Pizza is like ice cream, right? Kids love it. We make it a lot and the kids always help me out; mixing the ingredients, kneading the dough, even rolling it out (with a little bit of help from me) and they love topping their own pizza of course! We use a whole wheat pizza dough and top it with homemade tomato sauce.
This whole wheat pizza dough recipe is fairly healthy. I use whole wheat flour for the dough and my homemade oven roasted tomato sauce to top it with. The flavor of this sauce is so rich and deep, the taste of your pizza will be through the roof so good!
How to make this whole wheat pizza dough?
First a ‘rough’ dough
This whole wheat pizza recipe comes together quite fast. Mix water, sugar and yeast and leave to rest for 5 minutes. This is called ‘proofing’ your yeast. It will be foamy after 5 minutes. If not, throw it out, your yeast is dead.
Once your yeast mixture is foamy, mix it with all the other ingredients except the flour in a bowl by hand (or in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with a hook attachment on low for 30 seconds). Add 375 grams of whole wheat flour and with a large rubber spatula (or in a stand mixer mix with the dough hook on low speed) until dough starts to come together. Now you have a ‘rough’ dough.
Kneading
Place it on your countertop and knead the dough for 8-10 minutes for good gluten development. The point of kneading dough (by stretching it out over and over again) is to strengthen the gluten, which gives it structure and texture. You are looking for a smooth dough that will hold its shape (if it runs through your fingers, knead some more because the gluten isn’t tight and strong yet).
If your dough is too wet, add up to 1/3 cup more whole wheat flour. I only needed 1/4 cup more whole wheat flour. After kneading, your dough should be smooth and elastic. Poke it with your finger, if it slowly bounces back, your dough is ready to rise. If not, keep kneading.
Rise & roll out
Shape the dough into a ball and place in a large mixing bowl that has been coated lightly with olive oil. Turn it over to coat all sides. Cover with a tea towel and allow to rise in a warm place (about 77F/25C) for about 1-2 hours depending on the climate your are in.
In the meantime I usually prepare all the toppings; I make my own tomato sauce, grate cheese and get all the other ingredients ready.
Once the dough has risen, cut it in 4 and roll each pieces (or 2 for large pizzas) into a ball and leave for 15-20 minutes under a tea towel. In the meantime preheat your oven to 475F/245C or as high as it will go. And lightly grease and dust 4 baking sheets or pizza pans with olive oil. Sprinkle with cornmeal (preferred for flavor and texture) or flour. Tap excess cornmeal out of the pan.
Now roll out each dough ball into a pizza base (you can actually also work the dough with your hands, stretching it out into a round pizza shape, in stead of rolling it out with a rolling pin). Place you pizza dough into your greased and dusted pizza base
Now that you have your 4 medium sized pizza bases, you can add tomato sauce, cheese and/or all your favorite toppings.
Pizza toppings:
You can top your homemade pizza with whatever you like. The options are endless. Our current favorites are:
- Our 10-year-old Jack’s: triple cheese; mozzarella, parmesan and I have added my homemade vegan cheese to his pizza a few times now and he devoured it. WIN! (I have added the recipe for this cheese in recipe notes below). And a sprinkle of fresh oregano leaves;
- Our 8-year-old Cooper’s: Margherita; tomato sauce and cheese… we are working on it, but like I said, a ‘plain’ tomato sauce and cheese pizza isn’t a punishment using my oven roasted tomato sauce or even this oven roasted veggies sauce;
- Marc’s: mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, fresh basil, oregano and thyme (all home grown!!) and burrata;
- Mine: caramelized red onion, roasted bell pepper, chopped hazelnuts and vegan pizza cheese which I amp up by blending in 4 cloves of roasted garlic.
If you ask my boys what they want for dinner, they’ll always say: ‘pizza!’. So you could say this is a definite WINNER DINNER. Are you with me? It is
wholesome – versatile – so flavorful – a kid’s favorite – & delicious
Pizza on its own is great of course, but with a shot of gazpacho as a starter this is a full and wholesome meal. Or to make this an even bigger kids’ favorite serve our chocolate chip cookie dough bites or chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches for dessert!
Love pizza? Check out my caprese pizza, eggplant parmesan pizza, family sheet pan pizza, mini pizza buns, tortilla pizza and grilled peach prosciutto pizza.
Whole wheat pizza dough
Equipment
- Pizza plate or baking tray
Ingredients
- 450 ml luke warm water (approx. 1 cup)
- 4 tsp active dry yeast
- 2 tsp raw organic sugar (or sub honey)
- 800 gr white whole wheat flour (approx. 3¼ cups)(or sub regular whole wheat flour)
- 1½ tsp fine grain sea salt
- 6 tbsp olive oil
- 1-2 tbsp cornmeal (for dusting your baking sheet)(or use flour)
Basic toppings (recommended)
- 1-1¼ cup tomato sauce (I use my homemade oven roasted tomato sauce*)
- ¾-1 cup (grated) cheese (of your choice)
Instructions
- Whisk together sugar, yeast, and 150ml/ ⅔ cup of luke warm water. Let it rest for 5 minutes.
- In the meantime, mix 750 grams/6 cups of flour and salt in a large mixing bowl. Make it look like a volcano, with a hole in the middle.
- Pour yeast mixture, the rest of the water and olive oil in the hole and mix with a wooden spatula until a rough dough is formed (or use a stand mixer with the dough paddle attached on low).
- Place dough on your kitchen countertop that you dusted with some flour and knead the dough for about 10 minutes. Stretching it out over and over again until an elastic, smooth and firm dough forms. If the dough is too wet add a (few) tbsp of flour (up to 50 grams/ ½ cups). (Again, you can do this as well in a stand mixer).
- Let it rest for 1-2 hour in a greased bowl covered with a tea towel (the dough should have doubled in size more or less).
- Place dough back on the countertop (add some flour again… not too much though!) and punch it down. Cut the dough in 4 pieces (for 4 medium size pizzas) and roll each piece into a ball. Cover with a towel for 15 minutes.
- Preheat oven to as high as your oven will go (245C/475F). And lightly grease and dust 4 baking sheets or pizza pans with olive oil. Sprinkle with cornmeal (preferred for flavor and texture) or flour. Tap excess cornmeal out of the pan.
- Roll out each ball with a rolling pin (rub pin with flour first so the dough doesn't stick to it). Or use your hands and stretch and pull it out into a pizza shape.
- Place each pizza base on a baking tray. Your pizza is ready for toppings (sauce, cheese etc).
- Slide your pizza in the preheated oven and bake it for 5-7 minutes until golden brown and bubbly! Take it out of the oven and cut into slices. Careful hot!
Notes
- 2 handfuls of cashew nuts, soaked overnight
- juice of half a lemon
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1 1/2tbsp nutritional yeast flakes
- sea salt
- dash of pepper
DID YOU MAKE THIS RECIPE?
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