Name: From Starter to Finish: Sourdough Pizza Dough
Prep time: 4 d 96 h
Cook time: 2 min
Total time: 4 d 96 h 2 min
Yield: Makes four 12” pizzas

From Starter to Finish: Sourdough Pizza Dough

The secret behind great sourdough? Using a starter, aka mother, to ferment the dough rather than ready-made yeast from a packet. Making a sourdough starter isn’t inherently difficult (all you need is flour, water and time) but prepping your own will take some commitment. The mixture needs a few days to develop yeast and bacteria, become sour and produce those signature frothy bubbles.

If you’re not familiar with the process or don’t think you’ve got the skills to proof and feed a starter, don’t worry. Bryan Ford (@artisanbryan), author of “New World Sourdough,” has an endless supply of knowledge and tips for novices and pros alike. He’s shared this delicious recipe for creating the ultimate sourdough pizza dough, from starter to finish.

A little effort here goes a long way, leading to a greater depth of flavour, aroma and strength for your dough. Use this method to make anything from baguettes and bagels to pretzels and, but of course,–pizza.

Bryan’s first slice of advice? Keep your starter in a jar on your kitchen countertop, covered with a lid or a cloth with an elastic band wrapped around the opening. If you plan to use your starter regularly, it’s best to feed it with water and flour every 1 to 2 days to keep it alive.

For feeding, add equal parts flour (the same flour your starter used; in this recipe’s case, a combination of “00” and whole grain) and water to the starter and mix until fully blended. The starter will grow every time you do this, so remove a little bit of the starter each time before adding the fresh flour and water.

If you need to leave your starter at home for a while, or can’t feed it for a period of time, seal it and place it in the fridge for up to 2 weeks (the cold temperature will cause the starter to go dormant, so it doesn’t need to be fed). When you’re ready to use it again, simply remove it from the fridge and continue feeding it every 1 to 2 days.

Difficulty

Servings

Makes four 12” pizzas

Prep Time

3 to 4 days

Cook Time

1 to 2 minutes

By Ooni HQ

Note

This recipe takes time. Before you start cooking, you’ll need to have your active, mature sourdough starter ready to go. It’s mature when you’ve been feeding it regularly in the days leading up to starting this recipe. We suggest you make the starter 3 to 4 days before cooking. If you’re not up for making a starter, you can also ask your local bakery if they’ll share a bit of their starter with you. While this recipe makes 10 ounces (250 grams) of levain, you will only need 7 ounces (200 grams) for your final mix.

Method

1: To make the levain mix, take a tall jar and combine the 1.8 ounces (50g) of sourdough starter with your two types of flour and warm water, using a digital scale for accurate measurements.

Mix until fully blended.

2: Cover and leave to sit at room temperature for 3 to 4 hours, or until doubled in size.

A nice trick is to put a rubber band around the jar where the line of the levain is when you first mix it, so you can check how much it’s growing and be sure that it's doubled.

3: Once the levain mix is ready, it’s time to make the final mix.

In a large bowl, dissolve the salt in warm water. Stir it until it’s completely dissolved. Add the 7 ounces (200 grams) of levain mix, and stir until dissolved.

4: Slowly add the two types of flour, mixing them together with your hands.

The key is to blend the flour slowly so that the dough hydrates fully. Leave to rest on your kitchen countertop uncovered for 10 minutes before beginning the initial kneading.

5: Once rested, dust your work surface with flour and knead the dough.

If kneading by hand, use the palm of your hand and push the dough in a forward motion to the point that it’s almost tearing. Pull the dough back onto itself, rotate it, and push with your palm again. This will take 10 to 15 minutes.

6: Alternatively, you can also knead the dough using a stand mixer.

Mix the dough on a low speed for 10 to 15 minutes, then at a higher speed for 5 to 10 minutes.

7: You can stop kneading the dough when it’s smooth and its shape bounces back after pressing into the dough with your fingers.

This means the gluten structure has developed and the dough is giving some resistance. You should be able to squeeze and pull it without any tearing.

8: On your work surface, tighten up the dough by tucking the edge of your hand under the dough and pulling it towards you, moving your way around the edge of the dough to keep tucking the edges underneath.

This helps smooth out the surface and ensures an even fermentation.

9: Add a little olive oil to a large bowl or tub, spreading it around with your fingers to coat the container.

Place the dough inside and cover with a cloth or lid, and leave to ferment at room temperature on your kitchen countertop for 3 hours.

10: The dough has finished bulk fermenting when it has at least doubled in size, and lots of air bubbles appear under the surface.

11: Portion the dough into 3 or 4 equal pieces, depending on the size of your pizza.

Shape each piece of dough into a ball using the same technique as tightening up the bulk dough. Place the dough piece on the countertop and pull it towards you from the edge furthest away from you, tucking the edge of your hand under the dough.

12: Keep doing this around the edge of the dough and pulling it towards you, moving your way around the edge until it’s smooth and round.

13: Once shaped, dust a proving tray with flour or line a baking tray with parchment (baking) paper, and place the dough balls on the tray.

14: Cover with a cloth or the tray’s lid and place inside the fridge to cold prove overnight for 24 hours.

15: Once the cold proof has finished, bring the pizza dough balls back up to room temperature by removing them from the fridge and leaving the tray on your kitchen countertop for around 2 hours.

It’s important they’re at room temperature before you start stretching the pizza dough, or they will be too tight and impossible to stretch.

16: Fire up your oven, and aim for 950˚F (500˚C) on the stone baking board inside, using your thermometer to check the temperature

17: Using a small amount of flour, dust your pizza peel.

Stretch the pizza dough ball out to 12” or 16” and lay it out on your pizza peel.

18: Add your favourite toppings.

If you’re not sure where to start, check out all our pizza recipes for a huge range of topping ideas!

19: Slide the pizza off the peel and into your oven, making sure to rotate the pizza every 20 seconds or so.

20: Serve and enjoy!

Ooni HQ

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