Favorite Sourdough Pizza Crust Recipes

THE SIMPLEST SOURDOUGH PIZZA CRUST RECIPE (WITH A PERFECT CHEW)

Steps:

• In a medium bowl, whisk together the starter, water, and olive oil.
• Add the flour and salt and stir to thoroughly combine. The dough will feel soft and sticky but that is exactly how it should be.
• Cover the bowl with a cling wrap (or a shower cap) and a kitchen towel and rest for 30 minutes.
• Wet your hand with a little water, scoop your hand underneath the dough, and gently grasp one side of the dough. Lightly stretch the dough in your hand away from the main mass, then fold it over. Repeat this motion on different sides of the dough 6 or so more times. (See video above for step by step.)
• Then, flip the whole mass of dough such that the seams of your folds face down against the bottom of the bowl. At this point, the dough will have become considerably more smooth, which is the goal.
• Repeat this process 3 more times: Rest the dough for another 30 minutes, then stretch and fold again exactly the same as before. All in all, you will have rest the dough for four 30 minutes increments and stretched and folded in between. In the end, the dough will be very pliable and elastic.
• Cover once more and ferment for 4 hours at room temperature. Your dough will probably not rise significantly but that is perfectly fine.
• Lightly flour a work surface and turn out the dough. Divide the dough evenly into three 8½ oz (240g) rounds.
• Tightly coat the inside of 3 one pint storage containers with oil and place a dough ball seam-side down into each one. Cover with lids.
• Important step: Refrigerate for at least 24 hours before using. The dough kept in the refrigerator longer will continue to develop flavor and has a shelf life of 5 days. It can also be frozen at this time for up to 4 weeks.
• To make pizza, remove the dough from the refrigerator and place it on a well-floured piece of parchment paper. Coat the dough lightly all over with flour as well.
• With your hands, gently flatten and stretch the dough into a thin circle about 10 inches (25cm). Form a thicker border around the edge for a lovely, bubbly pizza crust. Add pizza sauce, cheese, and desired toppings.
• Bake at 550°F (288°C) for only 8-10 minutes. Enjoy immediately.

FAVORITE SOURDOUGH PIZZA CRUST

Steps:

• Add starter and water to the bowl of a stand mixer. Stir with a fork to loosen starter and disperse starter.
• Add flour and olive oil. Stir with a spatula to incorporate flour, then mix on low speed for about 20 seconds to further incorporate and no dry streaks remain. Add salt to top of dough and let the dough rest, covered, for 30 minutes.
• Attach dough hook to stand mixer and secure bowl. Mix on medium low, speed 3 of KitchenAid stand mixer for for 8 minutes. *This is a very wet dough, and that's okay.
• Remove bowl from mixer and cover with a towel. Let dough sit for an hour, then do 2 sets of stretch and folds around the bowl. Let dough rest for another hour, then do 2 sets of stretch of folds around the bowl. Cover, and let dough bulk ferment about 4 to 5 more hours, if your house is at 70 degrees F, until dough has doubled in size.
• Once doubled, place parchment paper on large baking sheet and spray with non-stick spray such as olive oil.
• Turn dough out onto floured surface and let rest for 15 minutes. The dough will be sticky and that is okay!
• Dust the top of the dough with flour and use floured hands to press dough out slightly.
• Using a bench scraper, cut the dough into 4 or 5 equal pieces. pieces weighing about 180 grams. Flour your hands generously, and stretch a corner of the dough out and bring it back to the middle, doing this with each corner of the dough so you're forming a ball. Use a bit of tension on the surface to make the ball a bit tighter, and close the bottom.
• Place dough on a greased baking sheet. And repeat with all dough balls.
• At this point you can let the dough rise on the counter for 45 minutes, for its second rise, until it has grown a bit and is puffier. Or you can put the pan with dough balls straight into the refrigerator, covered, and leave them in for 6 to 48 hours, and take out an hour before you want to make the pizza.
• 1 hour before you're ready to grill or bake the pizza, lay out all of your ingredients at a station so you can work quickly once the dough is pressed out.
• 30 minutes before you're going to grill the pizza, turn on the grill, with cast iron pizza pan on one side, over two flames turned to medium high. Leave the right side burner off. You'll want the interior temperature of the grill to be 650 degrees F. Or, preheat a pizza stone in your oven to 500 degrees F for an hour.
• Lay a piece of parchment paper on your pizza peel and liberally dust with cornmeal and flour.
• Dust top of dough ball with flour. With floured hands, pick up a dough ball and hold up with two hands on corners of the dough. The dough will start to droop downward with gravity, and you'll rotate the dough clockwise, like you're turning a steering wheel. And it will be a bit sticky. That's okay! Bring it down to the parchment paper, and lightly press out into a circle, stretching the corners. Do NOT use a rolling pin. This will make the dough too thin, resulting in a tougher crust. You're aiming for each pizza to be around 7-8 inches in diameter. Don't try to make the biggest pizza. Keeping it smaller will result in the fluffiest baked dough. Stretch and adjust the dough a little more, aiming to position one edge of the pizza all the way at the front edge of the peel.
• Spread with a light amount of sauce, and put the the rest of your toppings on, including cheese. Error on the side of less toppings that piling it super full, to be sure the crust can handle the weight.
• Shimmy the pizza onto the cast iron pan or pizza stone, without the parchment. Close the lid of grill, and let cook for 3 minutes on the pan/stone. Then open the lid, transfer the pizza to the right side, top rack, and close lid for another 4-5 minutes to finish cooking. OR If baking in oven, bake at 500 degrees for for 8-9 minutes, until bubbly and golden brown.

