All-Purpose Whole Wheat Dough

I’ve been playing around with Mark Bittman’s recipe for whole wheat pizza dough (from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian), and it’s super-versatile. I’ve made pizza, baguettes, breasticks and even hot dog buns thus far. Focaccia would also work well, as Bittman points out–just top a pizza round with olive oil and herbs.

The flexibility is in large part due to the oil. You’ll always end up with a moist, flavorful bread. 

All-purpose Whole Wheat Dough
(adapted from Mark Bittman’s recipe)

2 cups bread or all-purpose flour
2 cups whole wheat (or white whole wheat) flour
2 1/2 t. yeast (preferably instant or bread-machine)
2 1/2 t. course salt
4 TB. extra virgin olive oil

Combine first four ingredients in a food processor or stand mixer [full disclosure: I’m much too lazy to hand-knead dough most of the time]. Add 2 cups water and 3 TB. olive oil. Mix with bread hook or in food processor until shiny and elastic, 1–2 minutes for the food processor or 5–10 minutes for the stand mixer. 

Coat dough with remaining olive oil and cover.

You can make 2–3 pizzas or baguettes from this within a couple hours, but it’s far better if you leave it in the fridge in a gallon plastic bag for a couple days (or up to a week at least).

For pizza, roll out the dough (or hand stretch it for better ridges) and let rise while you preheat the oven to 500 degrees, then bake on a cookie sheet or pizza stone.

For small baguettes or buns, just chop off a portion of the dough from the fridge, being careful not to deflate it much. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, then reduce to 375 when you’re baking. The bread is ready when it’s golden brown. If you’re in a rush and like bread with a chewy crust, bake at 500 degrees. Small baguettes or buns will be ready in less than 15 minutes from the fridge.

This recipe should keep you in bread for about a week, depending on how many people you’re feeding. And if you like doing this, buy your yeast in jars rather than packets. It’s a fraction of the cost.