Making homemade pizza is quite easy. I wouldn’t have thought that until I’ve now made this homemade pizza dough several times. It’s my go-to versus ordering takeout pizza. What I love about making my own pizza is that I can customize the flavor of the dough to my liking and the toppings to my preference and dietary needs. Creating my own pizza dough recipe came after falling in love with the pizza crust at a local pizza restaurant.
I took my homemade pizza dough recipe a step further after being introduced to the Komo Grain Mills and Flakers. I received the Komo Fidibus Classic grain mill from Pleasant Hill Grain. (#sponsored post). You can learn more about their products on their site. After making the pizza dough with fresh milled flours, I found the flavor and texture of the pizza crust to be a world of a difference better than the crust made with store bought flours.
The process of milling your own grains is easy using their grain mill. Simply select your choice of grain(s). You can find grains in bulk on Pleasant Hill Grain’s site. I purchased mine at Whole Foods and from Bob’s Red Mill. I chose to use a combination of hard red wheat and spelt. My traditional pizza dough recipe called for whole wheat flour so that is why I chose the red wheat. Also, the red wheat lends a chewiness to its baked goods. I decided to use spelt because I was familiar baking with spelt flour. I thought it would be a good neutral flavor flour to combine with the wheat.
Next, for a fine grain flour turn the top hopper as far left as possible before the stone burrs touch each other. You will know if you have turned it too far because the flour won’t come out when the mill is turned on. Once the fine grind has been set, then pour your chosen grain into the hopper.
Cover with the lid, place a bowl under the spout to capture the fresh milled flour, and turn on the mill. Voila you have flour!
The mill can grind hard or soft wheat, sorghum, rice, kamut, barley, rye and more. To ensure my flour is fine enough to produce a soft, tender dough, I used the Komo Flour Sifter. The sifter sifts the coarse bran from the fine flour.
Now I am ready to make the pizza dough! See the recipe below for my delicious and easy homemade pizza dough recipe.
Roasted Delicata Squash and Sausage Pizza
Print RecipeIngredients
- Fresh Pizza Dough
- 2 packets (4 ½ teaspoons) active dry yeast
- 1 teaspoon raw cane sugar or granulated sugar
- 1 ½ cups hot water (about 110 degrees F)
- 4 tablespoons molasses
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 cups fresh milled spelt flour
- 1 1/2 cups fresh milled hard red wheat flour
- 2 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons cornmeal
- 1 tablespoon melted butter or ghee
- Pizza
- 1 delicata squash
- 6 breakfast sausage patties
- 4 to 6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 cup ricotta cheese (I used buffalo milk ricotta)
- 1 big ball fresh mozzarella cheese (I used buffalo milk mozzarella)
- fresh sage leaves
Instructions
For the pizza dough, in the bowl of a food processor, add the yeast, sugar and water. Stir until the yeast is dissolved. Allow to sit for 5 minutes. The yeast will become foamy.
Add the olive oil and molasses to the food processor.
Add the spelt flour, red wheat flour and salt to a food processor.
Process for about 15 seconds or until the mixture forms a ball that rides around the bowl above the blade. Continue processing for 15 seconds longer. Remove the dough with floured hands. Form the dough into a smooth ball and transfer to a lightly greased bowl. Cover loosely with plastic wrap. Allow to rise for 2 hours on the counter. Or store in the refrigerator overnight to rise.
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Cut the delicate squash in half lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds and then cut the squash into 1/2-inch half moons. Place evenly on the baking sheet. Drizzle with some evoo and season with kosher salt. Bake for 15 minutes or until tender but not too soft. Set aside.
Increase the oven temperature to 525 degrees F.
Cut the dough in half and transfer one of the halves to a floured surface. Knead the dough with the palm of your hand in a pushing down, forward and rolling technique, keeping the dough in a ball shape. Knead for about 2 minutes or until the dough forms a tight ball. Transfer back to the bowl and allow to sit for 30 minutes. Repeat with the additional dough and transfer to a lightly greased bowl. (If you want to make only one pizza, cover one of the bowls with plastic wrap and refrigerate the dough for up to 5 days.)
Heat a pizza stone in the oven for 30 minutes while the dough is resting.
Now prepare the sausage. Heat a large skillet over medium to medium-high heat. Break the sausage patties into pieces and add to the skillet. Cook for about 4 minutes on one side and then flip and cook on the other until browned and cooked through. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate to drain.
After your dough has rested for 30 minutes, working with one pizza dough at a time, begin to gently stretch the pizza dough in your hands with your knuckles. Stretch the dough into about a 10-inch circle, creating a thin center and leaving the outer 1-inch edge higher than the center.
Remove the pizza stone from the oven and evenly sprinkle the cornmeal on top. Place the pizza dough round on the stone. Drizzle 2 to 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil over the center of the pizza. Bake for 2 minutes. Spoon half of the ricotta cheese over the pizza. Next, place some of the roasted squash and half the cooked sausage over the pizza. Lastly pinch off pieces of the fresh mozzarella and arrange over the toppings.
Bake for 8 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. Remove from the oven and brush the melted ghee or butter over the crust. Repeat with the additional dough and toppings.
Heat a small skillet over medium-high heat. Add a couple tablespoons of light olive oil to the skillet. Once hot, carefully add the sage leaves. Cook for a few seconds until the leaves begin to curl and lightly brown. Immediately transfer to a piece of paper towel to drain. Arrange the fried sage on top of the pizza.
Slice the pizza and serve immediately.
2 Comments
Kelly
April 30, 2021 at 6:46 pmIf I only have hard wheat berries can I use this recipe? If so what would be the amount I would use? Thank you.
Whitney
May 5, 2021 at 8:19 amYes, you can use all wheat. I wanted some of the wheat flavor and texture so I only used some for my pizza dough. It would probably be a heartier dough if you use all wheat. I am not sure if it will work exactly to use the same amount of the fresh milled wheat flour for the spelt plus wheat flour in my recipe but I imagine it would.