Whole-Wheat Pizza Margherita

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-01-2004
Whole-Wheat Pizza Margherita
4
Thu, 01-27-2005 - 4:11pm



Whole-Wheat Pizza Margherita






Makes 8 slices

Ingredients
Crust:
1 pkg (1/4 oz) active-dry yeast
1 cup warm water
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp salt
2 ½ cups whole-wheat flour, plus additional for kneading

Topping:
2 large tomatoes, thinly sliced, then cut into half-circles
8 oz part-skim mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced into half-circles
Olive oil, optional garnish
8 fresh basil leaves, thinly sliced


Instructions
Note: If you don’t have a rolling pin, use a wine bottle or stretch the dough out with your hands. If the dough springs back too much, let it rest for 3 minutes to relax the gluten. The cornmeal on the pan makes the crust dry and crunchy. The basil shouldn’t go on until after baking, or the slices will burn.

1. In medium mixing bowl, combine yeast and warm water; let sit until yeast foams, about 5 minutes. Stir in oil and salt. Add flour, ½ cup at a time, mixing with a large spoon, until dough comes away from the side of the bowl and holds together.
2. Sprinkle additional flour onto work surface. Turn out the dough and knead about 5 minutes, until it is smooth and springy, adding only enough flour to keep it from sticking to the board.
3. Form dough into a ball; place in a medium bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and put in a warm place. Let rise until doubled, about 2 hours.
4. To make pizza: Preheat oven to 475°F. Place dough on lightly-floured work surface; flatten with your hand. Using floured rolling pin, roll out dough from center to the outside. Form dough into a circle or rectangle about ¼-inch thick.
5. Sprinkle pizza stone or baking sheet with cornmeal. Lay crust on sheet. Lay alternating slices of tomato and cheese atop crust, slightly overlapping each piece. Lightly drizzle with additional oil, if desired.
6. Preheat oven to 475°F. Let pizza rest 10 minutes. (This step can be skipped, but makes for the crispiest crust.) Place in oven and bake20 minutes, or until cheese is melting and browning a bit. Sprinkle pizza with sliced basil leaves.

Note: The nutritional information below is per slice.


Nutritional Information:
236.5 calories
0.43 g sugar
9.18 total fat (1.75 g sat, 7.43 g mono)
0 mg cholesterol
30.72 g carbohydrate
12.13 g protein
5.17 g fiber
702.76 mg sodium

              

Photobucket
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2003
Thu, 01-27-2005 - 8:51pm
This sounds sooooo good.

Susan :)

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-08-2003
Fri, 01-28-2005 - 9:48am

Thank you Cathy! We've been wanting pizza for weeks now and I have had problems finding a WW crust recipe.

I plan on trying it this weekend. Will post the results...

Michelle

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-09-2005
Sat, 02-05-2005 - 2:42pm
Thanks, Maggie for posting this recipe! I've been craving pizza for months. I have a bread machine and always made homemade pizzas, but have been afraid to experiment with whole wheat (well, I'm afraid of eating the whole pizza!!). I can't wait to try this recipe. I've made the SBD deep dish pizza quiche, but I refer to that one as the "eggs with pizza toppings!). I will add olives and marinated artichokes as a topping along with some vegetables - yum.
iVillage Member
Registered: 02-23-2004
Sat, 02-05-2005 - 4:11pm

We made a very similar crust last week and it turned out great. I had no trouble finding ww pizza crust recipes, so I looked at about 6 different ones and took what looked good from each of them. I used:

1 T yeast (I buy it in the jars, but I think that is about equal to one pkg)
1 1/2 cup warm water
1 T olive oil
3- 3 1/2 cup whole wheat flour (I used 3 in the bread machine and used another 1/4-1/2 when rolling out/shaping it)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar

I did use 1 teaspoon sugar - I'm not sure how a bread would turn out with out sugar - in my experience its needed to feed the yeast or it won't rise...so I don't know how they get away with using none, kind of strange. I wasn't too worried about 1 tsp in the whole thing. I did mine in the bread machine on the dough setting, then rolled it out. It made about a large pizza size, which was perfect for us (2 adults, 2 kids + leftovers. We used pizza sauce (Ragu brand doesn't have added sugar), mozzarella and LOADED it with veggies: zucchini, artichoke hearts, mushrooms, spinach, tomato, olives, and some canadian bacon slices (we put turkey pepperoni on the kids half)
We each ate one piece and had a salad. It was so heavy from all the veggies you almost had to use a fork, but it was SO good. The crust was very fluffy and tasted MUCH better to me than the crust you get at a pizza place! Even my VERY pikcy 4 yr old ate two pieces!

MichaelAnn



spring06sig2