Homemade Whole Wheat Pizza Dough

Whole wheat pizza dough offers terrific nutty flavor and thin crust crunch.  It's easy to make, and you can increasingly find it in stores (Read the ingredients to make sure it's truly 100% whole wheat.  Trader Joes sells 100% whole wheat dough.)

Homemade pizza dough is easy and quick - 5 minutes to set it going, and in an hour you've got homemade.

INGREDIENTS
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup medium grind cornmeal (optional - for a nice crunch in the crust)
1 TB wheat gluten (also optional, will help with dough structure)
2 tsp salt
1 TB yeast
2 cups lukewarm water

DIRECTIONS

Place the flour, corn meal if using, gluten if using, salt, yeast, and stir to combine.  I use a whisk for this. Pour in the water and olive oil, and mix a sturdy rubber spatula for a few minutes to create a wet dough.  Let it sit for an hour, go at it with the spatula again, and in another half hour or so it will be ready to use (or store in the fridge for a day or two). After that hour you will notice that the dough takes on a pliable, elastic texture. This is a good time to preheat your oven.

When ready to make pizza, scrape the dough onto a floured surface, and separate into two pieces (or three, if you like smaller pizzas).  Roll each piece out into pizza shape on your floured surface (or twirl if you're brave).  To transfer to a baking sheet, I like to fold the dough over itself in half, then into quarters, transferring to a floured baking sheet, then unfolding again to full size and dressing as you like.  If you have a pizza peel, you also have the option of preparing your pizza on the peel and placing directly on a heated pizza stone in your hot oven.

Recipe:  Tod Dimmick