Sourdough Pizza Dough (with Discard or Active)
Same day homemade sourdough pizza dough with discard or active starter. Adjust for thin or thick crust, super easy, quick, & delicious!
Ingredients
- 3 Cups Organic White Flour
- 1 tsp. Sea Salt
- 2 Tbsp. Mixed Dried Herbs, Shredded, Optional Basil, Rosemary, Oregano
- 1 Cup Water
- 1/2 Cup Sourdough Starter
Instructions
- Mix 3 cups of flour and 1 tsp. of salt in a medium sized bowl. Stir in herbs, if using. If using fresh herbs, double the amount to 4 Tbsp.
- Mix 1 Cup of water and 1/2 cup of sourdough starter.
- Pour the wet mixture into the flour mixture and stir until combined. You may use your hands, if you prefer. The dough will be a bit dry.*
- Cover and allow the dough to sit on the counter for 6-8 hours. Ideal temperature for culturing sourdough is between 65F - 70F (18C - 21C).
- Uncover the dough once fermented and divide it evenly into 6 or 8 balls for individual-sized pizzas, or 2 balls for medium-sized pizzas. Allow these to rest for a few minutes while you prepare the pans.
- You can use any pan or baking sheet you have available, though metal is preferred. Cover the pan in parchment paper for ease of use and clean up, or lightly oil with olive oil. If you're using a cast iron or stoneware pizza pan, be sure to preheat it with the oven to avoid cracking.
- Roll out each ball for the preferred size. You can use a pastry roller, but I usually just use my hands. The finished thickness should be around 1/4". Dimple the dough with your fingertips to prevent puffing up while baking. This also produces subtle divots for sauce to rest inside.
- Place the pizza dough on the prepared sheets and either set to rise until doubled for thicker curst pizza, or immediately place in the oven for thin crust pizza. Unless using a cast iron or stoneware pan, you can place the pizza dough in a cold oven.
- Bake at 425F/218C for about 10 minutes or until lightly browned. If your oven runs hot, check the crusts at around 5 minutes. If your oven runs really hot, bake the crusts at 400F/204C.
- Once pre-baked, cool to touch and then load up the crusts with pizza sauce, cheese, and other favorite toppings.
- Return to the oven and place under broil to melt the cheese. This can take 5-10 minutes depending on the heat of your broil setting. Watch it and remove when your cheese looks perfectly melted.
- Allow to cool for at least 5 minutes to set the cheese.
Notes
You can make this recipe with a variety of different grain flours. I have an Einkorn version of this recipe that I often make. Einkorn flour is my favorite flour for flavor.
Be advised that adding whole grain flour to any sourdough recipe will make it a bit more limp and loose. This is because the bran from the grain interferes with the gluten bonds that give the dough its stiffness.
With practice, you can learn to add whole grain flours to any sourdough recipe. Start by swapping out only one cup of the white flour for whole grain flour. Get used to that, and then go for more, if you want.
You can omit the herbs from this recipe, but they're delicious and give the pizza a more authentic Italian flavor. You can also add 1 tsp. of granulated garlic, if you're a garlic lover.
Be cautious adding any more garlic or herbs than what's called for simply because these lovely Italian herbs are all antibiotic in nature. Sourdough starter is a collection of wild bacteria and yeasts, and you don't want to overwhelm them with herbs that might inhibit their activity.
If it's hot in your house, consider fermenting your sourdough pizza dough in the fridge. Especially if you also live in a humid environment. When you're ready to bake, simply remove the dough from the fridge, roll it out, and bake it up.
Remember, if you want a thicker, pouffier crust, simply allow the pizza dough to rise for 1-2 hours like you would bread dough. If it's cold in your house or if you've included whole grain flour in the recipe, it may take longer than 2 hours to rise.
Look for it to double in size but still be sproingy - it should partially return a finger print when it's ready.
With five kids and different flavor preferences, my family opts for individual sized pizzas. Plus, there's no need to slice and serve like there is with larger pizza sizes. To each his own, though!
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!