Day 13: I Found My Pizza Crust! (3 Moms, 3 Kitchens, 31 Days)

For breakfast we all raided the freezer. Jerah and Joely ate French toast, Jaden had chocolate chip muffins, and I had breakfast cookies. Lunch ended up being a free-for-all, so I'm not sure I could tell you what each child ate (and two of my three munchkins are outside playing with the dog right now, so they're not available for comment). The girls did manage to fit in a snack of apples and grapes this afternoon, although Joely again managed only to eat a couple apple slices.

For dinner tonight, we had one of my favorite foods of all time: Pizza. But since I'm trying to stay on budget for groceries, I figure if I want pizza for dinner, I need to make it myself.

I tried making homemade pizza a few weeks ago, and although the crust tasted okay, it really didn't leave that great an impression. So when I made pizza tonight, I tried a different recipe for the crust, a recipe I got from one of the moms in our homeschool group.

I made up the dough before my piano lessons today. I let it rise, rolled it out, put it on the pizza stone, and let it rise again before I actually topped it and baked it following my lessons.

Since I let the crust rise twice, the pizza ended up having a nice thick crust that tasted so good! The crust also had a buttery crispiness to it, which the last crust I made did not have at all.

Lest you think that I put only 11 slices of pepperoni on this pizza, I will confess that there are two other layers of pepperoni hidden beneath the cheese!

As you can see, the pizza was completely consumed. So it's no surprise that everyone in the family has agreed that this recipe is a keeper; we'll definitely be using it again for our next pizza night.

Whole Wheat Pizza Crust

1 T active dry yeast

1 cup warm water (100-110 degrees)

2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour or bread flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 T to 1/4 cup wheat gluten

3 T cornmeal

up to 1/3 cup more warm water

1 1/2 tsp salt (mandatory)

3 T olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Combine yeast and warm water in a mixing bowl. Let stand for about 10 minutes or until the yeast softens.
3. In the meantime, measure the flours, gluten and cornmeal into a separate bowl and stir.
4. Stir the flour mixture, one cup at a time, into the yeast mixture, beating vigorously after each addition with a wooden spoon until it is smooth. Add extra water, if needed.
5. Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and knead for 8 to 10 minutes.
6. Put the kneaded dough in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and let rise for 1 1/2 hours, or until doubled in bulk.
7. Punch dough down and then add the salt and oil. Fold the dough over onto itself, and knead until the oil is absorbed.
8. Allow the dough to rest for 5 minutes.
9. Grease a large baking stone or pizza pan. Roll and/or stretch the dough to fill the stone. Crimp the edge to form a slight lip or stuff with cheese and Italian Seasoning.
10. For a thick crust, let it rise again before topping and baking. For thin, immediately proceed with topping and baking.
11. Bake until the cheese is bubbling, about 10-12 minutes.

Check out Kate's and Toni's blogs to see what's happening in their kitchens (well, Toni's not in her kitchen this week, so make sure you read about how she's feeding her family on vacation!).

And don’t forget about this Friday’s “3 Moms” online discussion. If you’d like to have us email you an invitation to the discussion so you can click directly into our call from your email, please leave a comment on this post with your email address. Otherwise, just join us this Friday by clicking this link.

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