Have you ever wondered how to make a wholegrain pizza dough? Today I want to teach you how to make this nutritious, delicious, yet indulgent pizza. I promise it's easy to make, it tastes fantastic and it's super healthy. Yes, I said it: you can actually have healthy pizza.
Whole grains are packed with essential minerals, vitamins and fibres which are essential for our health. We are all supposed to eat more whole grains but interestingly enough most people eat less and less whole foods and whole grains. There are so many papers which show that eating more whole grains will reduce your risk of chronic diseases.
When we decided to go plant-based we also started looking into nutrition to further understand what our bodies need in order to function well and be healthy.
That’s when we discovered (and finally understood) what exactly is whole grain flour.
Why wholegrain dough?
A grain is considered to be a whole grain as long as all three original parts — the bran, germ, and endosperm — are still present in the same proportions as when the grain was grown in the ﬁelds. A refined grain is when one or more of the three key parts - the bran, germ or endosperm - are removed from the grain. White flour (as well as white rice) are refined grains because it had the bran and germ removed leaving only the endosperm. This means that the white flour loses around a quarter of its protein and over half (to even two thirds) of its nutrients.
In the late 1800s, people discovered that refined grains will have a much longer lifespan. For example, it’s well known that white flour doesn’t really go off. If kept in optimum, dry condition, it has an indefinite shelf life. The new milling technology in the late 1800s allowed the bran and germ to be easily removed so most grains have been eaten as refined grains, which led to a serious nutrition problem.
Because of this issue, the governments decided to add nutrients back to the white flour, and so the term “enriched flour” came to be.
This got me thinking. Why use flour which was stripped off of all its nutrients, then have some of them artificially added back, when I can simply use whole grain and still benefit from fibre, essential minerals and epic vitamins our body needs. It seemed like a no-brainer.
How to make wholegrain dough
The only consideration you need to have with whole grain is that the flour itself makes the dough heavier and the bran and germ suck up more water than usual. So if your dough is quite lifeless and fairly dry, don’t hesitate to add more water. In general, whole grain dough should be a bit more sticky and wet. This is totally normal. Just don’t expect it to rise as quickly. Chances are, you will have to leave your dough to prove for about an hour or even more. Some bread dough, I allow it to prove for up to 36 hours (yes, you read this correctly). The wholegrain pizza dough requires a little more love, but the result is a nutritious, delicious pizza base you will love. Don’t forget to check my vegan pizza recipe to learn how to use awesome wholefoods as epic pizza toppings.