Monday, January 2, 2012

whole wheat pizza....oh the carbs.

I've been counting calories for about a week. It is amazing what a wake up call this is. You have no idea how many calories are in the pasta or just how small an actual serving is until you measure it. Then comes the realization that you have been eating for something like six to eight people all these years.

Unfortunately, I went shopping for this week's food before I started counting calories, so I'm stuck with what I've got. I'm looking for ways to amend to stay with in my calorie limitations.

Tonight, we are going for whole wheat pizza crust. Grabbed the recipe from....you guessed it...Allrecipes again. I swear I'll venture outside of that site at some point. Right now, they just always come up in a Google search. Plus, this one was so much healthier then others I had found.

We did adjust this recipe a wee bit, but I don't think it hurt the nutritional value. (although, I will calculate it later today.)

Here is what I did

  • 1 teaspoon white sugar
  • 1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
  • 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 3.25 cups whole wheat flour
  • 3 tablespoon vital wheat gluten

I added the ingredients in the following order: water, salt, sugar, olive oil, flour, gluten, yeast. Ran them through a quick dough cycle and turned them out on to a floured surface. I opted to cut mine in half for two smaller pizzas. (The recipe suggested that this would make thin crust, but I didn't find this to be the case.) I folded each in to a ball where  they would sit and rise for another 45 minutes.

whole wheat pizza dough

At the end of the 45 minutes, they looked like this (again, please pardon the photos from here on out. They are taken in the evening, with a crappy camera at a high ISO. I swear, I have a new DSLR camera on order. Soon, low light pictures will no longer be an issue. Promise. (Now stop complaining about the crappy pictures.)

IMG_3003

Then, the fun part...flattening them out. You should know, I made another mistake. The recipe didn't call for covering them with a wet towel as they rose, but I'm thinking I should have because the dough formed a crusty outer layer when I stretched it out. I won't bore you with that picture, mostly because I didn't get one worth sharing.

What I will note is upon reading the recipe comments, someone suggested baking the crust for about 5 minutes before adding the toppings. This sounded like good advice because last time I made pizza, the cheese got a little browner then we typically like.

IMG_3011

This made a world of difference in my opinion. This is what the looked like post a pre-baking. I threw on the sauce, cheese and so many vegetables, you couldn't even see the crust...tomatoes, olives, spinach, onions OH MY!

And sadly, I was so excited to eat, I didn't get a single picture of it done. This earns it an eight. The crust was tasty, healthy and delicious. I was able to eat three slices and it was so good. This is earned its place on the permanent dinner rotation. I suggest you give it a go. You won't be sorry! Promise!

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