#80 Veggie Pizza featuring Helen's pizza dough

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.