Whole Wheat Pizza Dough

Most important thing to know is that you CAN make a good whole wheat pizza at home. The whole wheat flavor was really great (I used an organic local California stone-ground whole wheat from Keith Giusto.

This pizza dough can be made straight through in a single evening or, with a little planning ahead, you can let the dough rest overnight in the fridge. I tried it both ways, starting with a same day run of the full recipe, then following up with a rested hand-stretched dough. Each yielded a nice pizza but with somewhat different results in the crust. I think the immediately rolled crust ended up a bit too firm, and I was curious about whether time would let the gluten develop more. After 2 days cold fermentation, the flavor in the hand-stretched dough was the best and more pizza-like.

I found for rolling out and for the hand-stretched dough that a small amount of flour and parchment paper worked great and I use a dusting of cornmeal on the parchment with great results. I try to never use olive oil directly on my pizza stone.

For the overnight batch, I used my Danish bread dough hook and the dough came together in half the time, so I preferred that. Kneading was easy and the dough had a very decent texture. On the overnight rest, I began stretching the dough straight from the fridge as directed, but using a technique from Artisan Bread in Five, I stretched the dough into a disk, let it rest, pressed with fingers to flatten, resting, gently stretching to about about 10” diameter.

For the third pizza, another overnight hand-stretched batch, I let the dough come to room temperature before stretching and found the result the most tender after baking.

If you turn your oven on when the dough starts the first rest it should be at temp by the time your dough has had 30 minutes.

I try and opt for the whole wheat or whole grain versions of products when possible and pizza dough is no exception. But that said, my past experience with 100% whole wheat pizza dough is that most times their texture is on the dry side, which is a bummer. But happily, this unique whole wheat pizza dough recipe incorporates whole milk yogurt into the mix and the results are beautiful! This recipe will be my go-to pizza dough recipe from here on out!

I could tell from the first kneading of this dough that it was going to be different; it just felt softer and more “cushiony” than most other whole wheat doughs I have made. It rose nicely after just 40-minutes and was really easy to roll out. The only thing I would suggest is that you par-bake the dough without any sauce or toppings; in a 450°F oven, I would par-bake for 5 minutes. I know because I made the dough twice; once as the recipe suggests without par-baking and smothered in sauce and toppings before being baked, and secondly par-baked and then topped and baked again. I think because this dough is moister than other whole wheat doughs if you add liquid like a sauce or even raw veggies (which will inevitably release liquid when cooked) to the top of this tasty dough, it leads to a soggy crust, unfortunately. But par-baking the crust for me really worked well!  It allowed for the dough to form an initial crust and create that needed barrier so that the crust browns nicely and the interior dough isn’t mushy.

I used Fleischmann’s active dry yeast and coarse Morton’s Kosher salt. I did use cornmeal on my round, parchment-lined pizza pan as well In Step 1, yes, the dough was soft and a bit sticky after mixing in the flour, but it held its shape nicely. The timing in Step 2 of kneading it for 1 minute was accurate as well. I let it rise in Step 2 for 30 minutes exactly in my kitchen and it about double in size during this time. I used the dough right away and did not refrigerate it.

I topped my pizzas with tomato sauce, hot crumbled Italian sausage, and a mixture of thinly sliced radicchio and fennel. Those toppings plus some torn fresh mozzarella and into the oven it went!  A scattering of torn fresh basil and a pinch of crushed red pepper flakes to finish off the hot pizza and we were good to go. Like I said, this recipe truly is wonderful and changes my impression of homemade whole wheat pizza dough. It has a lot of flavor and a very lovely texture. I would just suggest par-baking it as stated to that the interior of the crust underneath all of your toppings isn’t too soggy. (This did make a 13-inch pizza which we sliced into 6 generous slices).

The crust was crisp with a little chew. More like a flatbread. Flavor is great!This pizza dough comes together in 5 minutes in a single bowl. Using a wooden spoon to mix it worked perfectly. The dough is slightly sticky, as the recipe indicates. After covering it for 10 minutes to let it rest, I kneaded the dough for 1 minute in its bowl with just an additional sprinkle of flour. The texture was stretchy and smooth. Baking time was slightly less than the recipe indicated, about 18 minutes, but I made my pizzas on the thinner side.

I used my pizza stone and the parchment/peel method for transferring, which always works perfectly. I made 2 pizzas and have enough dough left for a 3rd. Each pizza yields 8 slices; therefore, I would say 8 servings for the entire batch of dough, assuming most people would eat 3 pieces.