Butternut Squash Pizza with Whole Wheat Crust

I love pizza!  After going on my diet to lose the baby weight, I really lost my taste for heavy meats on pizza.  Don’t get me wrong – you have a good Italian sausage pizza lying around with friends to enjoy it with and I’ll be right there.  However, if I have my choice I really prefer vegetables on my pizza now.  The restricted calorie diet changed my taste buds a bit I think.
Well, anyway – this is Butternut Squash Pizza with homemade wheat crust.  You could also make the crust with 100% whole wheat flour by substituting 1 cup of whole wheat flour for 1 1/2 cups of AP flour in the recipe.

What I love about the crust:  It contains whole wheat flour.  It is crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside.
What I like about the toppings:  It is something different!

Butternut Squash Pizza with Wheat Crust

Crust:
1 tsp. sugar
1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees)
1 Tb. active dry yeast
1 Tb. olive oil
1 tsp. salt
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups AP flour
cornmeal for sprinkling

Toppings:
3 Tbs. olive oil, divided
1 large pinch of kosher salt
1 cup thinly sliced onion
1 butternut squash- peeled, seeded and thinly sliced
1 tsp. chopped fresh rosemary or dried
salt and pepper, to taste
2 Tbs. grated Parmesan cheese

For the Crust:
1.  In a measuring cup, add the white sugar, warm water and active dry yeast.  Set aside for 5 minutes while doing the next step.
2.  Mix the flours and salt together thoroughly.  Make a small well in the middle and pour in the 1 Tbs. olive oil and wet ingredients from the measuring cup.  Knead the dough for 10 minutes, or until it forms a ball and isn’t very sticky.  Allow to rise for 1 hour (or until doubles).
3.  Form the ball into 2 small balls for 2 thin crust pizzas, or form into 1 large ball. Form into a tight ball and allow to rise again for 45 minutes.

For the topping:
4.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.   In a large saute pan, put 2 Tbs. of olive oil over medium heat.  Once hot, add the thinly sliced onion and 1 large pinch of kosher salt.  Sweat for 5 minutes and constantly stir.  After the onions have “sweated”, put the pan on medium-low to low and stir often.  Caramelizing the onions will take about 30 minutes.  Add a tiny bit of water and pinch of sugar if they get too dry.
5.  While the onions cook, put the cut up squash in a large bowl with the remaining 1 Tbs. olive oil, rosemary, salt and pepper.  Bake on a cookie sheet for 20 minutes or until tender.

Putting it together:
6.  Sprinkle some cornmeal onto your pizza stone (or stones for 2 thin crust pizzas).  I use a large bar pan.  You could use 2 standard round pizza stones, or a jelly roll pan.
7.  Spread your pizza dough onto your pan.    (I use the baker’s roller).  Lay the cooked squash onto the pizza dough.  Place the caramelized onion on top.  Bake 12-20 minutes, checking often towards the end for doneness.  The edges will be golden and crisp.    The bake time is a large span because it depends on the thickness of your crust.
8.  Remove pizza from oven and sprinkle the parmesan cheese on top.  You may want to add additional salt depending on your taste.

Recipe adapted from several other ones on allrecipes.com

**I think next time I will just try roasting the entire squash (cut in half  and taking the seeds out of course) similar to when I use to make baby food.  The slicing and removing the skin off of the squash does take a little time and effort.  Roasting the entire squash will take longer… but then all you have to do is scoop out the insides and mix it with some rosemary, olive oil, salt and pepper.