Pizza

Pizza is one of my favorite foods and its super easy to make a healthier version at home. I just started making my own dough because I wanted to make a whole wheat crust but I had never worked with yeast and thought it was super complicated and time consuming.  And while making your own dough and sauce is a bit more work than microwaving some frozen Digiorno, its definitely worth the extra work. And what I've been happy to learn is all you have to do when using active dry yeast is to mix everything together and then knead it for about 10 minutes, and it comes together really easily. The corn meal isn't necessary but it really gives the crust a crisper texture.

the dough will double in size

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough

Ingredients
1 package active dry yeast
1/2 warm water
1T olive oil
1t honey
1-2C whole wheat pastry flour
1-2T yellow corn meal
1t salt

Directions
1. Stir the yeast in a bowl with the water and honey. It should foam up in 5 minutes or so.
2. Stir in the olive oil. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix until a ball forms. Add enough flour so that the dough is still sticky.
3. Knead the dough ball for 8-10 minutes then cover with plastic and let it rise for 1-2 hours.
4. Punch out the air and roll out the dough to fit the pan you are using.

half mushroom and half pepperoni for Sparky
be sure to cook toppings before putting them on pizza

5. Top with whatever you like and bake in a preheated oven at 375 for about 15 minutes or until the cheese is bubbling.

Crisp Crust!

I can't remember where I heard this quote but it was a few years ago and its one of those life lessons thats just always stuck with me so I thought I would share it, "Pizza is like sex, when its good its really good and when its bad its still pretty good."