Pizza Dough
4 cups flour (I generally use whole wheat)
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup lukewarm water
1 (1/4 ounce) package yeast
3 tablespoons olive oil
1. Mix flour, sugar, and salt together. Dissolve yeast in water and add to flour mixture. Stir until dough has absorbed all water then add olive oil.
2. Mix until dough is not sticky, adding water or flour as necessary (should not need much of either using the above amounts). Knead the dough for 8 to 10 minutes then place in a covered bowl in a warm draft free area for 30 minutes, or until dough has doubled in size. Then knead for 2 or 3 more minutes and let rise 20 minutes more.
3. Now roll the dough out. The above recipe should make enough crust for one 16" deep dish pizza or two 16" regular pizzas. Either way, roll out two 16" crusts. Preheat oven to 500 degrees F if making pizza now.
4. For deep dish, put the first one in the pan, then add tomato sauce, veggies, and tons of vegan cheese. Then place your second crust over this and pinch the two crusts together. Add a top layer of tomato sauce and another ton of soy cheese. Now bake for 20-30 minutes.'
SO HOW'D IT GO?
This was the best pizza crust recipe that I've ever used and it makes a lot of dough. Next time I'd add a lot of herbs though because the crust itsself is pretty bland and flavorless.
I divided this into 4-- for a thin crust pizza. Worked great. :)
I made this dough every week for our game night. I usually let people make their own pizzas and use 1 to 1&1/3c flour per person (and just kind of eyeball the rest of the ingredients right around there) for individual pizzas. I let it rise in the oven at 170F, as no place in our house would be considered "warm".
When we bake them, we bake at 400 for 23ish minutes.
I added sugar (in the raw), sea salt, garlic powder, and herbs to the crust. The crust was AWESOME and so EASY!!! Even my non vegan husband loved it. I baked the crust by itself for 5 mins and then topped it with home made sauce, white onions, roasted tomatoes, zucchini, olive oil, fresh cracked pepper, sea salt, and spices. I baked it for an additional 20 mins but it could have used another 5 mins or so.
Thank you for this wonderful recipe, it will be a staple for our family. I will be sure to take a picture next time.
Kneading the dough by hand is a bitch, but SO worth it!
I brushed the crust edges with a little soymilk before I put it in the oven. Very yummy!
mmmm that REALLY hit the spot! I've been craving pizza for a long time, didn't want to order a big one since no one will order cheeseless pizza with me. This really satisfied my appetite. I dusted the dough with cornmeal before baking and topped with loads of veggies. Didn't use cheese (all the soy cheese sold in my area has caesin in it) it was quite the treat and way worth the effort! ;D ;D ;D
does whole wheat flour refer to whole wheat pastry flour or regular whole wheat flour?
I'd recommend regular (or even bread) whole wheat flour. Pastry flour has even lower gluten/protein than the already-low level in whole wheat. For the crust to be chewy/stretchy at all it'll need the gluten. I've never tried pastry wwf, but I have trouble just getting regular wwf to produce good bread/pizza crust. I generally stick with whole wheat bread flour.
does whole wheat flour refer to whole wheat pastry flour or regular whole wheat flour?
I ended up having to add more water than the recipe indicated. We also added basil and garlic salt. It was very good. We will make it again.
I've made this dough about twenty times now and it keeps getting better. Lately I've been taking out a little bit of the flour and adding a little bit of parsley and ground flax. It works great. Look no further for a near perfect pizza crust.