Whole Wheat Pizza Dough

I love making my own pizza dough. I have been doing it for a couple years now. We started with a thicker crust and more recently I have started making a thinner crust. The thinner crust makes for a shorter cooking time as well as less calories, since it is less bread.  Another bonus to the thinner crust is I have enough to make a mini pizza for my son. That way we can add whatever we want to our pizza and not have to worry about him. 

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough

1 cup warm/hot water
2 tsp olive oil, divided
1 tbs honey
1 packet dry active yeast
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 3/4 all-purpose flour (plus a little extra)
1 tsp kosher salt

• In a small bowl mix the water, 1 tsp of the olive oil, and the honey. 
• Sprinkle yeast on top (do not mix the yeast), let sit for 10 minutes or until the yeast is foamy.
• Meanwhile, in a food processor with a dough blade, lightly mix the whole wheat flour, 1 cup of the all-purpose flour and the kosher salt. 
• When the yeast mixture is ready, pour in the food processor. Lightly mix.
•  Add in the remaining 3/4 cup all-purpose flour and mix until a large dough ball forms. Dough should not be too sticky but not too dry either.
• Knead on a floured surface until dough is no longer sticky and form into a ball. 
• In a large glass bowl put in the remaining 1 tsp of olive oil, then roll the dough ball in the bowl until it is covered in the oil. 
• Cover with plastic wrap and let sit for 1 hour, or until dough has doubled in size. 
• Preheat oven to 440/450, place the rack on the bottom of the oven. The thicker your dough, the higher the temperature.
• Punch down the dough and let sit for 10 minutes. 
• Depending on how thick you want your crust you will want to roll out your dough a different way. 
• For a thicker pizza, roll out the dough directly on the pizza pan (already sprayed with cooking spray). That way it is easier to make sure it is rolled out round. 
• For a thinner crust, roll out dough on a floured surface. Place pizza pan on top of the dough and cut out the dough. Transfer dough to pan sprayed with cooking spray. 
• Add toppings. 
•  Cook pizza for 15-20 minutes, until crust is a light golden brown and cheese is melted and starting to bubble.  After 3 minutes, splash water in bottom of the oven, do this 3 times in 3 minute increments. Then keep the oven closed for the remaining time. 

This pizza recipe has become a favorite in our house. Even though it takes a little bit of planning in advance with allowing the pizza dough to rise, it is one of our go to recipes when we do not want a lot of preparation.  I love putting veggies on my pizzas the more the better, my usual go to ingredients are red peppers, black olives, onions (red or white), quartered artichoke hearts, mushrooms, it just usually depends on what we have in the house. I have also started mixing mozzarella with cheddar, it gives just that little extra flavor. Every time I make pizza my husband says, "This is your best pizza yet!" I must be doing something right with the way I have changed how I make this pizza.