Baking - Honey Oat Pizza Crust

I've made it my life's work to sneak in whole grains to my family's diet.  Sometimes I'm successful, sometimes not.

Last night I found yet another new way to slip in some grains.  They never noticed the difference and the result was DELICIOUS!

I changed up an old recipe and made:

Homemade Pizza with Honey Oat Crust




Preheat oven to 400 degrees with your pizza pans inside.

Honey Oat Pizza Crust

2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 c. quick cook oats
1 Tablespoon (1 envelope) quick rise dry yeast
1 teaspoons salt
1 c. warm (not hot) water
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 Tablespoon honey

In a large bowl I mixed the flour, oats, salt and yeast. In large cup I mixed the warm water, oil, honey.

Make a well in the middle of the flour mixture. Pour in the water mixture. Slowly combine the wet with the dry until it all comes together. The mixture will be a little wet and a little lumpy. Set it aside for about 10 minutes to rest.

While the dough rests, make or gather everything else you'll need.
You can always use jar sauce, but here's the recipe I use.

Pizza Sauce

1 6oz. can tomato paste
1 small onion diced
1 small carrot shredded
2 Tablespoons olive oil
Water
salt, pepper, garlic, basil, oregano, fennel seed to taste.

Saute the carrots and onion in the oil until soft. Add tomato paste and water. Use enough water to make the sauce as thick or thin as you like it. Add seasonings to taste.

Making Pizza
Allow the sauce to simmer while you roll out the dough.
On a well floured board, knead the pizza dough until it is smooth and elastic. Divide the dough in 2.
Knead and roll out the first dough ball into a pizza crust. Place the rolled crust onto a lightly oiled warm pizza pan.
Bake until golden brown. Repeat with the second dough ball.

Once the crusts are ready, remove them from the oven. Turn the oven to broil.

I like a crispy crust, so I flip the crust over so that the brown side is down against the pizza pan. Cover the crust with pizza sauce, toppings and the shredded cheese of your choice.

Broil the pizza until golden brown. Remember to watch the broiling pizza VERY CLOSELY. It can burn quickly!

This method of pizza making will give you a pizza with a brick oven taste. A word of caution though - ONLY USE THIN SLICED OR PRE COOKED MEATS ON A BROILED PIZZA. Broiling might not cook meats long enough for them to be safe.
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Cooking tips: When making this crust, measure the oil in the tablespoon before you measure the honey.  The oil will leave the spoon slippery and the honey won't stick to the spoon.  Anytime a recipe calls for both oil and honey, I add the oil first.  That way I don't have to fight with the honey.

Also, if the water is too hot it will kill the yeast and cause it not to rise.  If your crust turns out flat and heavy you might have used water that was too hot.  For this recipe, the warm tap water should not be above 120 degrees.  That's warm though for you to touch without burning your fingers.