Spelt Crust Pizza with Homemade Pizza Sauce

This delicious homemade spelt crust pizza has a fresh, homemade dough, which can be prepared in a stand mixer or bread machine. The dough can also be adapted to use all-purpose (plain) flour if you prefer. The crust is smothered with a simple, but delicious, homemade sauce and topped with veggies, making it an overall balanced meal for the whole family. 

This recipe for homemade spelt crust pizza was first published on The Culinary Jumble.

Can you make pizza dough with spelt flour?

As mentioned, the dough is made with spelt flour and to be honest, I rarely use regular flour these days (edit: since writing this post, I no longer use all-purpose/plain flour for any of my recipes). Although spelt is still a grain and is not gluten free, I find it so much easier on my stomach. There is certainly much less of the dreaded bread bloat going on. But can you really use spelt flour to make good dough? Yes. Yes, you can. It produces a lovely pizza crust and when smothered with tomato sauce and cheese? Well, that’s a match made in heaven right there. 

The secret is that you can substitute pretty much any flour with spelt flour. For example, spelt flour works amazingly well in cakes. I put my money where my mouth is and wrote a post spelt vs plain flour: which makes the best cupcake? Of course, spelt flour won. And no, I am not biased (well, perhaps a little), but there’s hard evidence to support my views!

Making a healthier pizza with spelt flour

Pizza is not usually on the list of healthier food. And at first glance, I can understand how you might doubt that this is a better-for-you pizza. However, this recipe is not as unhealthy as you may imagine.

Yes, it’s pizza, but it is made with a homemade spelt flour dough and a pizza sauce made from scratch. There’s also tons of veggies on top and only a slight smattering of cheese. So really, rather than unhealthy, we have ourselves a fairly balanced meal. Don’t you think?

Pizza is just so adaptable and you can literally top it with anything you like. This was made between Christmas and New Year and I threw on fridge huggers that needed using up.

Can I prepare the dough in a bread machine?

Making dough can be a little time-consuming. I do get why people choose to buy pizza crusts ready made (I do it myself, sometimes). However, homemade spelt pizza dough is not complicated. I have used both my bread machine and a stand mixer to create pizza dough, with no noticeable difference to the end result. Therefore, I’ve included instructions for both options. With a bread machine, I use less flour, adding more when the dough is ready. This means I can control how much flour used (spelt needs less liquid, and too much flour can dry bread out). 

Can you freeze the spelt pizza?

Everything I make with spelt flour freezes so well. You could double the dough and freeze what you don’t use. The same goes for the sauce. I make big batches and put the rest away in the freezer until I need it. Lastly, why not freeze one of the pizzas you make (the ingredients below are enough to make two pizzas)?

Other spelt dough recipes created in a bread machine

Here are some of my favourite recipes where the dough was made in a bread machine:

• Sticky caramel spelt buns
• Spelt cinnamon swirl bread
• Cheese garlic bread
• Spelt cardamom bread
• Spelt garlic naan bread
• Coffee cinnamon buns
• Blackberry skillet overnight buns

Print Pin

From Scratch Spelt Crust Pizza with Homemade Pizza Sauce

Course Main Course

Cuisine Italian

Servings 8 slices

Ingredients

Dough - see note 1

• 250ml (1 cup) milk
• 1 egg (medium)
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 40g (⅛ cup) butter (chopped into small pieces)
• 400-450g (3⅓ - 3¾ cups) spelt flour (see note 2)
• 1 tbs sugar
• ½ tbs salt
• 7g (2¼ tsp) dried yeast (see note 3)

Sauce - see note 4

• 3 x 400g (42¼ oz) tinned tomatoes
• 2 medium-sized onions (finely chopped)
• 4 garlic cloves (finely chopped)
• 3 tbs olive oil
• sea salt (to taste)
• 2 tbs sugar

Toppings - see note 5

• cherry tomatoes
• green pepper
• onion
• green and yellow chillies
• cheddar and parmesan cheese

Instructions

DOUGH

Bread Machine:

• Add the milk, egg, olive oil and butter to your bread machine pan.
• Add 400g (3⅓ cups) of flour, and the remaining dough ingredients, taking care to keep the yeast and salt separate as much as possible.
• Set your machine to make dough.
• On a very well-floured surface (the dough will be very sticky) work in just as much flour as you need to make a soft, pliable, but still a little tacky, dough.
• Form into a rough ball.

Stand Mixer:

• Add the milk, egg, olive oil and butter to your stand mixer, and mix together. If the butter is straight out of the fridge, it won't combine with the other wet ingredients too much, but that's okay.
• Add 450g (3¾ cups) of flour, and the remaining ingredients. The dough should be sticky, but if you need more flour, just add a little at a time. Be careful: too much flour will result in a dry crust.
• Switch to a dough hook (if you have one) and allow the mixer to knead the dough for around 10 minutes, just until soft. The dough will still feel a little tacky to the touch, but will be able to slowly drop off the hook.
• Cover the dough and leave to proof (until it has doubled in size - usually about an hour).
• When the dough is ready, knock it back, and on a floured surface, form into a rough ball.

SAUCE:

• Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a pan and add the onions and garlic. Fry until softened.
• Stir in the tomatoes, and then add salt, pepper and sugar.
• Let simmer for about 45 minutes, and then taste – adjust seasoning and sugar if necessary. Add the remaining two tablespoons of oil.
• Blitz in a food processor until smooth, and then leave to cool.

ASSEMBLY:

• Pre-heat the oven to 200ºC (400ºF).
• Grease two fairly large, round pizza tins.
• Divide the dough, and press one half down into the pan with your fingers until it covers the whole tin. Alternatively, place the dough on a baking tray lined with grease proof paper and roll out using a rolling pin until it is the required thickness.
• Spread as much pizza sauce as you like over both pizza crusts (if using a pizza tin and you have a raised edge, only spread on the bottom surface and not up the sides). For any sauce you have left, freeze in small individual bags.
• Cover the tomatoes with cheese, top with whatever vegetables or toppings you are using, then add a final sprinkling of cheese.
• Bake for around 20 minutes until the outer crust is a dark brown and the cheese is bubbling. Remove, slice and eat immediately. Enjoy!

Notes

 

I have converted grams to cups/ounces/tablespoons using online converters. Although I have no reason to believe they are inaccurate, please be aware that I have not made this recipe with imperial measurements.

1. I have made the dough using both a stand mixer and bread machine with identical results. I have not made the dough by hand, but I see no reason why you couldn't do so! There is enough dough to make two pizzas.
2. You can use spelt or regular flour for this recipe (just use the same amount).
3. In Sweden we have something called dried yeast. It is used both in warm liquid and allowed to proof, and it is also added directly to flour. I am aware that the US has two options for dried yeast, and I believe dry active yeast is the most similar to our dried yeast.
4. This is a large batch of pizza sauce, and you won't need it all for this pizza. If you don't want to make as much, just halve or quarter it. 
5. I haven't included any measurements for the toppings. Pizza is different for everyone, so just add whatever you like!