Homemade Pizza

We love ourselves some pizza around here (it's one of the few (only?) meals we all enjoy) and we almost always have the ingredients on hand to be able to whip some up. Instead of purchasing pre-made crusts, we prefer to make own our crust in the bread machine. It tastes better and is cheaper. The dough also freezes well, so if I'm thinking ahead, I double the batch and freeze whatever dough we won't be using that night. When we want to use it, I transfer it from the freezer to fridge in the morning so the thawing process can begin; a few hours before we're ready to cook, we transfer it to pizza pans so it can warm up more and start to rise.

I use the pizza crust recipe from the recipe book that came with my first bread machine (which died on me this summer) and I recently discovered that the same book has a whole wheat pizza crust recipe! I was so excited to try it! I'm always looking for ways to "healthify" our diet and we prefer whole wheat, so I decided to give it a go. It got a seal of approval from the entire family - we loved it. It's got great flavor but it's not so overwhelming that those who don't enjoy whole wheat will be turned off by it.


I am normally the main cook in our house, but when it comes to grilling and pizza, Chris takes over the kitchen (and I'm happy to step back for a bit). I help with toppings, but he handles the baking (or grilling - grilled pizza is AMAZING and so easy if you haven't tried it). He loves to use the pizza stone and pizza paddle you see in the photos.

Whole Wheat Pizza Crust Dough (makes 2 thin crusts)
from Breadman The Corner Bakery Bread & Dessert Maker Cookbook

1 cup water
2 tbsp oil (we use olive oil)
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups bread flour
2 1/4 tsp yeast

Add ingredients to bread machine pan in the order listed. Run bread machine on dough cycle. When cycle is complete, remove the dough from the machine and place on a lightly floured surface. Divide in half and press dough into pizza pans. Top as desired (the picture at the top is topped with chicken nuggets, a Master Charles favorite; one of my favorites is spinach and ricotta) and bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes or until cheese is brown and bubbly.

Enjoy!