The Best Lightened-Up Pizza Crust
Maybe even just the best pizza crust, lightened-up or not! Make this for your family and friends, and they won't even know they're eating a healthier version of pizza.
Servings: 2 12-inch pizza crusts
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cup bread flour or all purpose flour (this comes out to about 2 1/2 cups)
- 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning
- 1 1/4 ounce package Fast Rising or Instant yeast
- 1 tsp granulated sugar
- 1 cup very warm water, around 110 degrees F (look to recipe notes for quick tip)
- 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tbsp grated parmesan cheese (optional)
Instructions
- In a microwave-safe measuring cup, microwave 1 cup of water on high for 30 seconds. Mix the sugar into the warm water until dissolved, then add in the entire packet of yeast and mix until yeast is moistened. Let stand while you prepare your other ingredients.
- In a food processor, add flour, salt, and Italian seasoning. Add oil to the water/yeast mixture.
- Turn the machine on and slowly add water/yeast/oil mixture through the feed tube.
- Process for about a minute. Turn the machine off and, using a spatula or floured hands, take the dough out of the food processor and place in a medium-sized bowl. It will form a very soft but elastic dough.
- Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let rise for at least 30 minutes, but ideally for an hour and a half. The dough should more than double in size. The one in the picture rose for 90 minutes. Divide dough in half (each half should be about 300 grams). Cover one half in plastic wrap and freeze in a Ziploc bag for future use.
- Preheat oven to 500 degrees F. Grease a 12-inch pizza pan with nonstick cooking spray. Place one ball of dough in the middle of the pan and, using your fingers or a hand-held rolling pin, push dough to edges. Using a fork, poke holes in dough so you avoid air pockets when cooking.
- Bake dough for 3 minutes. It should rise again in the oven as it cooks. Take pizza out and add desired toppings. Optional Step: Spray crust edges with nonstick cooking spray and sprinkle those edges with parmesan cheese.
- Place back in oven and continue cooking for another 5 minutes. Broil for 1-2 minutes, or until cheese is browned to your liking. Keep an eye on it so it doesn't burn!
Notes
Click here to determine your WW PersonalPoints for this recipe (if you are logged in to your WW app, it should calculate for you automatically). Serving size is per slice - crust only (see note below).
WW Green, Blue, and Purple SmartPoints: 2 SP per slice of pizza (for crust only)*
*This makes 2 12-inch pizzas, each cut into 8 slices. So one slice of pizza would be 1/16th of the entire recipe. This means that one slice of a 12-inch pizza, cut into 8 slices, is only 2 SP for the crust.
Nutritional info is for 1 serving of crust (1/16th of entire recipe)
Cals: 98 | Fat: 2g | Sat Fat: 0g | Carbs: 17g | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: less than 1 g | Protein: 3g |