The Great White Wheat Crust Experiment

I use King Arthur unbleached all-purpose flour for my pizza crust and it has never failed me. On Friday, I decided to substitute white wheat flour for my usual flour to see if I liked it. I use a recipe for basic pizza dough from "The Gourmet Cookbook" by Ruth Reichl. It's a simple recipe that calls for active dry yeast, a bit of salt, olive oil and about 1 3/4 cups of unbleached all-purpose flour. (I do recommend the book).


I tried white whole wheat flour because I wondered if I would like it better than the all-purpose flour I have used for about five years now. I didn't have the King Arthur brand handy so I used what was available: Eagle Mills. White wheat flour is more firm and less sticky than the all-purpose flour. It also doesn't shape as easily, though. For instance, once the dough was finished rising, I couldn't pull it into a big round pie without tearing it.

Instead, I cut the dough ball in half, rolled out each half and cut it into eighths. I had to roll it out super thin, but it held together well and wasn't very sticky. It didn't cling to the cutting board, which happens sometimes. So I cut it up into eight squarish pieces and stored them on parchment in a glass container. 

The slices were tasty. I pre-baked each one for 6 minutes at 500 degrees, added toppings, then cooked for another 8 minutes. Today I had three slices topped with cheese, tomato sauce and turkey pepperoni. It will become a part of the regular rotation in my refrigerator.