Sourdough Pizza Dough

I don’t think I’ve ever been more excited to share a recipe with you before, and in fact this is one of my most requested recipes! I’ve been perfecting this sourdough dough pizza dough for quite some time now and it has to be one of my favourite things to make! It’s my favourite pizza dough ever, better than any pizza place I’ve ever been and its such a simple process and easy to make! Don’t let the sourdough component to this scare you… It’s much simpler than the process of making bread and much quicker! If you don’t have sourdough starter you might want to get your hands on some just to try out this sourdough pizza dough, I haven’t been using my starter that much, but let me tell you when I do it’s most likely to make this pizza dough! The process is actually really fun, and being able to make what ever pizza you desire is creative and so delicious! I’ve tired so many kinds now but these two have to be my favourite, we did a Barbecue Chicken, and a Greek Chicken pizza and WOW! So so good! What I love about this dough is that you can use it the same day, or keep it in your fridge for up to 7 days! Or pop it in the freezer to use at a later date! It’s so perfect to make ahead or to use the day of! I will say I love letting mine ferment for a day or two – this really creates a beautiful sourdough flavour and a fluffy dough!

I really enjoy the process of making this dough and everything that comes along with it! It’s kind of become a little tradition of mine, I’ll make this for a dinner party, or for a movie night, or any special occasion or get together! We even made this pizza dough on Christmas Eve this year, it’s a new family tradition! Everyone always loves it and making the pizzas together and choosing all your toppings is so fun! I actually filmed my entire process this time and Vlogged it for you over on Youtube, I had so much fun doing this and you get to see behind the scenes of the entire process! We made the dough, grocery shopped together and spend a couple days together, it was so much fun! Watch it here! The vlog will be super helpful to get a real visual and step by step guide on how to make the pizza dough, but make sure to reference this blog post for the full amounts and ingredients of everything as well, use both together and you’ll master this sourdough pizza dough, I promise!

What You’ll Need

The dough ingredients are very simple and straight forward! The one thing you must have in order to get this pizza dough to rise properly and become a beautiful dough is yeast! Obviously we are using sourdough as our natural yeast in this recipe, you can use fast rising yeast but you will have to take account the amount of liquids and make changes to that, simply look up a sourdough conversion chart to using regular yeast because this will change the amounts of the liquids in this recipe! I highly recommend using sourdough starter the flavour and texture will be 100x better I can promise you that! Even if you have never used sourdough starter before this is the perfect recipe to start! Someone you know definitely has starter, or go to your local bread shop or bakery more than likely they will be happy to share some! Once you have your starter You only need about 75 grams of starter and to feed it once or twice to get it nice and active and you’ll be golden- don’t worry we will get into all of that below! Here is what you’ll need for the dough…

SOURDOUGH PIZZA DOUGH CHECKLIST

active sourdough starter

filtered water

bread flour and or all purpose flour – i like to use a mix of both but one or the other works just fine

cane sugar

olive oil

sea salt

Making the Sourdough Pizza Dough – The Sourdough Process

To start off, you will want to go through 1-2 feedings and discarding of your starter if you haven’t used it for a while. This means feeding your starter, then discarding some and feeding again and repeat! This builds the strength of your starter and helps make a very strong and fluffy dough. I usually feed mine 1-2 times prior to the final feeding, especially if my starter has been in the fridge! If you use your starter very regularly then you can go straight into the final feeding to get your starter to peak to use it for the dough!

FEEDING THE STARTER (1:1:1 ratio)

When I’m ready to do my final feeding I’ll feed my starter equal parts water and flour, starting with the same amount of starter, this is a 1:1:1 feeding ratio! I add 75 grams of starter to a jar, feed it with 75 grams of flour and 75 grams of water, mix it and leave it to reach its peak, this is when your starter is at it strongest state and most active! This results in the best pizza dough! After feeding your starter it can take up to 4-6 hours for your starter to reach it’s peak depending on your temperature and strength of your starter! I feed mine really early 5am, and by 10ish it’s ready to use! You will know it’s at its peak when it’s doubled in size and is very bubbly at the top and around the sides of the jar! You can always look up videos on how to know when it at it’s peak for visual reference! You can feed it at any time that works for you, feed it later in the morning (9am) if you want to make the dough in the afternoon/evening (from 2pm-7pm) or feed it late at night and make the dough early in the morning! If you are wanting to use the dough the day of I recommend feeding the night before and making the dough in the early morning to give you enough time for your dough to rise and ferment. I’ve actually never used my pizza dough the same day I make it, I like to ferment mine in the fridge for a few days and this also gives you more flexibility when it comes to feeding and making the dough!

75 grams starter

75 grams filtered water

75 grams all purpose flour

THE SOURDOUGH PIZZA DOUGH RECIPE & PROCESS

When my starter reaches it’s peak, it’s now time to make the dough! Start by adding your filtered water to a large mixing bowl, then measure in your sourdough starter using a scale! (see my youtube video to make it with me). Give this a good mix to incorporate the starter into the water. Now add your flour. I like to do a mix between bread flour and all purpose but you can pick one or the other depending on what you have, just make sure the flour you use accounts for the total amount in this recipe- 350 grams flour in total! Add the cane sugar and olive oil and mix until you get a shaggy dough. Now we will cover the shaggy dough for about 45-60 minutes before adding the salt. This is known as the Autolyse stage, this allows the gluten to develop and strengthen, adding the salt too early can make the dough too tight and stretching and folding more difficult! After 45-60 minutes add your salt to the shaggy dough and pinch it into the dough with a wet hand you will notice how this changes the texture of the dough- I like to keep a small bowl of water by the dough, this comes in handy for the next step which is the stretch and fold series!

