Herby Pizza Dough

This simple recipe for Herby Pizza Dough will get you started on your journey to pizza (or calzone) awesomeness. It starts with our 100% Whole Wheat Bread recipe and adds dried basil. You don’t have to wait for multiple rise times, either. Just roll the dough, top it with goodies, and bake it. Use this dough for terrific calzones too, like the Very Veggie Calzone. And since there’s no rise time, I consider this an option even for busy days. The short time to put this together is good therapy after a hard work day. And the smell of freshly baked bread, well, that’s good therapy anytime.

Change up the herbs you use in the dough as you see fit. Oregano? Dried Italian seasoning blend? Fresh or dried garlic? According to Pizza Today, fresh garlic and onion can have a significant dough softening effect, so they recommend these as surface applications just before baking, instead of incorporating them into the dough.

Check out the fiber on this dough. When was the last time you had pizza with so much fiber in the crust? Pizza that is actually healthy? Oh yes, it can be done. And with this recipe, you will be doing it!

By Caroline Graettinger October 29, 2014

Ingredients

4 cups - whole wheat flour
3 Tbs - turbinado sugar
1 Tbs - instant yeast
1 tsp - salt
2 Tbs - dried basil
1 2/3 cups - warm water (110 °F - 120 °F)

Instructions

In the bowl of a stand mixer, stir together all the ingredients except the water. Attach the flat paddle to the mixer, and with mixer on low speed, slowly pour in the water. Continue mixing until all the water is absorbed, and there is no flour left on the bottom of the bowl. Remove the flat paddle, cover the bowl, and allow the dough to rest for 10 minutes. Attach the dough hook to the mixer and knead on low speed, or the speed that your mixer instructions recommend for kneading, for 6-8 minutes.
Follow the instructions in your pizza recipe for rolling, topping, and baking.

Herby Pizza Dough 2