Homemade Pizza and Pumpkin Bread

I was a little sore from Saturday’s 11 miles, so instead of running yesterday, I went to a morning pilates class and a then for a nice long walk.  I also kept busy with a few baking projects. The first was homemade whole wheat pizza dough! I adapted my recipe from The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters.

Homemade Whole Wheat Pizza Dough (Makes two 10-inch pies)

Ingredients

  • 1 packet of instant yeast
  • 1/2 cup water lukewarm water
  • 1/4 cup ww flour
  • 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • additional 1  1/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • additional 2 cups whole wheat flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 3/4 cup cold water
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • optional – finely chopped rosemary or basil to mix into the dough

Instructions

  1. Combine the yeast, 1/2 cup warm water, 1/4 cup ww flour and 1/4 cup white flour in a small bowl. Mix well. Let stand for 30 minutes, until mixture is bubbly.
  2. Combine the next 3 dry ingredients in the bowl of a standing mixer. Add the yeast mixture, cold water, and olive oil to the dry ingredients. Using the dough hook of your stand mixer, knead on low speed for 5 minutes. (You could also knead it with your hands if you don’t have a Kitchenaid). Turn dough out into a large oiled bowl.
  3. I let my dough rise slowly overnight in the refrigerator and then took it out of the fridge about 3 hours before I wanted to bake the pizza, but you could also just let it rise for 2 hours in a warm place.
  4. If using the overnight fridge rising technique, allow dough to warm up on the counter for an hour or so. Then divide the dough into two balls and cover loosly with plastic wrap.
  5. Place dough balls back in the bowl and allow to rise for about 2 more hours (until it doubles in size again).
  6. When you’re ready to make the pizza, stretch the dough until it forms a flat 10-12″ circle. Place on a lightly oiled, inverted baking sheet. Top with sauce, cheese, veggies, etc.
  7. Bake in a pre-heated 500 degree oven for about 10 minutes or until crust is crispy.
  8. Note: You could make two 10-12″ pizzas at once or just bake one of the dough balls and store the other in the fridge for a few days.

Making homemade dough sounds complicated, but it’s really not that hard. It just takes a lot of advance planning! But the pizza you eventually enjoy will be well worth the effort 🙂

I topped the pizza with marinara sauce, shredded mozzarella cheese, sliced tomato, sliced roasted red peppers, arugula, and the secret ingredient: silken tofu! The silken tofu was a wonderful substitute for fresh buffalo mozzarella. The consistency was almost identical and once I added basil, oregano, and garlic salt the taste was also similar. Plus the tofu added some vegetarian protein. Yum!

Crispy crust and ooey-gooey toppings:

After dinner, I started on another project:

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread (makes 8 servings)

Recipe adapted from Cooking Light.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 cup canned pumpkin
  • 6 oz low-fat vanilla yogurt
  • 2 Tbs canola oil
  • 1 egg
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • dash of nutmeg and ginger
  • 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
  • cooking spray

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly oil  a 8″ x 8″ loaf pan.
  • Mix first 5 wet ingredients in a large bowl.
  • Combine flour, baking soda, salt, and spices in a medium bowl.
  • Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and stir just until moist – do not over mix!
  • Add chocolate chips and pour batter into loaf pan
  • Bake for about an hour – your bread may take more or less time depending on oven temperature. My bread was starting to get too brown after only 55 minutes, but the original recipe suggests 1 hour, 15 minutes of baking. Keep an eye on the bread!

This pumpkin chocolate chip bread is fairly healthy (ww flour, pumpkin, dark chocolate, yogurt replaces most of the oil, etc.) and is delicious when topped with peanut butter or yogurt. Enjoy!

If you’re avoiding gluten, the girls at Skinny and the City have some delicious gluten-free cookie recipes for you. The chocolate chip and lemon ginger varieties sound amazing!

In the New York area? Enjoy good beer? Check out the events scheduled for the 2nd annual NYC craft beer week.

Real Simple just published a list of the best breakfast cereals. What is your favorite breakfast cereal??