
Recipe –> For my whole wheat pizza dough recipe, I used this ‘Amazing Whole Wheat Pizza Crust’ by Marla on Allrecipes.com. It is rated 4.5/5 stars by 578 users! It’s my fav!
Step 1) Proof your Yeast
In a large bowl, dissolve 1 teaspoon of white sugar in 1 and 1/2 cups warm water (about 45C/110F). Stir until dissolved. Now sprinkle 1 tablespoon dry active yeast on top of the sugar-water mixture and let stand until foamy, for 8-10 minutes.
It will look like this after 10 minutes (if it doesn’t foam, your yeast is inactive!)
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Step 2) Mix in olive oil and flour
Add 1 tablespoon olive oil into the yeast mixture and gently stir. Now, mix in 2 cups of whole wheat flour and 1 cup of all-purpose flour and stir until the dough starts to come together.
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The dough will be very cracked and scruffy looking at this point and this is totally NORMAL! Do not fear!!
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Step 3) Flour the surface
Add the remaining 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour onto the counter and place dough on top.
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Tip: At this point, soak your bowl in soap and warm water for easy rinsing later!
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Step 4) Knead the dough
Now it’s time to knead the dough (for a great video tutorial, see here) until all of the flour has been absorbed and the ball of dough becomes very smooth and non-tacky. This is the point when you will feel like you did something horribly wrong because your dough looks like crap! But, trust me, it will eventually come together in 8-10 minutes of kneading!!! It really does take the full 8-10 minutes until it comes together. Shape into a ball. Once you make a few pizza doughs, you will know exactly when it’s ready.
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And yes, kneading dough by hand is a workout, but we’ve never been afraid of a little work, right?
I tried a few pizza doughs with my KitchenAid stand mixer dough hook last Fall and they never came out as good as kneading by hand. There’s a reason why pizzerias still knead dough by hand!
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5) Admire your beautiful ball of dough that you worked so hard on!
Your dough will look like this after 8-10 minutes of kneading:
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6) Oil the Bowl
Rinse bowl and lightly oil it. Place dough ball in the bowl and lightly move it around to coat the ball with oil. This will prevent it from sticking to the bowl as it rises.
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7) Let the dough rise
Place dough in the bowl and cover with a towel. Let it rise until it’s doubled in size, about 1 hour. In the summer, I just leave the dough on the counter, but if it’s cold, you might want to place it in the oven (NOT turned on) with the light on to keep it warm.
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After rising, punch out the air.
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8.) Second Rise
Divide dough into two balls (for 2 thin crusts) and place both on a floured surface. Allow the 2 balls to rise, uncovered, for 45 minutes.
I made a double batch of this dough recipe, so I had 4 balls at this stage!
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9) Preheat oven and Shape the dough
Preheat the oven to 425-450F. (If using a pizza stone, preheat the pizza stone for 1 hour at 450-500 F and sprinkle on cornmeal onto your pizza peel) Punch out any remaining air in the dough and then begin shaping with your hands. I like to toss it in small circles over and over to get it going. It takes a few minutes to get the dough pliable and ready to spread onto the pizza pan or stone.
You can place your dough onto an oiled pizza pan or onto a Pizza Peel sprinkled with cornmeal if using a Pizza Stone.
Spread out the dough with your fingers until your desired shape is achieved.
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Gently pinch the crust with your fingers.
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I like to spread on garlic infused olive oil onto the crust to give it flavour.
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10) Add your sauce and toppings!
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Add your tomato, pesto, or BBQ sauce..and then sprinkle on your toppings! I used Daiya cheese on my section and most of the adults tried it and commented on how good this vegan cheese is. It’s a great non-dairy alternative!
The kids loved building their own pizzas!! So cute :)
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11) Bake until golden and cooked through
If using a pre-heated Pizza Stone, use your pizza peel to gently slide the pizza onto the stone in the oven. I highly prefer pizza stones because they give the pizza a very authentic crispy crust!!
Last Fall, I tested three popular pizza baking methods:
1) Pizza pan –> Soft crust, soft interior
2) Back of a baking sheet –> Soft crust, soft interior
3) Pizza Stone –> Authentic, crunchy crust, with soft interior
The pizza stone won by a landslide!
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However, on Saturday night, we used pans to save time since we had 3 large and 4 mini pizzas to cook! It was just enough dough for everyone (I made a double batch).
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After baking for about 15 minutes, pizza perfection was achieved.
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Nothing to be scared of, trust me!
Now, go on and try your hand at your own homemade pizza crust. I’m confident you can rock it!!
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Pizza from scratch is always a crowd pleaser no matter who you are entertaining.
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Pizza fear conquered.
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Now who wants to come over for a pizza party?
