Looking for killer homemade sourdough pizza dough that yields incredible flavor and texture yet isn't overly complicated to make? This is your recipe.
Ingredients
350gramswater (90-95°F)
100gramsactive sourdough starter
15gramsfine sea salt
500gramsall purpose flour
Instructions
Make The Dough (25 minutes)
In a large dough tub or food container, mix together the water with the active sourdough starter and swish around with your hand until the starter is dissolved. Add the fine sea salt and swish around to dissolve just like you did with the starter. Add the flour all at once and combine with the same hand until all of the flour is absorbed by the wet mixture, resulting in a shaggy dough. Cover with a cloth and let sit for 20 minutes.
Stretch and Fold (1 hour)
Over the course of one hour, stretch and fold your dough three separate times. You can lightly wet your mixing hand with water (preferably your dominant hand) so that it doesn’t completely stick to the dough. Note: if you’ve never done the stretch and fold, see this video. Imagine that your dough has four sides, and using your dominant hand, scoop up just underneath the edge of the dough and stretch it upward as far as you can without tearing the dough, then fold it over to the opposite end. Repeat until you’ve done the stretch and fold with all four sides at minimum, or repeat until your dough cannot be easily stretched and folded anymore. Let the dough sit for 20 minutes and repeat. Complete the stretch and fold process three times total.
Bulk Fermentation (15-20 hours)
Allow the dough to rise until doubled in size. If you’re using a dough tub or plastic bin (highly recommended), make note of the measured height of the dough at this point using a marker or sticky note. If your ambient room temperature sits between 69-72°F, it should take roughly 15-18 hours for the dough to double in size. Watch closely and do not let the dough overproof. When the dough is doubled in size it should be jiggly and sticky.
Shape the Dough (15 minutes)
Lightly flour two rimmed cookie sheets and set aside. Flour a large cutting board or clean work surface and pour the dough from the bin onto the surface (you will need to use your hands to release the dough from the bin). Use a lightly floured bench scraper to cut the dough into 4 equal-sized pieces (no need to measure– eyeballing is fine). Form each piece of dough into a ball, joining the sticky sides of the dough together on top, as if you are folding the four corners of a towel into the center.
Take each dough ball, place on lightly floured surface, and build tension by scooping the dough toward yourself while maintaining contact with the surface as you move it (watch this video for a great demo). Place the dough balls on the floured cookie sheet, about 2-3 dough balls per cookie sheet. Sprinkle flour on top of the dough balls and cover with plastic cookie sheet covers or plastic wrap.
Second Fermentation (6-72 hours)
Place the shaped and covered dough balls in the fridge for a minimum of six hours and up to three days.
Bring Dough To Room Temperature (2 hours)
Remove the dough from the refrigerator 2 hours prior to baking so it can slowly come to room temperature. If using a standard pizza oven, be sure to preheat for 1 full hour before cooking the pizza (see preheat instructions below).
Pizza Preperation and Assembly (10 minutes)
Preheat oven or pizza oven at specified heat (see instructions below). Set up a pizza assembly station including a floured work surface. If using a pizza oven, position your pizza peel next to the floured area, and dust it lightly with flour (don't skip this step- if your peel isn't floured properly it may stick to the peel). Have toppings including sauces, oil, cheeses, basil, etc. at hand, with a ladle or large spoon for the sauce.
Shape the pizza by lightly coating each dough ball with some flour. Press the dough down against the surface starting in the middle and moving outward, leaving about a ½ inch of the outer rim un-deflated. Use floured hands to pick up the dough at about 10 o’clock and 2 o’clock on the edges, allowing gravity to gently stretch it as you rotate around the edges of the pizza. If the dough still needs to be stretched, rest it on the back of your hands (palms facing down) and gently stretch as you move your hands away from each other, being careful not to tear* the dough or stretch it too thin. If the dough gets sticky at any point, set it down and give both the top and the bottom another dusting of flour.
Transfer the disk of pizza dough to a parchment-lined pizza pan (or to the floured peel if using a pizza oven) and smooth out the dough.** Spread about 1/4-1/3 cup of sauce over the dough leaving some of the edge uncovered, smoothing it with the back of the spoon or ladle. Add toppings*** and follow cooking instructions for standard oven or pizza oven.
Standard Oven Cooking Instructions (5 minutes)
Place a pizza steel or stone on an upper rack in your oven no more than 8 inches below the broiler. Preheat the oven to 550°F for 1 hour with the pizza steel or stone inside. Once the pizza has been placed inside the oven, bake for about 5 minutes, until the cheese is melted and the crust is a deep golden brown and charred in some spots. Remove from oven, slice, and serve immediately.
Pizza Oven Cooking Instructions (1-2 minutes)
Make sure oven is preheated to its highest heat for at least 15-20 minutes. Once pizza dough has been shaped, placed on floured pizza peel, and after the sauce and toppings have been added, transfer to the pizza oven by sliding the pizza directly inside the pizza oven, tilting the peel forward about 45° and quickly pulling the peel from beneath the pizza (again, the peel must be properly floured for this to work correctly).
Cook for 1-2 minutes, until cheese is melted and the crust is golden with a few charred spots. Depending on which pizza oven you have and where the heat source is located, you may need to rotate the pizza as it cooks. Remove from oven, slice, and serve immediately.
Equipment
6-quart dough tub or plastic bin
1 Food Scale
2 rimmed cookie sheets
2 plastic cookie sheet covers
1 pizza peel (if using a pizza oven)
1 pizza pan (if using a standard oven)
parchment paper (if using a standard oven)
Notes
*If you end up with a small tear, don't panic-- it's okay to patch it by folding a small bit of dough over the hold.** If using a pizza oven: once the first wet ingredients/sauce hit the pizza dough, you should act as quickly as possible to avoid overhydration of the dough which results in it sticking to the peel. Before you add sauce and toppings to the dough, make sure that you are able to move quickly and that your pizza oven is completely ready.***This is a Neapolitan-inspired pizza dough recipe and is intended to support a minimal amount of toppings. A classic margherita pizza consists of a spoonful of crushed tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and basil. Add extra toppings such as salami, mushrooms, olives, pine nuts, etc. in small quantities. - If using a standard oven, parchment is likely to discolor and even burn at high temperatures if used more than once.
This recipe is easily doubled-- just be sure to use double the amount of sourdough starter.