Sunday, February 3, 2013

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. Smile
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
 Whole Wheat Pizza crust fresh milled flour
Cooked pizza crusts.
 Whole Wheat Pizza crust fresh milled flour
I milled about 8 cups of wheat and probably should have done a little less but I’m still getting used to this machine.
 Whole Wheat Pizza crust fresh milled flour
The wheat in the Nutrimill.
 Whole Wheat Pizza crust fresh milled flour
Fresh ground flour in less than five minutes.
Whole Wheat Pizza crust fresh milled flour
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.
 Whole Wheat Pizza crust fresh milled flour
Divide dough into 5 equal balls.
 Whole Wheat Pizza crust fresh milled flour
Roll out on floured board to an inch or so bigger than your pan.  I used cheapy 12 inch foil pizza pans.
 Whole Wheat Pizza crust fresh milled flour
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.
 Whole Wheat Pizza crust fresh milled flour
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.
 Whole Wheat Pizza crust fresh milled flour
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!
Whole Wheat Pizza crust fresh milled flour
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. Winking smile
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:
Pizza

12 comments:

huntressd said...

I knew you would love it!!! I wish everyone had the time and resources to mill their own grains, until you do, you have no idea of how rewarding and tasty it is!! Let me know when and how cornmeal turns out for ya'! I love, love, love fried cornmeal mush now! oh and cornbread with cowboy candy baked in!! THE best!

KansasA said...

Cornmeal came out beautiful Donna! I only had white popcorn kernels but the cornbread tasted great. I used Xyla instead of sugar so it was a bit soft, we weren't dipping it in stew or soup so I wanted something a bit sweet.
Okay recipes Girl, recipes! Fried cornmeal mush and cornbread with cowboy candy??

Bonnie said...

I am not a pizza eater. chia seeds? Wow!! you could convert me. No delivery in your area YET!!! What are you waiting for. ab

David T. Macknet said...

Yay! Glad you're back to blogging and photographing! Hope you're very well! Also: great minds must think alike, but we were lazy last night & used pre-made dough, rather than taking the time to make our own. Ahh, well, when you want pizza....

tanita✿davis said...

You must've borrowed sixty extra pounds from the neighbors to lose - I certainly never saw it on you! Well done on getting healthier - and boy, do you do it with a bang!

Envious of your "tonnes" of what and home-milled flour - at our wee school we had a bread baking business in Grade 5, and we did indeed mill wheat into flour, and baked our bread from REAL scratch (oh, the things teachers can do at really small schools, as well you know). The flour is so different! Those crusts look AMAZING. Glad to hear from you, even if just once a year. ☺ Hope your (probably college-aged) kids are well.

KansasA said...

Well I have missed both of you D and T!! Where are the two of you now? Overseas? The States? Canada? (Could I be so lucky you are in Canada??)
Jevan and Sydney are doing well T. Sydney is a straight A student in grade 9 and left grade 8 with Honour Roll with great distinction (the only one in the school to do that). I'm a Nana X2 with Lexi and Emmery because my oldest daughter Dallas likes making me feel old. ;) Jevan is in grade 4 making great progress with a wonderful very young teacher.
I'm loving this milling thing T! So far I've done the wheat and popcorn to make cornbread but I hope to get to the city and buy a few different grains tomorrow.
Glad to hear from both of you! D you're still my other half on this blog, and you can probably see I screwed something up because my past post photos seem to not fit very well anymore. Oh well it's nice to be back and welcomed by old friends. Take care you two. :)

huntressd said...

Recipes, as per your request!! I use basically this recipe for cowboy candy... I tweak it a little bit, less sugar for us!! maybe 1 1/2c!!

http://www.sbcanning.com/2010/10/cowboy-candy-check-this-out.html

Anywho, drain the candy and add to your cornmeal batter before you bake!! Excellent with chili!!

For cornmeal mush, you bring to a boil 3 parts water and stir while adding 1 part cornmeal... this is not precise... I have a water "line" cooked into my porridge/cornmeal pot and pour cornmeal until it 'looks' right!! ha!! When it's thickened, serve with molasses/syrup.. some people add milk, but to me, it's just wrong!! Best part, any left over can be poured into a loaf pan, put in the fridge until dessert time after supper... slice it up and fry it in a little butter!! deish!!

Brenda, Domedweller said...

It's so good to see you posting to your blog again, Kansas!! I've missed the adventures of you, your family, friends and of course, your fantastic photos! I was following you on Red Bubble, but they started sending more and more additional stuffs so I sort of lost track of the whole thing. Anyway, welcome back!

KansasA said...

Okay the Cowboy Candy is going to be for Hubby because I can't handle anything hot Donna! I wonder if I can substitute the sugar with Xyla for less calories?
I started eating oatmeal without milk (that was hard!) so I think I could handle the cornmeal mush, I'll give it a try!

KansasA said...

Thanks Brenda! I haven't been taking lots of pictures because Hubby is working a lot of extra hours right now but we'll see what happens in the future. It's great to be back, I missed all my blogging buddies. How are things with you? Still living in a dome?

David T. Macknet said...

If you're talking about substituting xylitol for sugar in the yeast dough, that's not a good thing - yeast doesn't like xylitol. The xylitols I've had in the past have had warnings on them, not to use them with yeast.

KansasA said...

No D, I'm talking about substituting the sugar for xylitol in the cowboy candy recipe, no yeast in it.