Spelt Pizza Dough
By Carine Claudepierre
Published on 08/24/2021 - Last updated on 02/11/2023
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An easy Spelt Pizza Dough recipe to make delicious crispy pizza base or pizza rolls.
Bonus, this is a healthy pizza dough recipe made with wholesome white spelt flour, high in protein and fiber for a healthier pizza night.
Why Using Spelt Flour In Pizza Dough?
Nutrition-wise, spelt is a great choice to add vitamins, minerals, fiber to the body.
It’s also more water-soluble and lower in gluten than wheat, and therefore, it’s easier to digest.
How To Make Spelt Pizza Dough
Spelt and wheat flour are very similar, and usually, you can swap one flour for the other in any baking recipe.
But since spelt flour contains a bit more fiber and protein, it also makes dough tougher.
Consequently, spelt flour absorbs water more than all-purpose wheat flour.
So to make a soft, stretchy spelt pizza dough, it’s important to add a bit more liquid to the dough to achieve the right pizza crust texture or a bit less flour.
Ingredients
- Spelt flour – you need about 4 cups of spelt flour for this recipe, including some extra to roll the dough. Don’t use whole spelt flour, or the dough will be way too dry. You must use white spelt flour for this pizza dough recipe. You can use this recipe using all-purpose flour, but you may need to decrease the water slightly.
- Salt
- Garlic powder
- Lukewarm water – think bath temperature about 37°C (98°F).
- Instant dried yeast – yes, yeast is vegan!
- Olive oil
Activating The Yeast
In a bowl, combine warm water, sugar, and instant dried yeast.
Whisk, cover the bowl, and set it aside for 5 minutes until foamy.
Combining The Ingredients
In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer, combine spelt flour, salt, and garlic powder.
Make a well in the center of the flour, then stir in the activated yeast mixture and olive oil.
Kneading
Stir with a wooden spoon until the dough form.
Then, transfer onto a lightly floured surface and knead the dough for 5 minutes by hand.
Stand mixer option
You can also knead the dough directly in a stand mixer using the dough hook attachment on speed 2 until the dough comes together.
Adjust the dough, adding more water one teaspoon at a time if the dough is too dry, or adding more flour one tablespoon at a time if the dough is too wet.
The dough is ready to rise when it’s soft and elastic. To test, poke the dough ball with your finger. If it bounces back, it’s ready to rise.
Letting It Rise
Place the dough in an oiled mixing bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and a clean kitchen towel on top.
Place the bowl in a warm place or preheated oven to 110°F (45°C) for about 40-60 minutes or until the dough doubles in size.
Kneading Again
Sprinkle some flour on top of the raised down, punch down with your hands to deflate, and then transfer onto a floured surface.
Knead again for 2 minutes, adding remaining flour if sticky.
Divide dough into 4 dough balls.
Rolling The dough
Then roll each dough ball on a floured surface into 10-inch pizza bases (25 cm) for a thin pizza crust or 8 inches for a regular crust.
Baking
Transfer the rolled pizza dough onto a preheated pizza stone or baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a non-stick pizza pan.
Spread toppings on the pizza starting with flat ingredients first like 1/2 cup pizza sauce, spinach, mushrooms, zucchini, then your cheese of choice – we used vegan shredded mozzarella.
Storing Pizza Dough
You can store the pizza dough in the fridge after its second kneading time. Place the dough in an oiled airtight container and refrigerate for up to 2 days.
When needed, add more flour to knead and roll the dough into a pizza base
Freezing Pizza Dough
To freeze pizza dough, knead the dough 2 minutes after its first rise.
Then, divide the pizza dough into 4 dough balls and freeze each ball individually in airtight containers wrapped in plastic wraps.
Thaw pizza dough the day before at room temperature.
Freezing Pre-Cooked Pizza Base
You can also pre-bake rolled pizza bases and use the frozen pizza base directly to make pizza.
You don’t need to thaw prebaked frozen pizza bases.
To pre-bake your pizza base, bake on a pizza pan for 10 minutes at 350°F (180°C).
Pizza Dough Troubleshooting
Pizza dough is not difficult to prepare, but there are always challenges when it comes to baking, so below, I listed some tips and tricks to troubleshoot your dough.
- Too wet – add more flour one tablespoon at a time, knead well between each addition to incorporate, and give time to the gluten from flour to incorporate.
