Sourdough Pizza Recipes

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:

• (9:00 a.m.)Add the ingredients to a mixing bowl or stand mixer. Mix until medium development (the dough should be smooth, but still a little shaggy, and elastic. Transfer the dough to a bulk fermentation container and cover.
• (9:15 a.m. to 11:45 a.m.)This dough will need 3 sets of stretch and folds during bulk fermentation, at 30-minute intervals.
• (Overnight, 11:45 am to 11:00 a.m.)Remove the dough from the bulk fermentation bowl and lightly oil the interior with olive oil. Tighten the dough on the counter into a ball and transfer back to the oiled bowl, seam side down. Cover the bowl and transfer to the refrigerator overnight.
• (11:00 a.m.)Divide the dough into two 290g pieces. Shape the dough into a very tight ball with no seam on the bottom. Transfer to a pizza dough tray or baking sheet and cover.
• (11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.)Proof the dough out on the counter at around 75°F (23°C) for 5-6 hours. When fully proofed, the dough will have relaxed outward and be soft to the touch. If using the dough soon, preheat your oven, alternatively, you can place the dough back into the fridge until the next day.
• (5:30 p.m.)Preheat your oven with Baking Steel inside, one or two rungs from the top, to 550°F (285°C). Shape a dough piece into a large circle on a piece of parchment paper. Switch oven to Broiler setting, top your pizza dough, and slide the dough onto the Baking Steel. Spritz the inside of the oven a few times with a handheld water sprayer. Bake for 1.5-2 minutes with the broiler on, then turn the oven back to Bake setting at 550°F (285°C). After 1 minute, rotate the pizza in the oven. Bake for another 4-5 minutes until done to your liking. Repeat for the other piece of 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.

SOURDOUGH PIZZA DOUGH

Steps:

• Add all the ingredients to a mixing bowl and stir well to combine. Dump the dough out onto a floured counter and knead for 8 to 10 minutes. Alternatively, you can use a stand mixer with a dough hook.
• Place the dough in a greased bowl and cover loosely with a towel or some plastic wrap.
• Set aside for 2 to 4 hours until it is doubled in size.
• Divide the dough in half and shape each piece into 2 round pizza disks about 12 inches in diameter. Place the shaped dough on either parchment paper or a well-oiled baking pan.
• Cover and let rest for 30 minutes to 1 hour or until the dough rises to the thickness you like. Toward the end of the rest period, preheat the oven to 500°F (or 425°F if making a thick crust pizza)
• For a thin crust pizza, add the toppings and bake for 7 to 10 minutes (depending on thickness.)
• For a thick crust pizza, bake the crust for 12 minutes before adding the toppings then bake for another 10 to 15 minutes.

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.

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.

SOURDOUGH PIZZA

Steps:

