Ingredients
- 3 cups King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour or King Arthur 100% Organic White Whole Wheat Flour
- 2 teaspoons instant yeast
- 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 2 tablespoons lukewarm orange juice
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 3/4 cup lukewarm water
Preparation
Step 1
1) Combine all of the ingredients, and allow to rest for 30 minutes; this gives the whole wheat flour a chance to absorb the liquid.
2) Mix and knead — by hand, mixer, or bread machine — to make a smooth, soft dough.
3) Transfer the dough to a bowl, cover it, and let it rest at room temperature for 30 minutes. Refrigerate overnight, or for about 18 hours; a bit longer is fine. Handy schedule: Make pizza dough at 8 p.m., and refrigerate until 4 p.m. the next day. Shape, let rise for 2 hours, and bake at 6 p.m.
4) Remove the dough from the refrigerator. Pat it into a lightly greased half-sheet pan (18" x 13") that's been drizzled with olive oil. This will make a thick-crust, Sicilian-style pizza, one that's thick enough to undergo the long bake at a high temperature necessary to optimize its antioxidants.
5) Brush the dough with sauce, if desired; and top with your favorite cooked toppings: cooked vegetables, and/or cooked or smoked meats. Don't add the cheese yet. Cover the pizza, and let it rise for about 2 hours, or until it's very puffy. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 450°F.
6) Bake the pizza on the bottom shelf of the oven for 8 minutes, then remove it from the oven and top with cheese, if desired.
7) Replace the pizza on a shelf in the upper third of the oven. Bake for an additional 6 to 8 minutes, until the cheese is melted and the crust browned.
8) Remove the pizza from the oven, let rest for about 5 minutes (for the cheese to settle), and serve right away. If not serving right away, transfer them to racks to cool, so their bottoms stay crisp.
Yield: about 16 slices.