Whole Wheat Pizza

This Christmas I received a cookbook made especially for Kitchen Aid stand mixers. We all know how much I love and utilize Gladys, so I was pretty stoked to see what else I could do with her.  The cookbook is a bit of an advertisement for the multitude of attachments you can buy, however, there are a lot of fun ideas in there.
I'm currently on a diet that eliminates enriched white flours so I am always on the lookout for whole wheat recipes. I came across a grilled pizza recipe in the book that is topped with just cooked grape tomatoes and mozzarella cheese. I figured just swapping whole wheat flour was a terrible idea so I then started looking for a whole wheat pizza crust recipe.  I also decided grilling outside in the 15 degree weather was an equally terrible idea so I essentially combined elements of two recipes and added my own two cents to make a whole wheat cheese pizza.

The crust recipe came from a blog called Tablespoon. It looks like this:
2.5 c. whole wheat flour
2.25 t. active dry yeast
3/4 t. salt
1 c. warm water
1 T. EVOO
1 T. sugar

I realize now as I'm typing this I just assumed one packet of yeast was the right amount, however upon inspection I do believe I should have used two. This explains why it took so long to rise and didn't exactly double in size....

Anywho, Combine yeast (turns out 2 packets) and warm water with 1 t. sugar. Let sit and get foamy.

Dough ball, covered in plastic wrap

I used Gladys for every part of the dough so I combined 2 c flour and salt and remaining sugar in the bottom of her bowl, made a well, and then poured in the yeast when it was ready and the EVOO.  Using the paddle I mixed until combined then switched out the paddle for the dough hook. "Kneading" on speed 2, I added flour a T at a time until the dough pulled completely away from the sides of the bowl and wasn't sticky to the touch. I turned the dough out into a greased bowl, covered with plastic wrap, and let sit on top of the oven for almost 2 hours even though the recipe said 45 minutes-one hour.

Dough rolled out on the pizza stone

The dough did rise but like I said it was supposed to have more yeast so it didn't get super fluffy. I punched it down, made a disk, and rolled a circle with surprising ease. This is usually hard for me, as we have learned with my pie crust debacles...

In the mean time this is how I made my sauce (pieces from the Kitchen Aid book, some from me:
1 pint grape tomatoes
1 can roasted garlic tomato paste
1 clove minced garlic
1/4 t. dry basil
1/8 t. salt
1/2 t. red pepper flakes

Tomatoes and garlic in the oil

I heated about 1 T. EVOO in a skillet over medium high heat then added in the garlic. After a minute or two I added everything else but the tomato paste.  Once the tomatoes were cooked down significantly I added the tomato paste. I let this simmer on low heat for over an hour while the dough was rising, adding about 1/ c. water twice to keep it from reducing too much.

After I rolled the dough I let it rest ab out 10 minutes before topping it with the sauce, fresh mozzarella rounds, shredded mozzarella and a few pieces of salami.
I baked it for 12 minutes on a pizza stone in a 500 degree oven and then let it sit for 15 minutes to settle itself.

The pizza turned out to be quite delicious.  The crust wasn't chewy or tough which can sometimes happen with whole wheat. I am now curious what it is like with the right amount of yeast so I will probably be making this again very soon.  The red pepper flakes give the sauce a bit of zip and the fresh mozzarella really set up nicely on top. For me to be able to keep pizza in my diet is very exciting, and for it to be quite tasty is another solid bonus!