Earth Hour Pizza Pie

Today is Earth Hour and for dinner was pizza and pie mmm yummie! I've always found that good pizza dough is hard to come by, and today I'm going to share with you my never-fail whole wheat pizza dough recipe. I love doubling it up so i have a nice thick pizza crust, kinda like im eating bread with add-ins instead of pizza. I also made an apple pie at the same time since the oven was on and my internship class made pies this week so they kind of inspired me to make my own at home. I'll share with you the pate brisee recipe I used as well.


Whole Wheat Pizza Dough

• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 
  
• 1) In a large bowl, dissolve sugar 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 mix in the whole wheat flour and 1 cup of the all-purpose flour until dough starts to come together. Tip dough out onto a surface floured with the remaining all-purpose flour, and knead until all of the flour has been absorbed, and the ball of dough becomes smooth, about 10 minutes. 
• 3) 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.

Pate Brisee

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon granulated white sugar

1 cup unsalted butter, chilled, and cut into 1 inch pieces

1/4 to 1/2 cup ice water

1) In a bowl, place the flour, salt, and sugar mixing until combined.  Add the butter and mix until the mixture resembles coarse meal.  Pour 1/4 cup water in a slow, steady stream, and mix until dough just holds together when pinched.  Add remaining water, if necessary.

2) Turn the dough out onto your work surface and gather it into a ball.  Divide the dough into two equal pieces, cover in plasticwrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes to an hour before using.This will chill the butter and allow the gluten in the flour to relax.   At this point you can also freeze the dough for later use.  

3) For each disk of pastry, on a lightly floured surface, roll out the pastry to fit into a 8 or 9 inch tart pan. Cover and refrigerate for 20 minutes to chill the butter and to rest the gluten.
4) To prebake the tart shell:  Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and place rack in center of oven. Line the unbaked pastry shell with parchment paper or aluminum foil.  Fill tart pan with beans, making sure the weights are to the top of the pan and evenly distributed over the entire surface.  Bake crust for 20 to 25 minutes or until the crust is dry and lightly browned.