I’m back! Whole Wheat Pizza Crust

Wow it’s been a loooong time since I’ve posted!  I guess a year and a half can fly by in no time when one is busy.
Hubby is working extra hours giving me more “me” time so I thought I’d do a blog post tonight.
I recently came into a lot of wheat, and I mean a few tonnes!  I ordered a Nutrimill and thought I’d try milling my own flour.  It’s fantastic!  I’m really loving it.  I bought the bagger to go with it so I can mill quite a bit and keep it in the freezer but usually just mill what I need and use it right away.  I also bought a sifter so I can sift out the wheat germ and use the flour for pastry and cakes.  I didn’t realize flour in the grocery store is not near as healthy as fresh milled, wow what a difference!  I’m on a healthy kick and have been eating right and exercising for the past 8 months.  So far I’ve lost 55-60 lbs., feel great, and the family is getting used to healthy food again, lol.  At first it was all about exercise but I injured my knee and had to really tone down the running/walking I was doing.  Until my knee heals I’m concentrating on healthy eating to help lose and maintain my weight.
I had never made homemade pizza in my life and didn’t now how whole wheat pizza dough was going to work, or taste, so last night I googled recipes and found a few but most were mixed with all purpose flour and I wanted all whole wheat.  To help with rising I do use gluten flour in recipes and I was okay with that.  I couldn’t find any recipes I liked so I combined different recipes and came up with a delicious, nutritious whole wheat crust the whole family loves, and they even ate the crust!  The recipes makes 5- 12 inch pizzas.  You can cook and freeze them for later or cook, add toppings, and pop them back in the oven like we did last night.  I didn’t take any pics of the finished pizzas last night, sorry.  EDIT: I added a photo of a finished pizza.
Tonight I wanted to make just the crusts to freeze for later use.  I ended up with four 12-inch pizzas and four mini pizzas the kids can dress and take in their lunch.  I cooked three in pizza pans and one on a pizza stone plus the mini pizzas were cooked on the stone, all of them came out great.
The cost to make these pizzas is quite minimal compared to buying at a pizza parlour or even buying frozen, it shouldn’t take long for my Nutrimill to pay for itself.  In the summer I can grow my own toppings in the garden and the cost would be even less!  Health wise the pizzas are far superior to store bought.
Whole Wheat Pizza Crust with fresh milled flour
5-12 inch pizzas
 
Cooked pizza crusts.
 
I milled about 8 cups of wheat and probably should have done a little less but I’m still getting used to this machine.
 
The wheat in the Nutrimill.
 
Fresh ground flour in less than five minutes.

4 cups of warm (115 degrees) water
2 tablespoons Organic Cane Sugar (you can use regular)
1 tablespoon sea salt
1 tablespoon garlic powder (optional)
2/3 cup olive oil (you can use regular vegetable oil)
1/3 cup chia seeds, whole or ground (you can substitute flax or what you have handy or omit altogether)
2 tablespoons fast rising yeast
8-9 cups fresh milled whole wheat flour (divided)
1-2 cups gluten flour
Place all the ingredients in your Bosch bowl except for half the whole wheat flour, gluten, and yeast.  Using your dough hook mix on low.  Add yeast, gluten flour, and the rest of the whole wheat flour until you have a bit of a sticky dough but pulls clean from the sides of the bowl.  Switch up to 2 when adding the last of the flour.  Switch to 1 and knead for about 8 minutes to help develop the gluten.  Divide dough into 5 balls.  After rolling out four I used one ball to make the four mini pizzas.
 
Divide dough into 5 equal balls.
 
Roll out on floured board to an inch or so bigger than your pan.  I used cheapy 12 inch foil pizza pans.
 
Place into GREASED (I sprayed with Pam) pizza pans and roll over at edges to make a crust.  Pinch down as best you can.  Set aside, brush with olive oil and let rise for about 30 minutes.  Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
 
After 30 minutes prick the bottom of the crust with a fork.  Bake for 7-9 minutes or until crust just starts to brown lightly.
 
All done!  You can cool and freeze to use at a later time or add toppings and cook again.  I like to cool on racks so the bottoms don’t get soggy sitting in pans.
If adding toppings pop back in the oven at 450 degrees for about 10-12 minutes and the cheese is melted.  Last night we did pizza sauce (a few flavours), fresh sliced mushrooms, deer sausage, onions, mozzarella cheese, a bit of cheddar cheese, tomatoes, feta, oregano, garlic powder, be creative!

Two of the mini pizzas beside a big one.  I didn’t have pans small enough and placed them on a cookie sheet to rise for 30 min and then cooked them on my pizza stone.  Not perfect circles but the kids will love ‘em.
Well it’s good to be back, not sure for how long but I’ll add a few posts now and then.  To any of my past readers who are still around a quick hello and I’d love to hear from you!  Take care.
Finished pizza: