Tessa’s Recipe Rundown
TASTE: If I didn’t tell you this pizza crust is whole wheat, you probably wouldn’t know it. TEXTURE: Light yet chewy with crisp edges. Perfect! EASE: Super easy, no kneading involved. You basically just stir together the ingredients, let it rise, shape it into balls, let it rest, then shape it into a circle. The dough can be both refrigerated and frozen to make ahead of time. APPEARANCE: Pretty perfect as far as beige balls of dough come. PROS: Easy, tasty, and healthier than white flour dough. CONS: Absolutely none. WOULD I MAKE THIS AGAIN? Yes! I made a double batch to freeze so we can have pizza whenever we want.This post may contain affiliate links. Read our disclosure policy.
Ultimate No-Knead Whole Wheat Pizza Dough is ridiculously simple and just as tasty, light, chewy, and crisp as regular pizza crust.
Dense cardboard. That’s how I would describe the first whole wheat pizza crust I ever tasted. There was no light chewiness to it, no crispness. It was soft and heavy and tasted overwhelmingly wheaty in the worst way. For a long time I thought there was no such thing as a scrumptious whole wheat pizza dough recipe. That was until now! Last year I posted a video tutorial with tons of helpful tips and tricks on how to make pizza. It starred my favorite no-knead pizza dough recipe which uses regular all-purpose white flour. I received many questions about how to make that recipe whole-wheat, so I thought I’d experiment a bit and I’m super excited to share what I came up with.
*The recipe in action. Stay tuned until Monday for this pizza recipe!*
Most pizza dough recipes are very similar, there’s only so many ingredients you can use to make pizza dough. This ultimate no-knead whole wheat pizza dough uses some very simple ingredients too. Here is exactly what I use to make this dough:
White Whole Wheat Flour:
This flour is 100% whole grain and just as nutritious as regular whole wheat flour, but has a lighter taste and color due to the fact that it’s made from a naturally occurring albino wheat. This makes it absolutely perfect for pizza dough. I’ve seen this at most grocery stores in either the King Arthur brand or Gold Medal brand. This recipe uses all white whole wheat flour but tastes wonderful, promise.
SAF Instant Yeast:
This is my favorite yeast that I keep in the fridge since it’s such a large package. It’s instant yeast, which means you don’t have to proof it by combining with water for 5 minutes. You can add it directly into your dough recipe with the other dry ingredients, no special treatment required. You can find other brands of instant yeast, sometimes called “rapid-rise.” If you only have active dry yeast, combine it with the 1 1/2 cups warm water (about 115°F) in the recipe and let stand for 5 minutes, or until the yeast is foamy and dissolved. If this doesn’t happen that means your yeast has expired and is no longer usable.
Extra-Virgin Olive Oil:
A splash of oil goes into the dough to give it richness and a boost of flavor, then we brush the edges of the stretched dough with some more olive oil before topping. This ensures the dough gets nice and golden brown and crispy. Don’t skip the brushing! Another tasty option is to combine some melted butter with minced fresh garlic cloves to brush around the edges of the dough for a garlic butter crust. YUM.
Flavorings:
Fine sea salt gives the dough some flavor, as does the honey. Definitely do not skip these. You can also add in fresh chopped herbs or dried herbs to the dough as you mix the other ingredients, such as rosemary, thyme, oregano, basil, etc. for an extra boost of flavor.
Baking Temperature and Time:
This is just the dough recipe, but I’ve included instructions on how to form and bake with whatever toppings you like. See my pizza recipes here. Feel free to crank your oven higher than the 450°F listed in the recipe. My oven doesn’t reliably go much higher than that, nor do I enjoy cranking it any higher than that living here in Phoenix. Start checking your pizza around 12 minutes. I like my crust and cheese to be nice and golden brown, so I cook mine for about 15 minutes or even longer.
Baking Stone
This isn’t 100% necessary, if you have a pizza screen or other pan that creates a crisp crust, use that instead. However I LOVE my baking stone and find it creates the best pizza and this particular stone by Emile Henry is also safe to use on your grill, so you can make pizza in the summer without heating your whole kitchen up.
Make Ahead:
-In a warm spot in your house (at least 75°F), the dough should take no longer than 1 1/2 hours to rise. Instead, you can let the dough can ferment overnight in the fridge. Remove from the fridge and let come to room temperature, about 2 hours, before using.
-Once you shape the dough into two smooth balls, they need to rest for about 30 minutes to relax the gluten. This will make it MUCH easier to shape into a thin circle. After 30 minutes, the dough can be wrapped in plastic and refrigerated for up to 3 days. Let rest at room temperature, covered in plastic so it won’t continue to rise, for 2 to 3 hours before shaping.
-You can also freeze the dough, individually wrapped in plastic and placed in ziptop bags, for up to 1 month. Defrost in the fridge overnight then allow to sit at room temperature for 2 to 3 hours before shaping.
