I LOVE pizza! It’s my absolute, hands down, favorite food! Some might consider that a weakness…but I love it so much, I’m willing to do a little extra work to make it healthy AND delicious! You can make the dough recipe below as stated OR you can throw it all in a bread machine, following your manufacturer’s guidelines for ingredient order, and use the dough cycle. *That’s how I did it until my bread machine died! 🙁 The best thing about this recipe is that it makes 3, 12″ thin crust pizzas, so everyone can make their own, share with a friend/family member and put on own their favorite toppings. It makes me so unbelievably happy to load mine up with all my favorite toppings (that don’t happen to be my family’s favorites), like: pesto, artichokes, olives, peppers, carmelized onions, zucchini, feta cheese, skim mozzarella, tomatoes, and spinach (the more veggies the better!). It makes for a fun family night, or dinner with friends. And everyone’s happy to eat the pizza that THEY designed! 🙂 Enjoy!

1 t. honey 

1 ½ C. warm water (100°F)

1 T. active dry yeast

1 T. olive oil

1 t. salt

3 ¼ C. whole wheat flour

1 t. Italian seasoning (or substitute garlic powder, oregano, basil, whatever you like!)

Cornmeal

Directions

1. In a large bowl, dissolve honey in warm water. Sprinkle yeast over the top, and let stand for about 10 minutes, until foamy.
2. Stir the olive oil and salt into the yeast mixture, then slowly work in the whole wheat flour and seasonings. When the dough starts to come together, tip dough out onto a surface, adding in the remaining flour as you go. Knead until all of the flour has been absorbed, and the ball of dough becomes smooth, about 10 minutes. Place dough in an oiled bowl, and turn to coat the surface. Cover loosely with a towel, and let stand in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
3. When the dough is doubled, tip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and divide into 3 pieces for 3 thin crusts, approximately 12” pizzas, or leave whole to make 1 or 2 thicker crusts.
4. Preheat the oven to 500°F. Spray, or oil a pizza pan, stone, or cookie sheet and lightly dust with cornmeal. Roll a ball of dough with a rolling-pin until it will not stretch any further. Transfer to prepared pan and continue to stretch and work the dough to desired size/thickness. Pre-bake for 5 minutes in the preheated oven. Do this with remaining crusts.
5. Turn oven down to 425°F. Now you can spread the sauce and top your pizza however you like. Return to oven and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes until the crust is crisp and golden at the edges and the cheese is melted on the top.

*If 3, 12″ thin crust pizzas are made, and cut into eighths, each slice of crust is 60 calories. Then figure in your toppings to determine additional calories. For reference, the above pizza,as I described, was around 150 calories per slice. I had 3 slices and LOVED every bite; totally guilt-free!