Sourdough Pizza Crust

This recipe is ever evolving. It is the reason I was FINALLY ready to start learning about sourdough. From this recipe a new member of the family was born. My sourdough is now a family heirloom, brought alive by my quest for making better pizza on Friday nights.

We started the tradition of family pizza night years ago. After years of buying overpriced and TERRIBLE tasting gluten free, or cauliflower pizza crusts, I started making my own. As someone who was previously “gluten sensitive”, I began making lack-luster gluten free crusts, and gradually shifted to organic wheat. For a couple of years, I practiced a tried and true recipe but eventually got bored with the same thing. I knew sourdough would not only make the crust taste better, but it would also help A LOT with its digestibility.

And just like that, I began making my own sourdough. I never intended to become a sourdough nerd, or a baker. Certainly, I did not expect such a dietary shift. Today, I eat more bread than ever, (just organic sourdough), and my digestion has never been so good. I also am more lean then at any other stage in my life, and my blood sugar is easier to manage than ever.

Indeed, I achieved both goals of making homemade pizza more delicious and more digestible. Everything else was a thrilling bonus! This great discovery of mine, created an ongoing fascination with taste and texture for pizza crust too. There are countless ways to modify pizza crust within the classic 3 ingredient profile of flour, water, and yeast. Sourdough somehow makes it a bottomless well of discovery.

There are many ways of enjoying pizza! This recipe gives you options for thin to deep dish. You can also add enough olive oil to make it a focaccia or Detroit style crust.

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 15-20 mins

Total time: 24-30 hours

Serves: 6-8

Yields: Two 10-12” crusts

Ingredients

  • 3 1/4 cups organic, unbleached, all-purpose flour or bread flour

  • 1/4 cup organic spelt flour or organic whole wheat flour (optional)

  • 2 cups of filtered water

  • 2/3 cup active sourdough starter

  • 2 teaspoons sea salt

  • 1 teaspoon of sugar or raw honey

  • 2 teaspoons of extra virgin olive oil

    Instructions:

    Feed your sourdough starter approximately 4-8 hours in advance.

    In a large work bowl, combine flour and salt. Set aside.

    In a separate bowl, whisk together sourdough starter, sugar, and water until smooth. Add this mixture to the flour and mix until all of the flour has been absorbed by the liquid. Add more water as needed.

    Cover the bowl with a clean towel and allow the dough to rest for 30 minutes.

    Drizzle the dough with one teaspoon of olive oil and with wet hands, gently fold and knead the dough to incorporate the oil into the dough until the dough is a shiny and smooth ball. Drizzle the dough with the remaining 1 teaspoon of olive oil. Rotate or roll the ball of dough inside the work bowl to thoroughly coat the dough with oil.

    Cover the bowl with a clean towel and let the dough rest for 10-12 hours or overnight.

    The next day:

    Give the dough a couple of stretch and folds. Do not over work the dough. Roll into a ball, drizzle with a bit more oil to prevent it from drying out, and leave it covered until double in bulk. This will take a minimum of 2-4 hours with a max time period of 6 hours before the dough begins to “overproof” or breakdown. Move to the fridge, to buy more time. Move to a slightly warmer place in the kitchen to speed up this rise time.

    About an hour before you’re ready to cook pizza, remove the dough (room temperature) from the bowl and divide the dough into 2-3 portions, depending on how thick you like your crust and how large you prefer the pizza to be. Dividing the dough in two will make the equivalent of two, 10” thick crusts or two, 12” thin crust pizzas.

    Using your hands, shape the dough into a 4-5” disc.

    If you’re only making one pizza, wrap the remaining dough disc in plastic wrap and move to the freezer for later use. You can store your wrapped and ready crust in the fridge to prevent over-proofing too. This will keep in the fridge for about 2-3 days.

    After dividing the dough, turn it out onto a floured surface and flour your hands well. I use semolina or masa flour for this. Flatten your dough into a disc with flat hands and then stretch and shape your dough out to the desired thickness. Press and push with flat palms, from the center of the disc, toward the outer edge of the disc. Rotate with gentle stretching and pulling the outer edge of the dough in between flattening rounds with your hands. Do this in a clockwise motion to keep the circle symmetrical.

    If the dough is not ready it will spring back a lot and tear in this step. If this is the case, use a well floured rolling pin, pushing the dough out from the center, by placing the rolling pin in the center of the dough and rolling out toward the edge, from the center, moving in a clockwise motion with each roll. This will help keep the dough symmetrically round.

    You can also use this method on a rectangle cookie sheet, lined with parchment paper. Drop the dough onto the parchment. Press and flatten as much as possible with your hands. Using a well floured rolling pin, apply back and forth rolls, instead of clockwise strokes, with the rolling pin, to line up the dough with the edges of the cookie sheet.

    You can also do this the traditional way using your hands, a paddle and/or a stone.

    Once in place, allow the dough to rest for about 30 minutes before adding toppings and moving it to a hot oven. Preheat the oven to it’s highest setting of 450 or higher.

  • Notes:

    This recipe is a guide and meant to be modified based on your kitchen. I cook my pizza in a 450 degree oven, on a cookie sheet, lined with parchment paper, for about 15 minutes with the top oven coil OFF. After 15 minutes I turn my top oven coil to ON, to brown the top of the pizza for another 5 minutes. Everyone’s cooking time and method will vary depending on the cooking equipment and preferences on crust. The way I have to cook pizza to make it great, has been different in every kitchen I’ve lived in. Work with what you have and be curious about how to utilize your resources. The same street style, Sicilian pizza, everyone compares the best pizza to, can be achieved successfully in a dozen different ways.

    Overproofed sourdough, ( in any sourdough recipe) is not to be wasted. This is a low gluten, (flat) bread. It is ready levain. It can often be salvaged in many forms, such as pancakes or flatbreads, but also can be modified for a low gluten focaccia. Best for those gluten or digestive sensitive.

    The longer you ferment sourdough, the less gluten it will have. This is good for gluten sensitive people to digest, however, it will also make the crust less “classic” in texture.