Please join me in welcoming Lisa from the Come Walk With Me blog. Lisa shares her experience in making and enjoying the “Yogurt Pizza Dough” recipe in Nourishing Traditions (page 485), along with ideas for how else this dough can be used. Thanks, Lisa! Those are some mouth-watering pizzas. –Wardee
I have been wanting to try the Nourishing Traditions recipe for pizza dough (which is just an adjustment to the yogurt dough recipe). I thought it was interesting that the instructions for the recipe tell you to mix the yogurt, butter, flour and salt together the night before. I have heard that salt inhibits the breakdown of phytates, so I left the salt out of my dough at first. After it had soaked for about 18 hours I sprinkled the salt on top and worked it thoroughly into the dough with my hands.
Also important to note is that for pizza this dough requires 30 minutes in the oven before you put the toppings on, and then an additional 35 minutes in the oven with the toppings on! This is at lot longer than I am used to for homemade pizza, so I was not prepared for this. Since it was late and the family was hungry I tried to shortcut the cooking time by turning up the temperature. I turned the oven up to 375 degrees, but when we couldn’t wait any longer to eat I took the pizza out and it was still soft enough that we had to use a fork to eat it.
Pictured above is our sausage and pepper pizza. The recipe makes enough dough for at least two pizzas, although it does shrink quite a bit. I had this one rolled out all the way, almost over the edge and it shrank back a good inch all around. The second pan we used was smaller so that was our “thick crust” pizza and you can see from the picture below just how buttery and soft that dough still was.
This dough is very rich (a half pound of butter in there)! It’s not what you would usually expect or think of for pizza. I think this dough would work well for making pastry shells, tarts or, if rolled thin enough, possibly a pie crust. Although I won’t be using it again for pizza, I think I will try it again sometime in a different way.
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Thanks for sharing! We’ll do pizza on tortillas sometimes- I just can’t quite bring myself to combine the denseness of whole wheat with pizza yet! I have done half and half white and wheat, and that’s what I’m sticking with right now. I just use my regular bread dough recipe.
.-= Cara @ Health Home and Happiness´s last blog post… Refined Sweetener Free Challenge =-.
I wonder if it would be good for true Chicago style deep dish pizza. It’s a very rich, buttery crust, and it cooks for about an hour in a deep cast iron pan.
I prefer thin crust myself, but it’s an idea.
This is the dough I almost always use for pizza. I also roll it out thinly to make crackers – they are so good! We also love yogurt dough for a quiche crust, and I’ve used it for a tomato tart with good results, too.
Those pizza photos look so yummy!
Even though this didn’t come out quite like you had hoped, I’m glad you shared. It helps to know what I would try to do differently if I make this. I’ve been searching for a really good whole wheat pizza dough recipe and it just seems so elusive. My family has been very patient as I try again and again. I’m just not getting it. But I refuse to give up! Perhaps I’ll work with this recipe and makes some adjustments.
Thanks again!
Lisa,
Thanks for this post! I bought NT as a “Happy and Healthy New Year” gift to myself, and have been stepping out with some of the simpler recipes as I get my feet wet. I have a fantastic soaked pizza dough that I have made pizza with before, but this one is definitely a different recipe, and one that I was a bit hesitant to try since there are so many “quick and simple” things, like the baked salmon, that dovetail nicely with what Wardee is teaching in her e-course (as in, bucketfuls of yummy and healthy rice!).
There are so many recipes, I’m seriously considering starting a blog again and doing a “Dani and Sally” version of “Julie and Julia;” then again, maybe not, although it’s a fun idea! I have learned so much already, and thanks to Wardee’s course, I am now able to get some method and routine to the madness.
As for this particular recipe, I think I’ll try making crackers–thanks for the tip, Mindy!
Thanks Wardee for letting me guest post here- this was fun! 🙂
I’m with Erin — the first thing I thought of was using it for Chicago-style pizza. A recent issue of Cook’s Illustrated ran a recipe, and it’s heavy on the butter, and is a very thick, spongy crust. A friend made the pizzas recently and they were DIVINE! This might be a good substitute for the original crust in the recipe.
I’m so glad that you posted this. I have been looking at that recipe for months, but never made it. I think I will try it, but I won’t try it for pizza first – maybe for crackers. Thank you for sharing your experience.!!
I’m so glad that you posted this. I have been looking at that recipe for months, but never made it. I think I will try it, but I won’t try it for pizza first – maybe for crackers. Thank you for sharing your experience.!!
I use this recipe all the time for our pizzas. It is our favorite! And our friends rave about it, too. I just make sure to roll it out nice and thin and use it for 2 large pizzas. I haven’t tried the deep dish idea, maybe next time.
I use the Yogurt Dough for pizza all the time, and we all love it!
I wondered if my pizza-loving hubby would like it – he loves greasy, NY-style pizza, and isn’t a big fan of “gourmet” pizza, but he unabashedly LOVES our homemade pizza with yogurt dough!
It does take some planning ahead to make it work for timing, but having made pizza like this for more than a year, I can say that it isn’t hard, and it’s amazingly delicious and hearty.
I make a simple sauce, or sometimes just straight tomatoes, then top with fresh basil, sliced mushrooms, and spinach sauteed in bacon grease. Then i top with grated mozzerella and cheddar and bake. So yummy!
We use this recipe a lot, but I’ve changed the recipe a bit to make it less greasy–I’m not afraid of using too much better, but I think it tastes a bit too heavy as per the NT recipe. I use one stick of butter and about 1.5 cups of yogurt. If time does not allow, I sometimes only soak it for about 3 hours before cooking. Since it is hard to roll it out nicely, I simply push it into the pan piecemeal till I’ve gotten the right thickness and size (usually fairly thin). I cook it first for 10 minutes at 400 degrees and then put the ingredients on and cook about 15 minutes at 415 degrees. It is usually crispy on the sides but a bit softer towards the middle. This dough is also wonderful for quiche and dough-knots.