DIY Whole Wheat Pizza Crust

We love pizza.
When we were first married, frozen pizza was in our weekly dinner rotation.
Was it because we were poor?  Maybe.
Was it because it was fast and cheap?  Perhaps.
Was it because we love it so much we once tried to share and finish a manhole-cover sized pizza from our college-town pizza joint Gumby's?  You betcha.  (We couldn't finish.  Bummer.  But we quit ordering from them because they wouldn't honor a coupon we got from the phone book.  Hello, fatties.)

This is an awesome recipe for homemade whole wheat pizza crust.  It takes a while to prepare because of the yeast, but it's the sit-n-wait kind of "while".  No bigs.  It's easy to make, handle, and spread (I hate how store bought it so gosh darn hard to stretch across the pan, canigetanamen).  The recipe makes two crusts (or 3 thin ones). 

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
• 1 tablespoon olive oil (I use extra-light olive oil.  It is awesome and doesn't have that olive-y taste)
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 3 1/4 cups whole wheat flour

Directions

1. In a large bowl, dissolve sugar in warm water. Sprinkle yeast over the top, and let stand for about 10 minutes, until foamy.
2. Stir the olive oil and salt into the yeast mixture, then mix in the whole wheat flour until dough starts to come together. Tip dough out onto a floured surface and knead until all of the flour has been absorbed, and the ball of dough becomes smooth, about 10 minutes. (Or cheat and use your dough hook in the Kitchen Aid for 10 min) Place dough in an oiled bowl, and turn to coat the surface. Cover loosely with a towel, and let stand in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
3. When the dough is doubled, tip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and divide into 2 pieces for normal crust, or cut into 3 for thin. Form each into a tight ball. Let rise for about 45 minutes, until doubled.  
4. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Using your finger tips, spread dough out into desired size.  Place on a well oiled pizza pan. (I baked mine on my pizza stone, dusted with corn meal).  At this point, I sprinkle salt, pepper, and garlic on the crust before I bake it. Par-bake crust for about 5 minutes.
5. Take out, put toppings on.  At this point, freeze the whole pizza (baked crust, raw toppings, just like a frozen pizza from the store) or bake for 12-15 minutes (depending on thickness).  Comeon, people.  You should know what done pizza looks like.  

 We usually use 93/7 ground beef (cheaper and better for you than pepperoni), mushrooms, black olives, jalapenos, garlic, and fresh basil/parsley.  Maybe green pepper if I'm lucky.

There you have it!  A cheap, healthy pizza night.  Take that, Gumby.