Soaked Whole Wheat Pizza Crust

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Soaked Whole Wheat Pizza Crust – this pizza crust is great if you are looking for a properly soaked whole wheat crust!

In case you haven’t noticed, I’m on a bit of a soaked grains kick right now.

Yet another new recipe that I’m adding to my recipe box is for soaked whole wheat pizza dough.

We eat pizza around 4 times a month in my house. What can I say, we love pizza! Want to know why I’m on a soaked grains kick? Read here!

The original recipe comes from Lindsay from Passionate Homemaking. However, it makes 4 pizza crusts and does not use the bread machine.

That recipe is great if you want that much dough, don’t depend on your bread machine, or you want to freeze your dough for later.

I however, did not want that much dough and I must admit I love my bread machine. So I adapted the version for a half batch, which I made in the bread machine.

I still got 2 crusts from this recipe so I just cooked one and I put the second dough in the fridge for a few days. Oddly the one that was in the fridge for a few days (okay, a week) tasted better!

Soaked Whole Wheat Pizza Crust

– Ingredients for soaking

4-5 cups whole wheat flour (I used 4 cups but as with all breads you may need more or less)
1 ½ cups warm water minus 1 ½ Tbs.
1 ½ Tbs. Acidic medium (whey, kefir, yogurt, lemon juice, vinegar)
2 Tbs. honey

– Ingredients for activating yeast

¼ cup warm water
½ tsp. honey
1 Tbs. yeast

– Ingredients remaining

1 ½ tsp. salt

Directions:
Step 1 – Soaking

In bread machine pan, combine flour, water, acidic medium, and honey.
Turn bread machine on to “dough” cycle and allow to mix for 30 minutes or so. (you just want the mix part of the cycle; Do not let it rise yet)
After the 30 minutes, unplug bread machine and allow dough to sit in the bread machine for 12-24 hours.

Step 2 – Activating yeast/adding remaining ingredients

Activate yeast by combining water, honey, and yeast in a small container.
Allow to foam up for around 5 minutes. Add the yeast mixture to the flour.
Also add in the last remaining ingredient; the salt.
Turn bread machine on to “dough” cycle and allow to run through full cycle (including the rising this time)

Step 3 – Cooking

Once bread machine has finished the dough cycle, preheat your oven to 500 degrees.
Divide dough into 2 pieces; this will make 2 crusts.
Shape one piece of dough into a crust and the remaining piece you can save in the fridge if you will be using it in a few days or you can freeze it for later.
Bake pizza crust for 10-15 minutes. However, if you are like me and prefer pre-cooking your crust before the toppings, I suggest cooking the crust for 4-5 minutes then add your toppings and cook for 5-7 minutes longer.

Freezing Dough

Freeze dough in freezer bags (yes, I’m not crunchy and use plastic bags for my freezer occasionally, although you could probably use glass containers as well…) No pre-baking needed; just freeze the dough immediately. When ready to use, thaw in fridge for several hours, bring to room temperature and then shape and cook as normal.

You can also pre-bake the crust for a few minutes, let cool, place toppings and then wrap the whole pizza and store in the freezer for a healthier alternative to store bought frozen pizzas. When you want to eat your pizza just throw it in the oven for 10-15 minutes.