What the Crust?!

Another stressful work day for this girl! Why is it that the 2 people who I dislike working with the most are ALWAYS the ones who stop by my office to make marketing requests with the most regularity?? WHY?! I seriously cringe every time I see these two people coming and today I had the pleasure of a visit from BOTH of them. Joy.

I'm also semi-stressed at home because we are preparing for a long weekend trip to my family's ranch with 4 of our friends this weekend. I'm sorta stressed about it because I've never been the hostess at the ranch before...usually there's tons of family there who take charge on things. Eek! Menu planning and grocery shopping will ensue and I hope I get it right!

Anywayyyyy, pizza was on the menu for tonight and we decided to try a new pizza dough recipe. You see, a couple weeks back I made Pioneer Woman's Olive Focaccia and it was a HUGE hit at a party we went to. Unfortunately I failed to take a picture of it so I haven't blogged it.

In her recipe, she mentioned that the dough was basically just a pizza dough recipe. We liked the end result of the focaccia so much that we decided to try it as a pizza dough! To make it a bit healthier, we used half whole wheat flour and half all-purpose and prayed that it wouldn't screw up the recipe, as whole wheat flour sometimes does. We also made the dough in the bread maker, but you could just as easily make it in the kitchenaid.


GOOD NEWS! It was fabulous! The whole wheat didn't seem to affect the texture much at all. This is definitely our new favorite pizza crust recipe. We did think that it could have been a little bit crispier but that's our fault for not cooking it long enough.

Here it is the crust the way we made it:

Whole Wheat Pizza Crust
Adapted from Pioneer Woman

• 1-½ teaspoon Active Dry Yeast
• 1-½ cup Warm Water
• 2 cups All-purpose Flour
• 2 cups Whole Wheat Flour
  
• 1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
• ⅓ cups Olive Oil

Sprinkle yeast over 1 1/2 cups warm (not lukewarm) water. Let stand for a few minutes.

While the yeast stands, put all other ingredients in the bowl of the break maker. Then pour the yeast mixture in the bowl too.

Turn the bread machine to the Dough setting and let it do its thing.

Once the bread machine is finished you can either use it immediately or wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use.

When ready to make the pizza, roll it out using a little flour if needed to keep it from sticking.

This recipe will make enough dough for about 2 or 3 large pizzas, depending on how thin you like it.

Pre-bake the crust at 425 degrees for 10-15 minutes. Pull the crust out and then put on the toppings. Bake another 10 minutes at 425 degrees.

Our Toppings:

• Pepperoni, Mushroom & Garlic
• Tomato, Basil & Garlic

And of course, CHEESE! :)


What are your favorite pizza toppings?

And how do you deal with stress? I tend to kind of shut down when I get stressed. :(