February 14, 2019

Simple Buckwheat Pizza Dough

Sometimes a white, fluffy pizza dough is the perfect base for your perfect pizza- but not always. For those other times, this simple buckwheat pizza dough adds just the earthy, nutty, slightly bitter edge to ground your toppings. I made this crust for my vegan salad pizza and it’s the perfect base for that bright, flavorful and crisp pie.

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What’s Your Favorite Food?

I was recently asked what my favorite food was- and let me tell you, it wasn’t an easy question! I LOVE food, from homemade tempeh, to thick, creamy vegan milkshakes, to spicy radish salad to greasy fries. Healthy, less healthy, sweet, spicy, sour- I thought it would be impossible to choose one favorite food. But when I really thought about it, there was an answer- pizza. And this recipe for simple buckwheat pizza dough is a quick, but important one. Pizza is my favorite food, and although I’ll eat almost any (vegan) pizza that crosses my path, I am a bit of a pizza snob. In order to be a good pizza, it has to have good cheese, sauce, and crust, and everything done in the right proportions. If your pizza sauce came out of a can, I can taste it. If you drowned your pizza in vegan cheese, I know, and I’m not happy. If your crust is too thick, too soggy, not enough texture, I have noted it and am not pleased. There are not many pizza places that do meet my standards, but that doesn’t stop me from enjoying pizza and having it as my favorite food.

Looking for Pizza and Pizza-like Recipes? Try one of these!

Making Buckwheat Pizza Dough

Having a pizza dough recipe on hand that you like is important. Although I’ll sometimes buy my pizza dough from Trader Joe’s (like I did when I made this White Kale Pizza or for my Eggplant, Chestnut, and Mushroom Vegan Holiday Loaf), I think it’s good to be able to make as much as possible from scratch, even if you don’t always do it. My mother always makes her pizza dough with 50% whole wheat flour, 50% white, and I really appreciate that. The white flour pizza dough is important, it adds a lot to the texture of the dough, but if you’re crust is only made with all-purpose flour it really is just a little too white. For my recipe, I’ve used about 50% buckwheat flour, which adds a lot more flavor than a simple white crust would get you. And although I love the flavor of buckwheat, I used white flour in here as well, so this is not a gluten-free recipe. I didn’t want to alter the texture of the crust, as I am (as mentioned before) a little bit picky about my pizza dough.

Simple Buckwheat Pizza Dough

Yield: 2 Crusts

Simple Buckwheat Pizza Dough

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ cups buckwheat flour
1 package active dry yeast (2 ¼ tsp.)
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. sugar
1 ¼ cup warm water
2 tbsp. olive oil

Instructions

In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, yeast, salt, and sugar. Combine the oil and water, and slowly add to the flour, mixing. It should form a smooth dough- if it is too dry, add a little more water. If it is too wet, add a little more flour.
On a clean, well-floured surface kneed the dough. Add flour as needed, and kneed for 5-10 minutes, until the dough is smooth and fairly firm. Use a little oil to coat the mixing bowl, and place the dough inside, covering with a clean cloth. Allow the dough to rise in a warm space for about 1 hour.
Once the dough is risen, punch it down and kneed a few times. Split into two even pieces, and stretch to fit a 13 inch round pizza pan. Top as desired, and bake at 375°F (190°C) for about 15 minutes until the crust is firm and the edges are starting to look toasted.