Whole wheat Pizza Dough in a Stand Mixer

I've been looking for a good wholewheat pizza dough recipe for a while, but all I could find were bread machine recipes OR ones for kneading by hand.  Then I found this recipe at eatingwell.com and adapted the method slightly.

You will need
3/4 cup plus 1 tbsp lukewarm water (105 - 115f)
1 package active dry yeast (2 1/4 tsp)
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup wholewheat flour

1 cup white bread flour

1.  Stir water, yeast and sugar in the bowl of your stand mixer.  Let stand for about 5 minutes, until the yeast has dissolved.

2.  Pour the 2 flours and the salt into the bowl.  You will need your dough hook on your stand mixer, from the start.

This is the stand mixer that I use.  The bottom of the range from Kenwood, but does everything I need it to. Now, of course, I still drool over kitchenaids, but heck, unless a rich relative decides to buy me one, that isn't going to happen any time soon, they are SO MUCH MORE EXPENSIVE over here.

I know some recipes for dough in a stand mixer have you use the paddle from the beginning to get the ingredients mixed, then switch to the hook for the kneading, but I decided to give it a go using the hook from the start and it went absolutely fine.

This is from just after I switched it on and it is mixing the ingredients together just fine.

3.  Beginning with the mixer on just below medium, mix until all the ingredients come together, then turn down to the lowest setting (as in the video above) and knead for another 4 to 5 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic as in the video below.

4.  Meanwhile, if you are not going to be using the dough straight away prepare a food bag by spraying the inside with oil.  (if you are going to go on to use the dough now, you need to place it in a oiled bowl and cover with a kitchen towel).

5.  Place the finished dough in the bag.

and tie, leaving plenty of room in the bag.

If you were using a bowl, turn the dough in the bowl to coat with the oil you coated the bowl with.

6.  If going on to use now, leave at room temperature for an hour.  If using later you can refrigerate for up to a day, which is what I did.  Just make sure you bring the dough out of the fridge 1 hour before you want to use it.
You could also tightly wrap the dough rather than loosely, in oiled plastic wrap, overwrap in another bag and freeze for up to 3 months.  Defrost in the refrigerator overnight, then the 1 hour at room temperature before using..

7.  Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface.  (please excuse the photos from here on in, it was dark outside even though it wasn't late and my camera wasn't being nice to me).

And using a non serated knife, cut into two pieces.  Dimple them with your fingertips to shape into a thick, flat circle.

8.  Use a rolling pin to roll into your desired shape.  You can go for neat and tidy if you want, or you can just let the dough form whatever shape it wants.  This is not a restaurant, rustic is fine!

If your dough "resists" being rolled out, let it rest for about 15 minutes, then try rolling out again.

9.  Top with the sauce of your choice.  Here I used a home made pizza sauce.  You can check out that recipe by clicking on the picture below.  Or use whatever sauce you have to hand.  And remember it doesn't have to be a tomato based sauce to be a delicious pizza, there are lots of other options.

Choose your other toppings.  We went for two different ones.  Be warned we OVER TOP our pizzas, far far too much toppings on there, and it dripped over the bottom of the oven, ooops.

First we did prosciutto, mozarella and rocket

First tear the prosciutto into pieces and drape them over the pizza which you have topped with sauce.

Take a mozarella ball and rip into pieces.  Toss these all over the pizza.

Bake in the oven for 20 - 25 minutes, depending on your oven.  Don't forget you are using a raw dough rather than a partly cooked one, so you need to make sure that is cooked through.

When done, top with the rocket.   Mmmmmmmmm

Our second pizza was a meat lovers delight.  We used pepperoni and chorizo, with a bit of basil and the mozarella.

I put a ring of pepperoni down first, then basil leaves, then put the chorizo in the middle, over the basil leaves and finally topped with the ripped mozarella ball.

Again, bake for 20 - 25 minutes, depending on your oven.  I had to go 25 minutes for both of these to ensure the dough was properly cooked.  You could go longer, but your toppings may start to burn.

You can now check out my pizza sauce recipe, which can also be used to top pasta.

Before you go, why not check out my recipes index page, or my craft projects index page, I am sure you will find something there to interest you.