Pizza Pizza!

I found white whole wheat flour at the market tonight, which I’d been looking for, so decided to put it to use. White whole wheat flour is produced from white wheat (instead of red wheat) and has a lighter quality which makes it great for baking and cooking. For my dough, I used one-third white flour, one-third regular whole wheat flour, and one-third white whole wheat… it came out great – not too dense and wheaty, but it still felt healthy.

I grew up ordering half white pizza so that my family could eat regular pizza and I could avoid icky tomatoes!! Eventually, I learned to eat tomato sauce – maybe spending a semester in Italy helped. However, I still love white pizza (and still hate tomatoes, yes dad, even those “delicious” cherry tomatoes you grow). Anyway, since I’m the chef, I opted for a white pizza in the style of the Greek pizza from Spiritus in P-town - fresh mozzarella, feta, red onion and olives (but sadly forgot spinach!).

I don’t have a pizza stone, or a barbeque, so I cooked my pizza on a regular old cookie sheet and it came out just fine. But, feel free to fancy it up if you have the proper equipment.

In the meantime, a Sunday night with homemade pizza and a Red Sox win… “so good, so good, so good!”

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups flour (combo of white and wheat!!)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
• 1/2 cup lukewarm water
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Directions:
Stir flour, salt and yeast in large bowl. Add water and olive oil, stirring mixture into a ball. Dump the ball, and any clumps/floury bits onto a lightly floured surface and knead everything into a homogeneous ball. If necessary, allow the dough to sit covered by the bowl for 2-5 minutes before kneading. Knead the dough for 1-2 minutes. Spray the bowl with cooking spray and put the dough back in. Cover in plastic wrap and leave undisturbed for 1-2 hours. Dough should double in size.

When dough has doubled in size pour dough back onto the floured counter and gently press out the air from the dough using the palm of your hand. Fold the piece into an approximate ball shape and let it sit under plastic wrap for another 20 minutes.
Preheat the over to the hottest temperature possible. Sprinkle a baking sheet with cornmeal. Roll out the pizza. Add toppings (don’t overload the thin crust pizza!).


Bake for about 10 minutes and enjoy!