SOURDOUGH PIZZA CRUST DOUGH

Steps:

• Mix starter, flour, olive oil, and salt together in a bowl until mixture forms a ball. Let dough rest for 30 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 500 degrees F (260 degrees C).
• Roll out dough on parchment paper or a lightly floured work surface, rotating frequently, until it is the same size as the baking pan. Transfer to the pan.
• Bake in the preheated oven until pale golden, about 7 minutes.

THE BEST PIZZA DOUGH

Steps:

• In a small bowl, mix warm water and 1 teaspoon sugar; add yeast and whisk until dissolved. Let stand until bubbles form on surface. In a large bowl, whisk 3 cups flour, salt, remaining 1 teaspoon sugar and, if desired, dried herbs. Make a well in center; add yeast mixture and oil. Stir until smooth. Add enough remaining flour to form a soft dough. , Turn onto a floured surface; knead, adding more flour to surface as needed until no longer sticky and dough is smooth and elastic, 6-8 minutes. Place in a large greased bowl; turn once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 30 minutes; transfer bowl to refrigerator and chill overnight. Allow dough to come to room temperature, about 30 minutes, before rolling.

SOURDOUGH PIZZA

Steps:

• Make a batch of our white sourdough, following the recipe to the end of step 10. When the dough is ready, tip it onto a lightly floured surface and divide into six equal pieces. Roll into balls and leave to rest on a floured tray, covered with a damp teatowel, in the fridge for at least 4 hrs, and up to 18 hrs - the longer you leave the dough, the more sour it will taste.
• Meanwhile, make the tomato sauce. Drain some of the juice from the plummed tomatoes and tip the rest into a bowl with the olive oil, oregano and a generous pinch of salt. Combine by either scrunching everything together with your fingers (this will make a chunky sauce) or blitz with a stick blender (this will make a smooth sauce). Chill until needed.
• To make the pizzas, heat a grill to high and prepare an ovenproof frying pan. On a floured surface, push and stretch a ball of dough into a circle roughly the same size as the pan. Get the pan very hot, then working quickly and carefully, drape it into the pan, spread over some of the sauce, a handful of mozzarella and some basil, if using.
• Cook for 2 mins, until little bubbles appear, then put the pan under the grill for another 2-4 mins until the sides are puffed up and the cheese has melted. Remove, drizzle with a little olive oil and cut into wedges. Repeat with the remaining dough.

SOURDOUGH PIZZA DOUGH

Steps:

• In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour and salt.
• In a small mixing bowl, stir together 300 grams (about 1 1/4 cups) lukewarm tap water, the instant dry yeast and the olive oil, then stir the sourdough starter into it and pour it into the bowl with the flour mixture. Knead with your hands until well combined, about 4 minutes, then let mixture rest for 15 minutes.
• Knead rested dough for 3 to 4 minutes. Cut into 3 equal pieces and shape each into a ball. Place on a heavily floured surface, cover with a dampened cloth and let rest and rise for 8 to 24 hours in the refrigerator. (Remove from refrigerator 30 to 45 minutes before you begin to shape it for pizza.)
• To make pizza, place each dough ball on a heavily floured surface and use your fingers to stretch it, then your hands to shape it into rounds or squares. Top and bake.