Another Pizza Crust

Today is Friday, and at the Keys' house, Friday means pizza for supper and family night! My very first post on this blog was about making your own pizza using Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Pizza crust. We love this crust, but last month, I ran out with a Friday to spare. I buy my crust in bulk from Amazon.com, and I was too cheap to pay full price for it at our local grocery stores.

We didn't want to skip pizza for supper on Friday, though. It's tradition now, and we look forward to it all week, so I decided to try a homemade crust recipe using ingredients I already had on hand. The crust turned out great, and I've since repeated the recipe for several other occasions.

We really like this homemade crust! Out of our family of 5, 1 voted they liked Bob's crust better, 1 voted that ours was better, and 3 voted that they were both equally yummy.

This crust is not hard to make, but if you pull out the recipe at 6:00 with high hopes of eating by 6:30, you're going to be disappointed! Although the recipe is not terribly labor intensive, you have to leave enough time for it to sit and rise before baking. If you don't have very much time in the evening to prepare food, consider making the crust the night before. It can rise while you clean up the kitchen, help the kids with homework, or watch your favorite TV show. Then, on the next day when you're ready to eat pizza, all you have to do is add the toppings and bake. (Hint: If you know you're going to be pressed for time, you can also make the sauce ahead of time.)

I've adapted this crust recipe from 100 Days of Real Food.

Homemade Pizza Crust

Ingredients:
1 cup warm water
2 tsp. yeast (I use the fast rising)
2 tsp. kosher salt
2 Tbsp. olive oil
3 cups 100% whole wheat flour
sea salt (optional)
crushed rosemary (optional)

I've used both the white whole wheat and the red (aka regular!) whole wheat flour in this recipe. The white gives the pizza a lighter texture and milder taste, which some people like better in a pizza crust. If you like the whole wheat taste, go for the flour made from red wheat. They're both 100% whole grain--as long as you make sure to buy 100% whole wheat!

Directions:
Pour the warm water into a medium bowl or large measuring cup and add the yeast. Gently stir with a whisk, then leave for a few minutes until the yeast bubbles up. Add the olive oil and salt, then stir again with the whisk. Place the flour in a food processor with the "S" blade, then pour the wet ingredients over it. Mix with the food processor until the dough forms a large lump. Note: Although my dough usually forms a large ball, occasionally it doesn't. If it's been a couple of minutes, and you still have several smaller chunks that aren't connecting instead of a large ball, it's probably done. Turn off the processor, pull out all of the smaller pieces, and form the ball yourself.

While the dough is mixing in the food processor, coat the inside of a large bowl with olive oil. After you take the lump of dough out of the food processor, set it in the bowl, then cover the bowl with a towel or some plastic wrap and let it sit until it rises. Generally, this should take about an hour, but it can take even longer. You can also stick it in the fridge and let it rise overnight.

Once the dough has risen, roll it out to make it as thick or thin as you like. We like ours pretty thin, so we can actually get 2 pizzas out of this dough.

Place the uncooked crust on a pan coated with olive oil, then sprinkle sea salt and crushed rosemary over the crust (optional). Pierce the crust in several places with a fork to avoid bubbles forming, then bake at 450 for a few minutes until the crust is dry and set on top. It doesn't have to completely cook.

Pull the crust out, add your toppings, such as homemade pizza sauce, homemade sausage, ground beef, veggies, and of course, cheese that you grate yourself. (Buying blocks of cheese instead of pre-grated is a little more work, but that way you avoid all the fun additives they put in shredded cheese.)

Once you've added your toppings, put the pizza back in the oven and bake until the cheese melts and browns slightly.