Sourdough Pizza Recipe
In search of the perfect sourdough pizza recipe? Look no further! This is a simple recipe, easy to make, and will work every time. You will need a sourdough starter (my quick and easy starter recipe is here). I also recommend starting the leaven the night before.
Prep Time: 12 hours
Cook Time: 15 mins
Difficulty: Easy
Serves: 2 large pizzas
Ingredients
For the Base:
Sourdough Starter - 13g (see my starter recipe)
White Bread Flour - 550g
Water - 400g
Fine Salt - 10g
For the topping:
Passata - 200g
Mozzarella - 125g
Basil - a few leaves
Olive Oil - to sprinkle on top
Method
THE DAY BEFORE at 8PM - Leaven
Fist step is to make the leaven the night before; pour 50g of slightly warm water (c.26° / 29°F) into a bowl and stir in 13g of your sourdough starter.
Stir into the bowl 50g of the white flour until combined.
This is your leaven. Pour it into a container with enough room to more-than-double in size and leave overnight.
ON THE DAY at 8AM - Autolyse
First thing to do on the morning that you want the pizza is the complicated-sounding ‘autolyse’ period. This just means you combine some of the pizza’s ingredients and let it sit for awhile.
Pour 250g of slightly warm water (c.26° / 29°F) into a bowl and stir in all of your leaven.
Pour into the bowl 500g of the white flour and combine it into the liquid (I tend to use my hands to do this) until you have one very dry dough mix.
Cover with a damp tea towel and leave for about 3 hours for the dough to experience a load of chemical changes that will improve its flavour and texture.
On the day at 11AM - Mixing
After the dough been ‘autolysing’ for about 3 hours, it’s time to mix in the rest of the ingredients.
Into a separate jug pour 100g of warm water and stir in 10g of the salt.
Pour about a fifth (20%) of this salt water into the bowl with the dough and, using your hands, work the water into the dough until it’s combined.
Leave the dough for about 2-3 minutes to fully absorb the water, and then repeat the process; pouring in another fifth (20%) of the water and mixing it in. Rest for another 2-3 minutes.
Keep doing this until all the salt water’s in the dough. You should now have a nice semi-wet dough mix.
Cover with a damp tea towel as we enter the ‘bulk fermentation’ stage; see next step.
On the day between 11AM & 2PM - Bulk Fermentation
After you’ve finished mixing, you’re in the ‘bulk fermentation’ phase; basically this is where the dough rises.
You do have to stretch the dough about 3 times through this phase; it’s sourdough’s equivalent of kneading.
About 45 minutes into the bulk fermentation , wet your hands to stop the dough sticking and grab the underside of one edge of the dough, lift it up, gently stretch it out, then fold it back down on top of itself.
Give the bowl a quarter turn and repeat the process with the next edge. Do this 2-3 more times.
Re-cover the bowl with the damp tea towel and repeat the stretching exercise again every 45 minutes until the bulk fermentation’s complete (bulk fermentation takes about 3 hours so you should only have to stretch at 45m, 1h30m, and 2h15m into the fermentation; at the 3 hour mark you don’t need to stretch it as you’ll move onto the next step).
On the Day at 2PM - DOugh Balls
Once the dough’s finished bulk fermentation, it’s time to get it into dough balls that you can use later for the pizzas.
Using wet hands, take the dough out of the bowl and place onto a floured work surface. Divide the dough into 2.
Take one of the dough segments, and again using wet hands grab the underneath side of one of the edges, stretch it upwards, and fold it back in on itself placing it on top of the centre of the dough.
Rotate the dough a little and do the same folding action with the next edge Repeat this 3-4 times.
Place on a floured surface (rice four or semolina flour is good to stop it sticking if you have it) and cover with a floured muslin or tea towel.
Leave at room temperature for an hour, then transfer to the fridge for at least an hour.
On the day after 4PM - Pizza Making
Take the dough balls out and place on a floured surface (semolina flour if you have it). Using wet hands stretch the dough out in a pizza shape. Top with passata and torn mozzarella.
You’ve then got a few options for cooking them:
Oven: Cook for around 5-10 minutes in the oven as hot as the oven goes i.e. around 230°C / 445°F for a fan oven. Pre-heat the tray, pull the tray out whilst hot, sprinkle flour on it, place the pizza in the tray and return to the oven.
Hob: Heat up a large frying pan, and pre-heat the oven’s grill. Place the pizza in the frying pan, remove from the heat straight away and place under the grill until cooked.
Pizza oven / BBQ with baking stone: Place pizza in the oven for around 3-4 minutes, turning 2-3 time during the cooking time.
On the day at 6PM - Sourdough
Once baked, remove from the oven. Top with basil, a sprinkle of oil, and some black pepper.
And that’s it, hope you enjoy!