Wheat Pizza Dough

This recipe was given to me by my friend, Matt, and I have used it ever since because I love it so much(and it's super simple).  My family has homemade pizza almost every Friday night. Pizza Friday! It's also a lot of fun to host a Pizza Party and have a toppings bar for your guest to build their own pizza. 

Ingredients:

• ½ cup warm water (about 110°)
• 1 envelope (2 ¼ tsp.) instant yeast
• 1 ¼ cups water, at room temperature
• 2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 cups bread (or all purpose) flour, plus more for dusting
• 3 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 tbsp. ground flaxseed (or more, if you dare)
• 1 ½ tsp. salt
• olive oil or non-stick cooking spray for greasing the bowl

1)  Measure the warm water into a 2-cup liquid measuring cup. Sprinkle in the yeast and let stand until the yeast dissolves and swells, about 5 minutes. Add the room temperature water and oil and stir to combine.

2)  Place all dry ingrediants in a bowl and combine. Add the wet ingrediants and lightly mix so everything is wet. Let stand for about thirty minutes covered with a towel. Using wet hands on a clean and surface, knead the dough for about 3-5 minutes or until it feels smooth and elastic. Form the dough into a ball, put it in a deep oiled bowl, and cover with plastic wrap.

3)  Let rise until doubled in size, about 1 ½ to 2 hours on the counter OR place in the refrigerator overnight to rise slowly.

4) To bake, place a pizza stone in the lower third of the oven. Heat the oven to 450° for at least 30 minutes. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Divide the dough into two equal pieces. Form both pieces of dough into smooth, round balls and cover with a damp cloth. Let the dough relax for at least 10 minutes but no more than 30 minutes.

5)  Working with one piece of dough and keeping the other covered, shape the dough and transfer to a pizza peel or round of parchment dusted with semolina or cornmeal. Top as desired. Slide the dough onto the pizza stone. Bake until the crust edges brown and cheese is golden brown in spots, about 8 to 12 minutes. Repeat with remaining ball of dough or freeze for later use.

NOTE:  I make my dough in a 2qt. batter bowl from Pampered Chef.  It works great!

I haven't mastered how to get the uncooked pizza onto the stone so I choose to take the stone out and built it on the stone, then return it to the oven to bake. You must work quickly as the dough starts to cook right away.  Also, I prefer to make smaller personal size pizzas.  You can roll as thick or thin as you like.  Have fun with it!