Helen's Pizza Dough
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
3-1/4 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons yeast
2 teaspoons coarse salt (a little less if not coarse)
2 teaspoons sugar
1 tablespoon olive oil
1-1/3 cups to 1-1/2cups lukewarm water
Put everything in a stand mixer bow with the dough hook attachment and mix until you have a smooth elastic dough. Cover dough and let rise in oiled bowl until doubled.
My variation: I don't have the wonderful stand mixer, so I put the ingredients in my bread machine in the order recommend by the maker. I use the dough setting and it comes out risen and perfect every time.
Divide dough in half. Since it is just the two of use, I put the second half in a bag and into the fridge and we have pizza again in a couple of days. Allow it to come to room temperature before using.
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Roll out and put into a pizza pan (or you can use a baking stone, preheated) I then brush with a generous amount of olive oil, maybe about a tablespoon. I press 2 (or more!) cloves of garlic and spread it around on the crust. Add some fresh minced oregano and basil (use dry if you don't have fresh) to taste. Then I add thinly sliced veggies. Whatever I happen to have on had. Pictured above we had some vidiala onions, green peppers, zucchini, fresh tomato, fresh mushrooms, a little bit of pepperoni. I like to put the tomato on top so that it doesn't get the crust gooey. I also sprinkled some freshly ground pepper and coarse salt over the tomato slices.I used some finely pre-grated Italian cheeses. I used about 1/3 of an 8 ounce package, but put on as much or the kind of cheese you like.
Bake for 10 minutes, check and then I like to turn the pan and bake 2 to 4 more minutes until the crust is starting to brown and the cheese has melted.
Some other veggies to try, olives, eggplant, spinach, and fresh corn.
