Oven-Baked Whole Grain Pizza with Roasted Red Peppers and Italian Cheeses

 Oven-Baked Whole Grain Pizza with Roasted Red Peppers and Italian Cheeses

Our baking group is using the whole wheat bread dough with olive oil for our next creative assignment.  It sounded healthy, but I wondered how it would taste.  

I made a couple of substitutions to this pizza:
--Used white whole wheat flour.
--Cut the water by 1/4 cup to avoid overly wet dough.
--Used a blend of Italian cheeses that include Mozzarella, Provolone, Parmesan, Asiago, Fontina and Romano Cheeses.  The Fontina cheese alone was a bit pricey for me.

First, I charred the red bell peppers.  I covered a baking sheet with foil and put it under the broiler.  When they began to char, I put the bell peppers in a paper bag to "sweat."  After about 15 minutes, I took them out of the bag and the skins were easy to remove.  I did this a few days before making the pizza so that the pizza preparation was really easy on baking day.


I found that my pizza peel really wasn't large enough for what I wanted to make.  Therefore, I used the back of a baking sheet.  It worked just great when I sprinkled whole wheat flour to keep the dough from sticking.

Oven-Baked Whole Grain Pizza with Roasted Red Peppers and Fontina Cheese

 

I baked the pizza on an unglazed tile this time, and let it cool on the rack.  My unglazed tile is a bit larger than my stone, and I wanted the extra room.  The pizza was really great!  We didn't miss the sauce.  I don't know if the white whole wheat flour made a difference, but I think I'll keep using it.  My hubby said it tasted like one of the wood fired pizzas from a restaurant we like.  

Handwise tips:  If you have hand pain, tendonitis, or arthritis or any other pain issues and want to make this recipe, you might space it out over a few days:

1. Use some HB5 stored dough that you made several days before.
2. Make the roasted peppers a day or two before making the pizza.  Roast them, put them in the bag to sweat, peel them, and chop them.  That's enough for one day!
3. Use pre-shredded cheese
4. Let the dough rest if it resists stretching out.  Wait 10-15 minutes, and it should be able to be patted into a larger circle or rolled out.  Good time to have a seat and rest your hands!
5. Find what kind of rolling method works best for you.  You might pick up the dough and have gravity stretch it for you.  You might use an OXO-type rolling pin.  Or a pastry roller may be easier for you to use, with the angle of the roller coming from above.
6. If a large pizza is to much to work with, try making 2 smaller pizzas.

About the HBinFive Baking Group

The HBinFive Baking Group, started by Michelle of Big Black Dogs, is baking through all of the breads in the Healthy Bread in Five Minutes book. For more information on the HBinFive baking group, check out BigBlackDog.