what's cooking wednesday - whole wheat pizza dough

So with Mike being on Weight Watchers we've been eating a lot of chicken around here. A lot. However much you think it is, it's probably more. It's just an easy got o as we figure out how to make some of our favourite recipes a bit better for us and how many points will he be spending on it once I cook it. Mike has found that his favourite go-to meal is a grilled chicken wrap with lots of veggies and a drizzle of wing sauce for some zing.

His new found love for the grilled wrap hasn't done much to lessen the affection he feels for pizza. I knew that my homemade pizza would be a better choice that ordering in, so last week we made pizza. And then we sat there with the scale and his points calculator and broke down the recipe. We figured 5 points per slice, for a white pizza crust, regular mozzarella, onion, mushroom, tomato and a few slices of pepperoni. I knew we could do better than that. So I went back to the drawing board and got our new and improved pizza down to 3 points per slice. Oh yes I did. This time around I made a whole wheat crust, used low fat mozzarella and ditched the pepperoni, only because Mike forgot to buy some. We are quite fond of the turkey pepperoni, which didn't use the first time around. I imagine it would be fairly reasonable (pointswise) compared to regular pepperoni. Oh and we loaded on the veggies again. I've never been a fan of tomato on pizza until now. Mmmmm.

Okay so I did not get a picture of the pizza, which is crazy because I made it to go with Meatball Family Fun Night. So just close your eyes and imagine a pizza with a whole wheat crust. We good? Good.

13 ounces water (80 degrees F)
2 tbsp vegetable oil
4 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
*OR*
2 tsp bread machine yeast

Layer ingredients in your breadmaker according to manufacturers specifications. Typically it's liquids first, float your dry ingredients on top, and make a shallow well in the flour for the yeast. Turn your breadmaker on to the dough setting and you're all set. Top as you see fit and bake at 425 degrees F for 12 - 15 minutes.

Recipe Notes: This turned out very well. Even the kids enjoyed their whole wheat cheese pizza. One thing I did notice is the dough was way stickier than it's white counterpart. I don't usually bother with the cornmeal when I make pizza, but this could have used it. It stuck a bit to both my pizza stone and my regular nonstick pizza pan. I'm not sure if it was an error on my part or just how it is. The only other small complaint was the dough was pretty plain tasting. Not really surprising considering the recipe. There's not much to it. I think next time around I'll throw some garlic in with the dough. What do you think my WCW friends? Would you go with fresh minced garlic or garlic powder in that situation?




What is What's Cooking Wednesday and how can I play?

What's cooking Wednesday was born out of a desire to get out of that what's for dinner rut. Playing is easy, on Wednesday post a recipe that has been tried and tested by you and then pop over here and add your name to the Mr. Linky. When entering your name also add the name of the recipe in brackets and make sure you link to your What's Cooking Wednesday post and not just your blog's front page. *All front page links will be deleted!* Don't make me be a jerk. And don't forget to link back here, the home of What's Cooking Wednesday.

So for example I would write Shan (Speedy Chicken Stir Fry) in the name section. For the URL section I would post this: http://shanrev.blogspot.com/2007/10/whats-cooking-wednesday-speedy-chicken.html

I'll let you in on a little secret, my WCW recipes are almost never made on a Wednesday. So feel free to cook and photograph whenever you have time and join us posting on Wednesday


Recipe