FROZEN HOMEMADE WHOLE WHEAT PIZZAS
Yield:
4 (10-12 inch) pizzas
Ingredients
For the pizza dough:
- 3 cups whole wheat flour
- 3 cups bread flour
- 3 cups warm water
- 1 heaping teaspoon active dry yeast (1/2 package)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 teaspoons salt
For the sauce:
- 28 ounce can of crushed tomatoes
- 3 oz. tomato paste (put the rest in an airtight container and freeze for another recipe)
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/4 teaspoon (or more) crushed red pepper flakes
- 3 teaspoons sugar
- 2 teaspoons dried basil
- Salt to taste
- Shredded mozzarella cheese (about 4-5 cups)
Equipment:
- Pizza Stone
- Parchment paper
- Pizza peel (optional but extremely helpful)
- Plastic wrap
- Aluminum foil
Instructions
- Optional toppings: chopped cooked meatballs, gyro slices, cooked chicken…
- Combine the yeast with the water and sprinkle about ½ teaspoon of sugar. Let sit undisturbed for about 10 minutes. The yeast will soften and appear cloudy.
- In the bowl of a tabletop mixer combine both flours with the salt and mix to combine. Add the yeast mixture along with the olive oil and knead with the dough hook attachment for 8-10 minutes.
- This step can also be done by hand directly on the counter or in a large bowl.
- Cover the dough with plastic wrap and let it rise until doubled in size. About 1 and ½ - 2 hours.
- In the meantime prepare the sauce by combining all of the ingredients into a food processor or blender and blending until smooth. Season with salt to your liking.
- The sauce tastes delicious when made but gets even better by the next day. Store in the refrigerator until ready to make the pizzas.
- When the dough has doubled in size, punch it down and transfer to a container with a lid. At this point the dough is ready to make pizzas, but I highly recommend that you refrigerate it for at least 24 hours before using. This will allow the dough to become very light with many air bubbles.
- Preheat oven to 550 degrees Fahrenheit, 288 degrees Celsius with the pizza stone in it.
- Note: I never take my pizza stone out of my oven. This helps keep it from breaking. Invest in a good quality stone that is fairly thick.
- Allow the pizza dough to come to room temperature. This will make the dough very easy to work with and will prevent it from shrinking when stretching it out into circles.
- Cut the dough into 4 equal pieces and form into rounds.
- Take each round and stretch it out into a 10-12 inch circle. Make sure that the crust is the thickest part.
- Note: If the dough is worked too much it will begin to shrink and it will be difficult to form the large pizza rounds. If this happens, just set it aside to rest while forming the remaining circles.
- Place a parchment paper on a pizza peel or on the back side of an aluminum baking tray. This will make it easy to transfer the dough into the oven.
- Place the prepared pizza dough into the oven and bake for 4 minutes. The dough will be partially baked.
- Repeat the same steps with the remaining dough.
- Cool on a rack.
- Once the partially cooked pizza rounds are cooled, top with the pizza sauce and cheese.
- Freeze for 2-3 hours or until solid.
- Remove from freezer and wrap with plastic wrap or place in freezer bags. Wrap with foil as well for extra protection.
- The pizzas can be frozen for 3 months.
- When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 550 degrees Fahrenheit, 288 degrees Celsius with the pizza stone in it.
- Remove the plastic wrap from pizza and discard. Bake frozen for 10-15 minutes or until the cheese is completely melted and the crust is nice and crisp.
- Serve immediately.
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