100 grams active sourdough starter – from your last feeding listed above

250 grams filtered water

200 grams all purpose flour

150 grams bread flour * if using one kind of flour make sure it’s total amount is 350 grams to account for the full amount in this recipe *

10 grams cane sugar

10 olive oil

9 grams sea salt *add after the 45-60 min autolyse stage*

THE STRETCH AND FOLD SERIES (2 – 2.5 hrs)

After you have added and incorporated your salt into the dough after the autolyse stage, you will perform your first stretch and fold. This is a very simple process that involves pulling all four corners up and into the middle of the dough at one time. I like to start with one corner lift from the side with a wet hand stretch it upwards and fold it into the middle of the dough, turn the bowl 90 degrees, then repeat with the remaining three corners (see my youtube video for demonstration of this process), you will cover it again and let it rest for 30-45 minutes and repeat this process 5-6 more times. This is what helps from and shape the gluten development and sets the dough up to be light, airy and fluffy! If you are on your last stretch and fold and your dough is not very stretchy repeat one more time, you want to see small air bubbles forming and have a smooth stretchy dough. I usually do this process for a total of 5-6 times depending on how my dough feels on the 5th stretch and fold.

1. Pull all four corners up and over into the middle of the dough, cover and let rise for 30-45 minutes

2. Repeat stretch and folds and rest for 30-45 minutes

3. Repeat stretch and folds and rest for 30-45 minutes

4. Repeat stretch and folds and rest for 30-45 minutes

5. Repeat stretch and folds and rest for 30-45 minutes * repeat once more if dough is not stretchy and little air bubbles are not forming*

RISE & FERMENTATION PHASE

Now that you have finished your stretch and fold series it is time for the dough to enter it’s rising stage! Using a knife or bench scrapper, split the dough into two even balls and place in separate greased glass containers with the lid on! If you are planning on using the dough the day of, keep it out on the counter in the containers until it is time to use them, if your using your dough within the next couple of days, leave the dough in the containers on the counter for 2-3 hours, then place in the fridge to ferment until you wish to use them! I always make the dough ahead of time and allow it to ferment in the fridge for a few days, the flavour is so good as well as how fluffy and light the dough gets! But you totally can use it the day of, I would let it rise on the counter for at least 3-4 hours prior to using!

FORMING THE PIZZA DOUGH

If your dough has been in the fridge take it our 2-3 hours prior to making your pizzas so the dough can get to room temperature before shaping it. If you’re using the dough the same day the dough should already be at room temp from rising on the counter. Get two pieces of parchment paper dust with flour and place the dough on the each paper, lightly flour the top of the dough. I like to shape mine into a ball first by grabbing all the sides of the to the centre then flipping it around to get a ball shape! Then begin pressing down from the middle lightly working your way outwards from the centre of the dough creating a crust around the edge! (watch youtube video for a visual of this process). You will need to keep lightly adding flour to the dough while you are shaping it into the pizza crust because it will be sticky. Be gentle and soft when doing this you don’t want any holes in the bottom! For a puffy crust leave a good edge around the dough. If your dough doesn’t seem to stretch out much, let it relax for 5-10 minutes between shaping. These aren’t huge pizza crust, I would say you get 6 large slices in each one so don’t worry about making it big when shaping!

TOPPING AND BAKING

Have the oven preheating for a while ahead of time if you can, the best temp for these pizzas is anywhere from 475-500 degrees! I usually do 475 and always keeping an eye on them! After you have your desired size and shape of crust, top your pizza however you please! Have fun with this part, you can seriously do whatever you desire! Keep in mind you want to go light on the toppings– otherwise the dough will not cook properly and the toppings will be way to heavy for the dough! TIP- brush the crust with olive oil to get a golden brown crispy crust! Once you are finished with the toppings and your oven has been preheated, place the pizza on a heated pizza stone, or a pizza baking sheet for 15-20 minutes! I typically bake mine for 16-18 minutes! Be carful not to over bake, this makes the dough quite hard, and you want it soft! If your baking two at a time swap the position of the pizzas half way through the bake time!

I’m so excited that I now have my entire sourdough pizza process laid out for you so you now can make it too! This is one of my ALL TIME favourite recipes and I’m so happy you get to experience it now for yourself! The process is actually so much fun, and you will never get bored because there are endless options and toppings to chose from! I’ll list out some of my favourites for you below for some inspiration and how we made this BBQ chicken and Greek pizza! It may seem like a lot to make it, but I promise you its so so easy, and incredibly little effort! Once you try it once you’ll know exactly what I mean, and it becomes second nature! I can’t wait for you to try it! I’ve made it countless times now, and I’m still so excited to make it next time…

The Pizza Combos We Made & My Other Favourites for Inspo

GREEK CHICKEN PIZZA – hummus as the base, mozzarella cheese, red onion, green olives, greek marinated chicken (add cooked chicken chunks to the pizza after 8-10 minutes in the oven), topped with fresh dill, cilantro, arugula, and dollops of tzatziki, goat feta

BARBECUE CHICKEN PIZZA- BBQ sauce as the base, mozzarella cheese, red onion, bbq sauce marinated chicken (add cooked chicken chunks to the pizza after 8-10 minutes in the oven), topped with fresh cilantro, dill, arugula and bbq sauce drizzle

PESTO PRAWN PIZZA – pictured above

HOT HONEY PROSICITTO PIZZA – pictured above

GARLIC MUSHROOM, OLIVE & PESTO – pictured above

SOURDOUGH PIZZA DOUGH RECIPE

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