Running Upward: EASY Homemade Whole Wheat Pizza Dough (FREEZABLE!)

I like pizza.

I know it's not as good for you as, say, brussel sprouts or cod liver oil, but still.....

.....I like it.

My family's favorite is BBQ Chicken Pizza, which I am going to show you how to make tomorrow!

But first, here's how to make pizza dough (this is the dough we made on freezer cooking day).....

This recipe will make two crusts, which you can either bake the same day you make them, or you can freeze them for later, or put them in the fridge if you're going to use them within a day or two.

Here's what you need:

Whole wheat flour, all purpose flour, yeast, salt, sugar, olive oil, and warm water

First, put 1 1/2 cups warm water into the bowl of your Kitchen Aid mixer, and sprinkle 4 1/2 tsp yeast over the top (if you're using packets of yeast, that's 2 packets). Then give it a few minutes until the yeast looks nice and foamy:

Then you want to pour in 1/4 cup olive oil, 2 tsp sea salt, and 2 TB sugar, and give it all a quick whisk:

Then you need 2 cups of whole wheat flour, and 2 cups all purpose flour, then put the bowl on the mixer, and knead with the dough hook for 4 or 5 minutes (you can tell it's the right consistency when it pulls away from the sides of the bowl and climbs up the dough hook):

Then you will take the blob of dough out and put it into an oiled bowl (I used olive oil) and turn it once to coat it so the top has oil on it too:

While the dough is rising, I have a confession to make.

I thought about doing a blog for a while before I actually made one.

And I used to think- if I make a blog, I want to be REAL. I want people who know me in person to think that the blog sounds like the real me. I want to seem like a genuine version of myself (does that make sense?)

So in the interests of that, I am going to show you the mayhem that was my kitchen last night. (we have time, don't worry, the pizza dough has to rise for like 40 minutes).

So my dear husband, whom I love with all my heart, asked me to make him some iced lemon pound cake yesterday. So I got all the ingredients out and planned it into my dinner cooking time. So then he texts me several times during the morning asking if I can bake a Key Lime Pie for his boss. I considered saying no, but I have this problem. I have a really hard time saying no to Wade (mostly because he is cute and also he is the love of my life) so I went and bought key limes (which, amazingly, was the only ingredient I needed to buy in order to make the pie). So I am cooking iced lemon pound cake, BBQ chicken pizza (which I was taking photos of for tomorrow's blog entry), key lime pie, and THEN.....

...water starts leaking out of the cabinet under the sink!!!!!! AAAHHHH!!!!!! Here's a photo overview:

...soooooo long story short, the pound cake still got iced, the key lime pie got baked and whip creamed, the dinner got made and was eaten, and the wood under the sink dried out and Wade is fixing the leak. But there were a few moments when I had to take a deeeeeep breath (and then laugh, because really, what else is there to do? Plus I knew I could eat cake in a few hours....)

Wow, huge digression...... but all of that to say- stuff happens. It's ok. Just keep at what you're doing and laugh a lot. Life is better that way. Ok, ok, back to the pizza crust. :) .......

Then let it rise for about 40 minutes, it should about double in size:

Then you want to divide the dough into two balls(sort of squish all the air out of the dough as you make the balls):

Ok, so now at this point you have three options!!

Option 1- make two pizzas now. So you would take the dough right now and pat/roll it onto two oiled pizza pans, top the crust with sauce and toppings, and bake (most pizzas bake at 400 for about 25 minutes)

Option 2- put the dough into two Ziploc bags, take all the air out, and stick them in the fridge to use later today or in the next day or so. The dough will still rise somewhat, you may need to put it in its place a few times so it doesn't blob its way out of the bag. (in other words, squish the air out of it and reseal the bag :)

Option 3- put the plate with the two dough balls into the freezer until they're reasonably frozen, then put the two frozen dough balls into two Ziploc bags and put them back into the freezer. When you want to use the dough, either put it in the fridge a day or two before you want to use it, or I've just stuck it on the counter the morning I want to use it and it's ready to go by dinner! (this option is what I did today)