Homemade Pizza Dough

Nothing smells quite like homemade pizza baking in the oven.  It brings to mind images of an old guy in a chef's hat tossing dough into the air with that funny Italian music in the background (you know the tune).  Well, I'm not Italian, I don't own a chef's hat and have failed miserably (repeatedly) at tossing dough into the air.  I can, however, make one serious pizza.  Just wait until summer when I can actually grow my own toppings.  Look out, Papa John!  Here comes Aunt D!!

I'm including two recipes here that came with my bread machine.  One is for a whole wheat crust and the other for a regular white crust.  Each recipe makes two 12 - 14 inch pizzas.  The pizza in the photo was made with a whole wheat crust.  I made the whole wheat version last night for the first time and learned two things about whole wheat crust pizza. 

#1 - The wheat flour really does reduce the calorie count of your pizza.  Two slices of the pizza pictured here weighs in at around 188 calories.  Not bad.

#2 - I do not like whole wheat pizza crust.  Michael gave it a thumbs up, though, so that's the score we're going to be using for the 'official record'.

Here's what you'll need:

White
1 cup warm water
4 tablespoons vegetable (or olive) oil
3 1/4 cups all purpose flour (I use bread flour)
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 teaspoons yeast (2 teaspoons rapid rise yeast)

Whole Wheat
1 1/4 cups warm water
2 tablespoons vegetable (or olive) oil
3 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 teaspoons yeast (2 teaspoons rapid rise yeast)

As always, add the ingredients to your bread machine in the order specified by your machine.  When your dough is ready, separate it into two equal portions.  Roll each portion flat onto your pizza pan.  Bake the dough for 10 minutes at 350 degrees and allow to cool before adding your toppings.  After you've added your toppings, bake at 425 until the cheese is melted.  Enjoy!

The toppings in the photo are red onion, orange & yellow bell pepper, tomato, pepperoncini slices and finely shredded mozzarella.