Diana’s Best Pizza Ever with a Whole Wheat Crust

When I came back to college after Christmas, Provo was experiencing red air quality thanks to the surrounding mountains trapping all the pollution. So I rejected the idea of heading back outside into the awful haziness to grab groceries. However, it was Saturday night; therefore, I needed something made exclusively of the non-perishable food I had left in my apartment for Sunday’s meals. (No, I did not top my pizza with non-perishable cheese product, canned spinach, artificially preserved onions, or canned tomatoes. But this is related to me making pizza. I promise.) Since I did have dried garbanzo beans, I decided on hummus. Roasted garlic hummus, to be specific.

The recipe I found had no instructions on how to roast the garlic, but I fortunately remembered that dear Diana had given instructions for such a thing in her pizza recipe. Once I looked at her pictures, I knew that I had to make pizza. Soon. Because I love the taste of whole grains (in anything and everything), I searched for a whole wheat pizza dough. Even I doubted that a whole wheat pizza crust would work out as well, but I was willing to give it a shot. My doubt was ill-founded.

Monday morning found me at the grocery store, furiously stocking up on vegetables, but to my dismay, many college students had the same plan or perhaps simply needed victuals desperately. I left without all of my supplies because the store was running low on just about everything. That afternoon I decided to start the dough before trying again since I was sure the deficit would be rectified by Monday morning deliveries. However, returning after class yielded some, but not all, that I needed to create this delicious concoction. I searched another grocery store, further from campus, hoping that their supplies would be less depleted by ravenous college students. They weren’t, so I continued my quest. As I headed off, I got a phone call. “Margaret, the timer’s going off. Is there something you want me to do so your food isn’t ruined?” I had forgotten that my dough was rising, but since I had set the timer just to see how fast it was rising, I decided that waiting until I got home would do no serious damage. Hopefully, the next store would have what I needed.

Fortunately it did: far from campus, I obtained that elusive and exceptionally rare ingredient: spinach. Yes, spinach. Finally, I was able to make pizza, and I got to enjoy Diana’s pizza with the deliciousness of a light, flavorful, whole-wheat crust. The crust paired very well with the ricotta, spinach, garlic, onion, and tomato. (The stores were out of mozzarella and parmesan as well, but I considered them to be ingredients of lesser importance than the spinach. I compensated by using a cup and a half of ricotta.) In fact, loving wheat as much as I do, I felt the crust improved the already remarkable flavor of this pizza. Those who are less obsessed with the texture and flavor of whole grains may disagree, but it is still delicious and a bit more healthy than a traditional crust.

Ingredients:

2 cups whole wheat flour
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast or instant yeast (1 package)
3/4 tsp salt
1 cup hot water
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp honey

Preparation:

1) In large mixing bowl, combine whole wheat flour, yeast and salt. Blend in water, oil and honey. Knead until all ingredients for about 3 minutes.

2) Cover and let rise for approximately an hour to allow the dough to double in size.

3)Preheat oven to 425*. Place dough in greased 12- to 14-inch pizza pan. (I don’t have a pizza pan. Therefore, a cookie sheet took the job. It worked just fine.) Roll dough to edges of the pan.

4) Prick dough with fork all over to prevent irregular bubbles.

5) Bake for 8 minutes; remove from oven and add toppings. Bake for another 10-12 minutes or until crust is golden brown.