We have pizza every Friday night. It’s been a tradition for as long as I can remember in our family. Usually Dave brings some home on his way home from work.  It’s nice to have a night off of cooking.  Especially since on Friday night it seems our house is filled up with neighbor kids.  And believe it or not, they like pizza too. Sometimes we make our own pizza.  Sometimes we make it easy and load up bagel halves with a layer of spaghetti sauce and our fav. pizza toppings, sometimes we use Trader Joes pizza whole wheat dough rolled out, and sometimes we use pitas for the crust. (All of these are cooked at 425 degrees until the cheese melts and the crust is slightly browned around the edges). And sometimes, when I’m a little over-zealous and am looking for a way to talk to kids in the kitchen, we make our own dough. 2012-08-31 misc 59892 My sister-in-law sent me a link to a recipe that looked too good to pass up.  I mean, who can turn down a recipe given almost five stars by 651 people on allrecipes.com?  (Maybe I should call Thursdays “sis-in-law recipe Thursdays” since the first two are from my sis-in-laws who I adore 🙂 This recipe is a little time consuming because the dough has to rise, but I have found that baking in the kitchen is the best way to casually extract information about my children from their friends, so hey, a little time in the kitchen where they hang out isn’t a bad thing in my book 🙂 All the kids running around our house loved this pizza crust.  Not one of them even turn their nose up that it’s made with whole wheat.2012-08-31 misc 59897 Here’s the recipe (also here at allrecipes.com):

Ingredients
  • 1 teaspoon white sugar
  • 1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
  • 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 cups whole wheat flour
  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Directions

  1. In a large bowl, dissolve sugar in warm water. Sprinkle yeast over the top, and let stand for about 10 minutes, until foamy.
  2. Stir the olive oil and salt into the yeast mixture, then mix in the whole wheat flour and 1 cup of the all-purpose flour until dough starts to come together. Tip dough out onto a surface floured with the remaining all-purpose flour, and knead until all of the flour has been absorbed, and the ball of dough becomes smooth, about 10 minutes. Place dough in an oiled bowl, and turn to coat the surface. Cover loosely with a towel, and let stand in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
  3. When the dough is doubled, tip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and divide into 2 pieces for 2 thin crust, or leave whole to make one thick crust. Form into a tight ball. Let rise for about 45 minutes, until doubled.
  4. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Roll a ball of dough with a rolling pin until it will not stretch any further. Then, drape it over both of your fists, and gently pull the edges outward, while rotating the crust. When the circle has reached the desired size, place on a well oiled pizza pan. Top pizza with your favorite toppings, such as sauce, cheese, meats, or vegetables.
  5. Bake for 16 to 20 minutes (depending on thickness) in the preheated oven, until the crust is crisp and golden at the edges, and cheese is melted on the top.

I was excited I had my basil plant to add to the toppings with fresh mozzarella cheese.  I adore those two things that go together like peanut butter and jelly. 2012-08-16 misc 59576 Many more recipes I make with this delicious stuff back in this q&a here. Claire, with her newfound photography skills, snapped this picture of me at work.  I wish I had one of the kids eating up the pizza.2012-08-31 misc 59900 We had two pans of this…the other was just cheese.2012-08-31 misc 59902Yum.

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17 Comments

  1. Shawni, your pizza look delicious – it's definitely on my "to try" list!

    Also, where did you get that giant fork hanging in your kitchen? The one in the pic Elle took of you topping the pizzas? I want one!!!

  2. Looks delicious! The caprese one is especially mouth-watering 🙂 What type of pizza sauce do you use, a homemade or store-bought one? We keep looking for "the one" and haven't found it yet.

  3. That looks so good! I'll have to try this recipe out. Whole wheat crust is my favorite! I was also wondering if you have an e-mail people can e-mail you at? I wanted to shoot you a quick email instead of leaving a really long comment 🙂

  4. Shawni,
    I am a young mom of a 14 month old, and will have a newborn come November. My question is, how much should I expect my husband to help around the house, with the kids, grocery shopping, etc. He is in graduate school full-time, so he is pretty busy, but his mind is also very preoccupied with hunting and guns. I know he needs his time to do his things, but he either does school, or his interests. I really want him to focus on school, and get what he can and needs to get out of it, but I get frustrated a lot. Occassionally, he will help me with little tasks. Like, changing a diaper, or keeping an eye on the toddler while I fix dinner. And most of the time, I have to ask for his help. Don't get me wrong, he's a great guy, and I really love him. I also LOVE being a SAHM and wife, but I do feel like I do it all, all of the time. I don't know what to expect from my husband, or if my expectations are too high. Or if this is just something I'll have to deal with until he's done with school? Tips??

  5. Ok, so the giant fork is from Pier 1.

    We are not pizza sauce connoisseurs so we honestly just use spaghetti sauce. Classico tomato basil kind. It does the trick just fine but I know there are some great real pizza sauces out there.

    Mars, my email is sepphotography at gmail dot com

    Gledyfam, I'll get to that very interesting question as soon as I can in a q & a post, but the short answer is that I think every couple does it differently. The important part is that you are open and discuss it together…discuss expectations or else things are bound to get bitter. That's what Dave and I recently had a big disagreement about and once we sat down and talked about what I wanted him to do and why, and he told me what he wanted me to do and why, it made things so much better. It may not be easy because you may not agree with his expectations and he may not agree with yours. But open communication helps so much and I think often times husband and wife just keep the expectations in their minds and then get bitter because it doesn't miraculously happen as they would like it to.

  6. That looks so good, we'll have to give it a try! We have pizza every Friday night too. 🙂 Our hands down favorite for once in a while is Cooks Illustrated grilled pizza. It is SO super yummy. I'm really excited to try your fish tacos too.

  7. We have done wheat pizza, but I never liked it much. I will have to try the recipe you give! You guys seem like such a great family. I don't know how you keep up with all you do!

  8. Hi! I love to read your blog, and even if I have never left a message before, I want to thank you because you are such an inspiration to me.
    I am Italian (I live in Rome) and I would like to suggest you to add 1/4 cup of olive oil to your ingredients.
    Pizza will be more crispy, and even more tasty! (Please do not misunderstand me: I do not want to be the Italian pizza-fanatic one. It is just a little suggestion. )
    Hope you like it!
    ps: sorry for my English..

  9. I will be using this recipe from now on. I recently started reading your blog about 2 months ago and I love it. I too live in Arizona (San Tan Valley),I am also LDS and I have 5 chilren 4 girls 1 boy. Your family is beautiful! You inspire me so much when I read about your experiences with your children. Hugs, Bobbi Jo

  10. Just letting you know that I made this recipe for our Friday night dinner and the kids gobbled it right up! Thanks for sharing! It was so easy to whip up.

  11. I can't decide if I am a bad cook or if my family is extremely picky. I made this crust tonight and the kids wouldn't eat it. We do whole wheat bread, waffles, muffins, etc. so it is not like the wheat was new to them. It is discouraging to spend hours in the kitchen to not be successful. I am going to try the recipe again though because it got so many rave reviews. Maybe I did something wrong.

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