I can honestly say I have sacrificed myself for the good of the all. I have eaten so much pizza this week that I almost got sick of it. Almost, but not quite. Pizza is high on my list of perfect foods. It has all the good things like bread, veggies, meat, cheese and you get to eat it with your hands. The one big hang up, we all know, is that is usually loaded with calories. So, this last week I hog tied a few people into making and eating pizza in a lot of different ways to explore the possibilities of a great pizza that isn’t loaded with calories. Needless to say we had a smashing time and discovered both some surprising new recipes and some traditional. There are so many worthy tips and recipes to share on this great subject matter that this will be a multi part article.

We discovered some very important tips on making a terrific lower fat pizza.

? A whole wheat crust really fleshes out a healthy pizza. Beer can be substituted for the water in the crust. It makes for a richer taste but adds calories.

? Pizza dough stores well in the fridge for up to 24 hours and also freezes just fine.

? After rolling out the pizza dough to your desired shape and thickness, fold into fourths to move to the pizza pan. Then quickly unfold and pat into place.

? Build the pizza on a wooden pizza peel that has been liberally dusted with flour. (Cornmeal doesn’t work so well.) Then lift up one corner of the crust and blow air under it right before you slide the pizza onto the stone. If you are totally into pizza, invest in a metal pizza peel, they are great.

? It was easier for us to get the pizza off the stone, when it is done baking with a thin, lipless cookie sheet than the wooden pizza peel.

? Bake on a pizza stone at 450 degrees. Preheat the stone with the oven on the bottom rack and then heat for at least an hour before baking pizza.

? Too many ingredients on the pizza made it harder to get onto the stone and was overwhelming taste wise. Simpler the better.

? Fat free cheeses are icky. They cook hard like plastic and are quite tasteless. Use a lower fat cheese like Alpine Lace, available at Manzanita Deli. The best reduced-fat mozzarella cheese is Sargento.

First off, the crust. The very foundation of the pizza had to be tasty but healthy. After making 4 different kinds, here is the favorite. I make all my dough in the bread maker on the “pizza dough cycle” or just plain “dough cycle” will do too. If you do not have a bread maker, prepare as regular yeasted bread. Good directions are on cookinglight.com, type in pizza dough. This recipe is enough for one pizza crust, I usually double it.

Whole Wheat Honey Pizza Dough

1 cup of warm water or

beer

1-2 tablespoons of honey

2 teaspoons of dried basil

2-3 garlic cloves pressed

1/2 teaspoon of black

pepper

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1-1/2cups of whole wheat

pastry flour

1 cup of unbleached flour

1 package of active dry

yeast or 2-1/2 teaspoons

Preparation:

Layer all the ingredients in the bread maker starting with the water and finishing with the yeast on top. Press the pizza dough cycle, or just plain dough cycle and let her rip! I come back a check about 10 minutes later and make sure the consistency of the dough is correct. Well mixed, but not too wet or not too dry. When the dough cycle is finished you should have a beautiful, silky dough ball. At this point you can store it in the fridge covered with plastic wrap, till you need it. Take it out, knead it into a ball on a lightly floured surface then flatten it with your hands. Roll dough into a 12 to 18 inch circle, about 1/4 -1/2 inch thick. Place on a floured pizza peel or a rimless thin cookie sheet to await its adornment. Nutritional info – about 50 calories, very little fat, and about 1 gram of fiber per slice of pizza crust, IF you cut the crust into 12 slices.

Now to keep you on pins and needles, stay tuned for the next adventure on the quest for the perfect pizza in three weeks in the North Coast Citizen!

If you simply can not stand mystery you may peek ahead on my web blog at http://danazia.wordpress.com//.

Till next time, ciao!