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We can have Fruit Pizza with Avocado Lime whip for dessert. ;)
This looks incredible. I love the action shots of the dough making in progress!
The toppings… oh the toppings… mmmm!
What did you put on the pizza that has the green sauce? Is that pesto and tomatoes? Anyway, it looks delish and I would very much like to try it!
This looked so yummy when I saw it yesterday that I knew what was for dinner…pizza! I also loved the idea of pesto, so whipped some up and used it as the sauce base. Thanks for the recipe! The crust turned out perfect, crisp and yet still soft :) With the added bonus that it makes two pizzas, leftovers!
Glad you enjoyed it Liana!
I used to use my bread machine before it died and it always came out perfect! Since then, I’ve only made it once or twice for calzones. I’ve been so wanting to have a build your own pizza party, but every weekend seems to get too busy! I saw another post today about making pizza at home and now it is going to have to be on my must-do-now list!!
I loved this tutorial!!!
do you know if you can freeze or refrigerate the dough you don’t use? And for how long?
thanks!
Love the pesto pizza. We’ve made it twice already and its my favorite!
I know many people freeze pizza dough, I would try googling it as Im not sure on the specifics.
I’m glad you posted this- you have me believing I can make great pizza crust from scratch:-).
Wow Angela, these pizzas look pro! I too have a fear of using yeast (except in cinnamon buns, which always seem to turn out for me). I have tried making homemade pizza dough several times, never with great success, but I’m definitely going to try this recipe. Love the fruit pizza at the end – what a pizza feast!
Hi Angela, I plan to make this pizza dough for dinner tomorrow night and was wondering if the recipe would still work using all whole wheat flour? I do not have any all purpous flour and would need to go out and buy some if it’s neccesary. This is my first time making my own pizza dough so wish me luck. Thanks!! ~Leslie
I think it would be quite dense if using all whole wheat flour….let me know if you try it out though!
Thanks!! I don’t mind dense baked goods so I’ll probably try it with all whole wheat and I’ll let you know how it comes out. Either way, the delicious toppings will still be edible even if the dough isn’t :)
This looks so good and so easy that I am sharing it with my team on Sparkpeople.com!
http://www.sparkpeople.com/myspark/team_messageboard_thread.asp?board=13192x37110x43359130
Oh, I know exactly what you mean about sometimes needing a glass of wine to help you find your groove. If I pour a glass and put some good music on things just seem to flow a little better (my favourite part about making pizza dough is punching it down. So satisfying).
Next, if you haven’t already, make sure to try grilling your homemade pizza! If you’re a fan of the pizza stone, you’ll probably like this. My usual route is to roll/pat out dough in a manageable size (divided into personal-sized lumps), brush some olive oil on one side, and put oil-side down on the heated grill. 3-4 min later (depending on temp), pull it off, spread sauce/toppings on the grilled side and put back on the grill until heated thru/cheese melted if applicable. Enjoy!
mm great idea!
I made pizza last night, and it was a bit of a fail. I’ve made dough in the past and had success, but I tried a different combination of flours (as suggested by a customer at work), and I knew once I started kneading it probably wouldn’t turn out as planned. I cooked it up anyways, and we ate it, but I won’t be doing that again. I almost feel like I need to make pizza again just to erase that bad pizza dough experience!
WOW! thanks for the amazing step-by-step… just another reason to feed my crazy pizza cravings haha
What type of flour did you use? Or did you add spices to your dough? I can see flakes in your dough that I don’t have.
This pizza was amazing! I’m definitely making it again!!!
Hey Tina, I’m glad to hear you enjoyed the pizza, thanks for letting me know!
I love love pizza. I love finding new pizza recipes and trying them out. My husband does not like pizza as much as I do, So I only make it when I know he is not hungry or out of town. I love your blog , I will definitly have to bookmark this page. Thanks Thanks this page is making me hungry!!
Hey Angela! Just wondering if this pizza dough is vegan?! I made it last night and it was soooooo good, but i’m just newly vegan (only a little over a month) and only thought about it after that the yeast is probably not vegan and i’m a little freaked out?! haha Guess we cant all be perfect.
Ps. Your blog is my life. As a young adult struggeling with self body image I am truly inspired by your story. Thank you so much! :)
Hey Megan, Yup yeast is vegan. :) Thanks for your kind words about my blog! Goodluck to you.
Did I read the recipie right that it is only 1/2 cup water? I tried and tried to get 3 cups of flour mixed in and it was a mess and my hands are sore…I had to add some water to mine and it still seems very, very dry…it’s rising now so we will see…
Nevermind, after looking at it again I realized it was 1 1/2 cups …now no more flour to re-do it… guess we wont be having that tonight! GRR