• Levain
• Prepare your 120g of starter by mixing 40g of starter with 40g of water and 40g of flour. This is a 1:1:1 starter preparation, but other builds are fine too. Mark your jar with a rubberband and let it sit at room temperature for 4-8 hours until roughly tripled.
• Mixing and First Rise
• Mix the ingredients, including the 120g of mature starter, together by hand, or in a mixer with the dough hook attachment, until everything is incorporated and forming a ball around the hook.
• Scrape the dough out onto a floured counter and knead it for 3-5 minutes, adding a small amount of flour until the dough is manageable.
• I prefer to hand knead the dough, but if you want to keep the dough in your mixer for 5-10 minutes until it passes the windowpane test, that is fine too. Covering it while it's still shaggy, and doing several rounds of stretching and folding over the course of a couple of hours is also an option.
• Lightly oil a bowl, dab the "top" of your dough ball in the oil, then lay the bottom side down in the bowl and cover.
• Let the dough rise until it has approximately doubled. I tend to leave the dough at room temperature for a few hours and then put it in the refrigerator for a day or so, and finally pull it out when it is fully risen or close to fully risen and just needing a few more hours at room temperature.
• The bulk fermentation can be just a few hours if you use warm water and have a warm house or put the dough in a lit oven, or this can be five days if you use sleepy starter and put the dough in a 37F refrigerator. I did the latter recently, and the pizza was tasty-sour and the crust perfectly bubbly.
• Preshape and Second Rise
• When the bulk fermentation is finished, lightly oil a 9x13 baking pan and your counter.
• Scrape out the dough onto the oiled counter, gently press out most of the air, and divide the dough into 4-5 pieces. The total dough weight is approximately 1140g. This makes five approx. 225g or four 285g pizzas. (You can go larger and smaller, but you may need to adjust cook time.)
• Form each piece into a ball by folding the sides of the piece inward. Then hold the ball in one hand with the taut top on your palm, while you pinch the bottom pieces together with your other hand.
• Place the balls in the oiled pan seam-side down, and cover or put the entire pan in a plastic bag. The final proof can be at room temperature for 45-90 minutes or in the refrigerator for 8-12 hours. Various combinations of room temperature and cold proofing work, and a lot depends on how warm the dough was when you shaped it, and if your room temperature is very warm. Even in a heat wave, I've not seen a big difference in pizza outcome when the first dough ball of a batch was formed into a pizza and cooked an hour before the last dough ball.
• Topping Prep
• 45-90 minutes before the dough is finished proofing, set up your toppings and the area where you will be stretching and "decorating" your pizza. My preferred pizza sauce is NYTimes Classic Marinara plus 6 ounces of tomato paste (sometimes I skip the paste). I like to make it ahead of time, and simply pull it out of the refrigerator to warm up a bit when I'm setting up the toppings.
• Shaping and Baking (by oven type)
• Wood-Fired Oven
• About 30 minutes before your dough is finished proofing, fire up your pizza oven. Make sure your Uuni or other pizza oven is clean and ready to go -- the stone tiles have been brushed off, and the charcoal/wood tray has been emptied.
• Have everything you need on hand: kindling, charcoal, gloves, an aluminum pizza peel, and a "hot plate" to lay the door on (also the cast iron pan if you cook vegetables or meat too). I use a couple pieces of kindling as a rack, and steel/aluminum baking sheets and cooling racks for the pizzas that come out of the oven. (See gallery)
• Your damper in the chimney should be open, and the flue at the base of the chimney inside the oven should be about half open.
• Place 4-6 pieces of very dry kindling in the fuel area of your pizza oven. Light them and put the cover back on. Checking on them every few minutes, let them burn for about 5-10 minutes, until they are fully burning. Add about 15 pieces of lump charcoal and wait another 10 minutes or until the temperature is over 700F. About 5 minutes before cooking your pizzas, you can add wood again for an extra burst of heat. Wait a few minutes for the wood to be fully lit and the smoke to be white or clear, not black, before before loading a pizza. This entire process takes about 20 minutes, and this is what has worked for me, but you may prefer different time parameters, fuel types and amounts.
• Prepare your pizza peel with flour and cornmeal. Rub the flour into the wood and sprinkle the cornmeal on the top of the flour. I prefer a wood peel for prepping and loading pizzas, and an aluminum peel for removing them. A third smaller peel for turning the pizza is a helpful option, too.
• Remove a dough ball from the proofing pan and gently grasp one side of the circle with both hands. Holding the top edge of the circle (10 o'clock and 2 o'clock), let the rest of the dough droop/stretch downward while you then rotate and re-grab the dough like you're turning a steering wheel. This will develop about a 1/2-1 inch crust edge and stretch the middle. (Using a rolling pin is fine too.)
• If the dough only stretches a bit, lay it down on your floured counter for 5-10 minutes while you work on your other dough balls and check on your oven temperature. By the time you come back to the first circle, the gluten should have relaxed and you will be able to stretch it further. Try not to let any part of the dough get thin enough to see through or you may end up with a hole.
• Lay your pizza dough on the floured/cornmealed pizza peel. 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. When you insert the peel into the oven, the front edge of the dough will "catch" on the hot stone, making it easier to slide the peel out from under the pizza.
• Now top your pizza dough to your liking and put it in the oven. If you leave the pizza on the peel for more than a few minutes, it may begin to stick to the peel, so keep your assembly line moving.
• After about 1.5 minutes of cooking, rotate your pizza with an aluminum peel. The heat is strongest in the back of the oven near the fire, so this will encourage even cooking and char spots. After about 1.5 more minutes, your pizza is likely done.
• Using an aluminum peel, remove the pizza from the oven and put the pizza on a rack if not eating right away (this keeps the bottom crispy), or on a plate or a steel/aluminum sheet to serve.
• Repeat with the next pizza and so on. When you're finished cooking the pizzas, let the fuel burn off and the oven cool down before cleaning and storing it.
• See the last photo gallery for ideas for things to cook while the oven is warming up (pitas), cooling down (s'mores, garlic knots from extra dough), and still very hot (steak and veggies).
• Kitchen Oven
• About 30 minutes before your dough is finished proofing, preheat your kitchen oven with a baking stone or steel in it to 500F, using the top shelf if you have a top broiler. You can also use an upside-down baking sheet as your baking surface, with parchment paper under the dough, and preheated to only 450F.
• Flour and sprinkle cornmeal on the peel as described above, or use a square of parchment paper for each pizza.
• Remove a dough ball from the proofing pan and gently grasp one side of the circle with both hands. Holding the top edge of the circle (10 o'clock and 2 o'clock), let the rest of the dough droop/stretch downward while you then rotate and re-grab the dough like you're turning a steering wheel. This will develop about a 1/2-1 inch crust edge and stretch the middle. (Using a rolling pin is fine too.)
• If the dough only stretches a bit, lay it down on your floured counter for 5-10 minutes while you work on your other dough balls and check on your oven temperature. By the time you come back to the first circle, the gluten should have relaxed and you will be able to stretch it further. Try not to let any part of the dough get thin enough to see through or you may end up with a hole.
• Lay your pizza dough on the piece of parchment paper or floured/cornmealed pizza peel. 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 if that is what you're using. When you insert the peel into the oven, the front edge of the dough will "catch" on the hot stone, making it easier to slide the peel out from under the pizza.
• Now top your pizza dough to your liking and put it in the oven. If you leave it on the peel for more than a few minutes, it may begin to stick to the peel, so keep your assembly line moving or use parchment paper.
• For a pizza stone or steel, bake for 7 minutes, then switch to broil for 1 minute more. Keep the oven on broil an additional minute before you load the next pizza. This helps reheat the stone before you switch back to bake mode.
• For a baking sheet, bake the pizza on parchment paper on the sheet for 8 minutes, then broil (still at 450F) for 1-2 minutes. Then move the pizza to a bare lower rack, removing the parchment after the transfer, and bake 3-4 more minutes.
• Remove the pizza from the oven with a peel, spatula, or even by tugging on a corner of the parchment paper.
• Put the pizza on a rack if not eating right away (this keeps the bottom crispy), or on a plate or a steel/aluminum sheet to serve.
• Repeat with the next pizza and so on.