- Too dry – add more lukewarm water, not cold! Always add one teaspoon at a time to avoid a sticky dough.
- It didn’t double in size – that’s not a big deal. The dough just needs warmth, so preheat the oven to about 110°F (45°C). Place the bowl with the dough in the oven until it rises.
More Appetizer Recipes
I love to create party food recipes and appetizers to entertain on the weekend. Below I listed my favorite appetizer recipes for you to try:
Have you made this spelt pizza dough recipe? Share a comment or review below to connect with me?
Your friend, Carine
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Spelt Pizza Dough
Ingredients
- 3 ¾ – 4 cups White Spelt Flour - plus more to roll dough
- 2 teaspoons Sugar
- 2 ¼ teaspoons Instant Yeast
- 1 ⅓ cup Lukewarm Water - 37°C (98°F)
- 2 tablespoons Olive Oil - and some more to grease the bowl
- ¼ teaspoon Garlic Powder
- 1 teaspoon Salt
Instructions
- In a small mixing bowl, whisk yeast, sugar, and lukewarm water. Set aside for 5 minutes until foamy.
- In another bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer, add white spelt flour, salt, and garlic powder. Give a good stir or use the hook attachment to blend for a few seconds on speed 2.
- Make a well in the center of the flour and add the yeast mixture and olive oil.
- Mix with a wooden spoon to bring the ingredients together into a dough, then transfer onto a floured surface and hand knead for 5 minutes, until smooth, elastic, and not sticky.
- Knead the dough in your stand mixer with the dough hook for 4-5 minutes.
- If too sticky, add a little more flour one tablespoon at a time. If too dry, add a teaspoon of water at a time. You know the dough is ready to raise when you poke it with your finger, and it slowly bounces back. If not, keep kneading adjust flour and water to get the consistency seen in the picture above in this post.
- Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a piece of plastic wrap and a clean kitchen towel on top. Place the bowl in a warm place, or an oven preheated to 110°F (45°C) for about 45 minutes to 1 hour or until the dough puffs and doubles in size.
- Remove dough from the bowl, punch down to deflate, and knead again on a floured surface for about 2 minutes, adding flour if too sticky.
- Divide dough in 4 to make a pizza base or in half to make pizza rolls. Then roll each dough ball on a floured surface into a 10-inch pizza base (25cm) for thin pizza crust or into an 8-inch disc for a regular crust.
- Transfer the rolled dough on a baking sheet or pizza pan covered with parchment paper. Spread the toppings on the pizza base, starting with pizza sauce, then any flat toppings, and finally the cheese of your choice. Bake at 425°F (220°C) for 12 minutes until the dough is crispy and the cheese has melted.
Storage
- You can freeze leftover pizza dough in an airtight container or pre-roll and pre-bake the crust for 10 minutes at 325°F (180°C), cool down, and freeze.
- For the pre-baked rolled crust, you don't need to thaw the pizza dough. Simply add your toppings to the frozen base and bake at 400°F (200°C) until the cheese has melted and the crust is crispy.
- Thaw uncooked frozen pizza dough at room temperature before using and roll with extra flour to form pizza base/pizza rolls.
Hi,
Where do you get the white speltflour?
Thanks
Bettina
I get this from my local grocery store, in New Zealand it’s easy to find as spelt flour.
Hey hey! Is the oil necessary or could it be left out?
You can replace oil by any other liquid, more water, soy milk or plant-based yogurt.
Would this work in a bread maker?
I haven’t tried, but I think it would, yes!
Does it matter if the dough is left to rise longer than 1 hour?
Not at all, you can rise pizza dough even overnight, but the longer, the stronger the yeast flavor will be
thanks! another pizza project for me. I love making pizza dough. I wonder though. Doesn’t spelt have equal or more gluten proteine than common wheat?
Yes, spelt flour has less gluten but is still not gluten-free.Enjoy the recipe
Love this!!! I use spelt for all my baking n this recipe is great… I do 2 16” pies for my family of 5 thank you so much!!!
Fabulous – thank you! I used it to make a swiss chard stuffed pizza – absolutely awesome! Lined a glass pie plate with one layer of dough, filled it with sauteed swiss chard (black olives, shredded cheese, red pepper flakes), topped with another layer of dough, then covered with tomato sauce and oregano. Baked at 425 for about 30 minutes (until browned). SO good!