It’s official – I’m on a whole wheat dough kick since my discovery of this wonderful homemade whole wheat dough just a few days ago. The recipe is Wolfgang Puck’s Whole Wheat Pizza Dough. I’m even more excited about this dough because it was even better the next day. The leftover dough I refrigerated (and thought was mostly a pizza dough) turned out to be an almost better flat bread. I also learned that the it performed better as a pizza dough if you let it sit at least 24 hours before using. Above is a photo of the pocket-bread style flatbread that I made the next day and below is the another version of my whole wheat pizza – both made with the same dough!
I made this version of whole wheat pizza with spinach, garlic, prosciutto and mushrooms. I’m including both the ingredients and preparation for the dough, but also including my notes for the “flatbread” and preparing the dough for use the next day.
Whole Wheat Pizza Dough
(Wolfgang Puck’s Recipe)
Ingredients
3 3/4 c whole wheat flour
1 c cool water
1/4 c warm water
1 package active yeast (or 2 1/2 tsp)
1 tablespoon honey (I used pure maple syrup)
pinch of salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
Dough Preparation (from WP website):
Put the flour in a food processor fitted with the stainless-steel blade. Mix the 1 cup cool water with the olive oil and salt. With the motor running, pour the olive oil mixture and the yeast slowly in through the feed tube. Process until the dough forms a ball that rides around on the blade.
Transfer the dough to an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise until double in bulk. Punch down the dough and knead it on a lightly floured surface for 1 minute. Divide the dough into 4 equal portions and roll them into tight balls. Place on a tray, cover with a damp towel, and let rest for several hours or overnight in the refrigerator before use.
Roll or stretch each ball of dough into a 7-to-8-inch circle. Place the circles, one at a time, on a wooden peel or on a baking sheet and build the pizza as desired.
My notes:
If you’re not going to use right away, after the dough has rested for several hours rub with a very small amount of olive oil and place individual dough portions in a plastic bag (for each) for next day (or more) use.
For Flatbread:
After doing the step above, cut one dough portion into four equal pieces. Roll a ball with each piece. On clean and floured surface, flatten ball with your hand and roll out with rolling pin until it’s about 6 inches in diameter. It should look like a small tortilla and be pretty thin.
With a paper towel, rub olive oil on the bottom of a heavy bottom skillet (cast iron works best) and heat to very hot. You’ll know when it’s ready if a drop of water “dances” when dropped in the pan.
When very hot, place the rolled out dough (one at a time) in the center of the pan and just when it barely starts to bubble, flip it over and do the same. It will start bubbling more, this is good. Keep turning in a circular pattern for even browning.
It takes less than two minutes to cook them, and they should have dark little spots on them.
Serving suggestion: This bread is great for almost anything. It’s great with dips like Hummus or here’s my recipe for Baba Ganoush that would also be great with this bread…or with curry dishes, or with anything!
Enjoy!
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