Pizza, pizza!

I LOVE pizza, any kind, but I am partial to mushrooms.  Today I made a half whole wheat half white flour pizza and topped it with some of the eggplant tomato sauce, sauteed mushrooms and artichoke hearts along with a sprinkling of mozzarella cheese.  Baked for 20 minutes in the oven at 400F this pizza was delicious served with an arugula salad containing apples, blue cheese and toasted pine nuts.  Too bad we couldn't have some wine with it, but Michael was headed for work in an hour so that was out of the question. 

My recipe for pizza dough is pretty simple -

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups white bread flour (I like King Arthur bread flour the best)
1/2 tsp salt

Mix this together to distribute the salt and combine the two flours.

In a 1 cup glass measuring cup, measure 1 cup of warm water and add to it 1 1/2 tsp. active dry yeast, stir to combine then add 2 TBSP olive oil.  Pour this into the flour and mix well.  You may need to add some water to get a workable dough.  Knead of a few minutes, then lightly oil a bowl, put the dough in the bowl and turn it over so all sides are coated with oil.  Let it rise in a warm place 45 to 60 minutes.  When doubled, spread it out in a pizza pan -  I have a round one about 14 inches wide.  Top with your favorite sauce and toppings, bake in a 400F oven for 18 to 20 minutes until the cheese is golden and melted.  Remove from the oven, allow to cool a few minutes then slice and eat.  Yum!

You could make this dough ahead of time up to the point of allowing it to rise and freeze some in a plastic baggie coated with olive oil for later use.  To use later, remove from freezer, remove dough from the baggie and allow the dough to defrost slowly outside the fridge in a covered bowl until it reaches room temperature.  Allow it to rise until double in bulk and then proceed as for pizza as outlined above.  This pizza beats waiting in line at Papa Murphy's any day of the week.