As you all know, I'm trying to find replacements for the things that we love and spend way too much money on. One of them is pizza. But you may say, I can go and get a one topping pizza for $5.00. While that may be true, can you say that your pizza is on the healthy side? Yes people, healthy. and can you even pronounce half of the items that are put into your pizza crust?
There is nothing wrong with pizza, its the extra cheese, and all of those wonderful meats that does oneself and your waist in. If you make a few tweaks to your pizza though, you will find that you can still enjoy one of your favorite foods, save money, and get this..... you can make it together with your husband and have some quality time in the kitchen together. My husband and I have a great time making pizza together. I only hope that you will too.
In a small bowl, combine 1 tablespoon of dry yeast and 1/8 teaspoon of sugar with 1 1/2 cups of warm water. Let that sit for 10 minutes.
In a separate large bowl, combine 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour and 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour. Add 1 tablespoon ground kosher salt to this. Mix well.
Then add the yeast mixture and mix by hand thoroughly. (this is a very sticky job)lol Add 1 tablespoon olive oil. Knead the dough for about 2 minutes. Cover bowl and let rise in a warm area until dough has doubled in size. This usually doesn't take long. 20-60 minutes.
After dough has doubled, punch dough down and knead for 1-2minutes. Now the original recipe states to divide the dough into 4 equal portions. We like a thicker dough, so I divide it into only 2 portions. The extra portion can be put into a bowl, covered with plastic and stored in your refrigerator. Roll the one portion into a ball. Be sure to put some oil on your hands first, or you will have a sticky mess again. The original recipe states to lightly coat a baking sheet with olive oil and with a rolling pin, roll out your dough . I roll my dough on my wooden transfer that I use for my hot stone. When I roll it out though I don't spray it with oil, I spread cornmeal on it so that I can just slide my dough onto the stone. This can be tricky though and if you are not used to working with this type of dough, you might want to do it Dr. Oz's way. After you have rolled out your dough, poke it with a fork all over. If you don't, your dough will develop bubbles in it while baking. Bake the dough for 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and then add your health ingredients. Put your pizza back into the oven and bake until your ingredients are hot. The dough is already cooked through before the ingredients are added, so you don't have to worry about that
To keep your pizza healthy, add things such as plain tomato paste with Italian seasoning sprinkled on top. Then add some shredded cheese, low fat is best. You can supplement this with Parmesan cheese to satisfy that cheese lover. We then usually cut up onions, green peppers, mushrooms, and fit and active sausage and stir fry it all together in a little bit of olive oil and then add it to the pizza.
I worried that my husband was going to hate this crust, but believe it or not, its one of our favorites now. I hope that it becomes a favorite for your family too:)