Ultimate No-Knead Whole Wheat Pizza Dough
Ingredients
- 3 3/4 cups (15.5 ounces) white whole wheat flour
- 1 tablespoon instant yeast
- 1 1/2 teaspoons fine sea salt
- 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
- 1 tablespoon olive oil, plus more for brushing
- 1 tablespoon honey
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl combine the flour, yeast, and salt. In a liquid measuring cup combine the water, oil, and honey. Gradually add the water mixture to the flour, stirring until incorporated and a shaggy dough forms. You may need to use your hands.
- Shape the dough into a rough ball and transfer to large clean bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until doubled in size, about 1 1/2 hours. You can also let the dough ferment in the fridge overnight. Remove from the fridge and let come to room temperature, about 2 hours, before using.
- Transfer the dough to a well-floured work surface. Divide into 2 equal portions. Take one portion of dough and gather 4 corners to the center to create 4 folds. Turn seam side down and roll into an even ball. Repeat with remaining half of dough. Let the dough rest, covered, until soft and pliable, about 30 minutes.
- At this point the dough can be wrapped in plastic and refrigerated for up to 3 days. Unwrap and let rest at room temperature, covered in plastic, for 2 to 3 hours before shaping. Freeze the dough, individually wrapped in plastic and placed in ziptop bags, for up to 1 month. Defrost in the fridge overnight then allow to sit at room temperature as directed before shaping.
- Place a baking stone on the bottom rack of the oven and preheat to 450°F. Place one ball of dough on a large sheet of parchment and shape and stretch until you have a thin 12-inch circle. To get the dough super thin, briefly roll with a rolling pin. Slide the dough onto a pizza peel or flat cookie sheet. Cover with a clean towel until ready to use. Brush the edges with olive oil and top with desired toppings. Bake in a 450°F oven for 12 to 15 minutes, or until desired doneness.
Can I make a pan pizza or thick crust dough with your recipe?
If not, what do I need to modify so it would work?
Hi! I recently tried a similar %100 whole wheat pizza dough recipe. Once baked, the crust of the pizza was good, however, it was thicker than I had wanted and took away from the delicious flavours of the toppings. I rolled the dough out quite thin (about half a centimetre) , but the crust rose to about a centimetre and a half when baked. I was just wondering what I could do to make the crust more like a thin crust pizza, without rolling the dough out so much that it tears. Any suggestions are appreciated. Thank you!
Here’s a link to the recipe that I used:
http://www.tablespoon.com/recipes/100-whole-wheat-pizza-crust/a1b4fa8d-1f67-4955-8fe7-96649a7186e7
Hi! Whole wheat pizza doughs can be challenging because whole wheat bread products in general are more dense and bready because of the high protein content in whole wheat flour which can lead to more gluten development. I would give this recipe a try because it involves no kneading and uses white whole wheat flour. The resulting pizza is thin and crisp!
Can I substitute white sugar or brown sugar for honey? Would one be better.
You can use white sugar or leave it out entirely.
This pizza crust is just fantastic!!! So soft and chewy. I didn’t have white whole wheat flour so I just used half white, half wheat. Worked great! And it couldn’t have been easier. Thank you thank you thank you for this recipe!
Awesome!! So glad you love the recipe 🙂
This is my new go to pizza crust recipe! It’s our favorite! Thank you!
Happy to hear that!
Thanks for the great recipe! I tried it out yesterday and topped it with asparagus, zucchini, roasted red peppers and mushrooms. I have so many other recipes of yours saved on Pinterest and just need to find time to make them all. Actually, I plan to make your stuffed shell recipe this weekend too! Keep the awesome recipes coming!
Oh yum! I’m so happy you’re enjoying the recipes.
This an amazing recipe, Im using it tonight to make my own version of margherita pizza, Id love to link to you in my blog so I can give due credit for the recipe! Would you mind?
Not at all!
This post sucks, sorry to say. When I saw an article about the ‘science’ of cookies, I thought you might approach all your recipes that way, but this post shows that’s not the case. I know a fair bit about bread, though I am looking to learn more. This post says nothing about how bread works. And honey? Do you think honey goes with everything? How about a seafood pizza, or capriciossa? Do you think a margherita would taste nice with honey?
Not a good food site at all.
I’m sorry you didn’t like the post, not all my recipes are full-fledged scientific-inspired articles. If you know a lot about bread, you must know that you can omit or substitute the honey easily. Please refrain from leaving rude comments on my site, there’s no need for them. You can move on to the next food site you might like better.
I’ve made pizza dough and used honey or sugar. It’s not enough to really taste but it does help add flavor. The yeast eats sugar and the gas that is a byproduct is what makes the dough fluffy with all the air pockets.
The best! Love this pizza dough!
Can I use regular 100% whole wheat flour or will it not work out as well?
This is perfect, we’re always struggling to make good whole wheat pizza dough, can’t wait to try it out! Xo
Hope you like it!
I can’t wait to try this! I much prefer using whole grain flours, but the last time I tried making whole wheat pizza crust, it was just as awful as you described. Now I can’t wait to give it a try again and I also love that it’s a no-knead recipe.
Perfect for Friday night!