Pizza Dough with Semolina

Bake-a-thon 2014: Day 5
Bake of the day: Pizza Dough with Semolina

I have tried quite a few pizza crust recipes in the past and I think I found couple of recipes that I really like and work very well -- like this whole wheat crust and this regular pizza dough. But when I saw this pizza dough with semolina recipe in one of the King Arthur catalogs, I really wanted to try it out.

I have never used semolina in baking before and I remember one of my friend telling me that fine sooji is a good substitute. I had to ask my blog buddies to find out if they ever used sooji in baking and they confirmed that they were able to successfully bake with sooji. So I went ahead and made the pizza dough with sooji.
This dough needs to rest for at least 4 hours in the refrigerator and can be left there for up to 36 hours. I added some whole wheat flour to bump up the fiber and nutrition. This pizza dough makes nice crispy thin crust pizzas and is perfect to be topped with any cheese or vegetable topping. I have a kid friendly pizza recipe coming up soon.

The best thing about this pizza dough is that you prepare it the night before (or even 2 nights before) and then when you are ready to bake, it takes just 30~40 minutes of resting and baking time. So it is a great option for weeknight meals as well. But don't tell the kids what they are having for dinner until the very end or you will end up hearing 'Is it done yet?' for that very long 30~40 minutes ;-)

Recipe adapted from King Arthur Flour:
Ingredients: Makes 2 12" medium sized pizzas

All purpose Flour - 1¾cups

Whole wheat flour - ½cup

Semolina/ Fine sooji - ¾cup (if you don't want to use whole wheat flour, just add 1¼cups of semolina)

Yeast - 1tsp

Sugar - 1tsp

Salt - 1¼tsp

Pizza dough flavor - 1tbsp+1tsp

Lukewarm water - 1cup+2tbsp

Olive oil - 2tbsp

Method:

• In a large mixing bowl, combine all the ingredients and knead to form a soft and smooth dough. Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover and let rise for 45 minutes.
• Put the bowl in the fridge for at least 4 hours and up to 36 hours.
• When ready to make pizzas, preheat the oven with a pizza stone to 450°F. 
• Remove the dough from the fridge and divide it into 2 equal parts. Stretch each piece into a 12" round thin pizza and place it on a parchment paper. Repeat with the other piece. Alternately to make personal pizzas, divide the dough into 6 equal pieces and stretch them into 5~6" round thin pizzas. Cover and let rise for 30 minutes.
• Place the parchment with the pizza on the pizza stone and bake for 6 minutes.
• Remove from the oven and top it with your favorite toppings and bake for 8 minutes or until the crust is golden and the cheese is melted. Serve hot!!

Linking this to this year's Bake-a-thon event.

Bake-a-thon 2014

An InLinkz Link-up