Sourdough Pizza

By Chris Lem

“Behind every great pizza is a great dough.” Are you a crust or toppings person? For me the toppings are fun and great but the crust texture and flavor is the deal maker or deal breaker.

Today I’m sharing a sourdough pizza recipe for a home oven pizza baked on a @bakingsteel or a good quality (thick) pizza stone. Pizza people like to categorize pizza into various styles. “What style of pizza is this?” If I was pressed for an answer, I would say that this pizza could be described as artisanal sourdough bakery meets new school pizzeria, right on the thin to medium thickness divide. The pizza should be well baked with various shades of brown and some nice charring on the crust. Each slice should be light in the hand, a light eggshell crispiness to the crust and base with the soft, tender and flavorful artisan bread interior. I’m looking for nice color on the underside as well with many speckles of charring to provide more flavor. Like sourdough bread crust color, how bold the pizza maker bakes it is a matter of pure personal preference!

An active starter is a pre-requisite for this dough. Give your starter a few booster feeds before you mix this dough.

Amounts and Percentages (all percentages are as a percent of dry flour weight) for one 11-12 inch pizza. To scale up, multiply these amounts by the number of pizzas you’re making:

Dry ingredients

High Protein Bread flour: 95% (142 grams)

Whole wheat or spelt: 5% (8 grams)

Salt: 2.8% (4.2 grams)

Wet ingredients

Lukewarm Water: 63-68%: (95-102 grams- I’ve provided a range depending on how much water your flour absorbs)

Sourdough Starter: 20% (30 grams)

Extra virgin olive oil: 2.8% (4.2 grams)

Process

I like to keep my process as simple as possible, minimizing the number of steps, so I add everything all the ingredients in together when I mix the dough (no autolyse, no hold back of starter and salt).

Mix the flours and salt together.
In a separate bowl, dissolve starter in lukewarm water. Once dissolved, add your oil into the bowl and stir.
Pour the wet ingredients into the drys and hand mix to fully incorporate everything together. This incorporation may take a 3-5 minutes. Cover the bowl and let the mixture rest for 5 minutes. Keep the dough in a warm spot (76-80 F).
Knead the dough in the bowl for 2 minutes to start giving the dough that strength and structure (slide your hand under the dough, lift a quarter of dough upwards, give it a stretch upwards and push it back to the center of the bowl, in a “down and away” motion, then rotate the bowl and repeat this motion for 2 minutes). Let the dough rest for another 5 minutes.
Repeat step 4 two more times. By now the dough should be pretty smooth and you should be able to create a taut dough ball with surface tension. You’ve developed the gluten up front. The hard work has been done. How we let time run its magic.
Give the dough a pat for a job well done.
Cover the bowl with plastic and let the dough ferment in a warm spot (76-80°) for 2.5-4 hours. You can give it one stretch and fold during this time if you want. Pizza dough is not the same as bread dough; the upfront kneading combined with the lower hydration dough doesn’t require the same stretch and folds as a sourdough country loaf.
Divide the dough into 275-290 gram portions and ball up the dough. When balling up the dough, use as little dusting flour as possible and use the bench to create the surface tension in the dough ball and pitch up the seams.
Place the individual dough balls seam side down and let them relax in a lightly greased and covered containers for 30 minutes at room temp.
Transfer containers with dough balls to fridge for 6-24 hours. (If baking on the same day, omit the fridge and let the dough balls rise for an additional 3-6 hours at room). On bake day, take the dough balls out of the fridge and let them proof at room temp for 4-8 hours. The dough will rise and become puffy, filled with air.
Admire your dough balls and smile.
Preheat the oven! One hour before pizza time, preheat your Baking Steel or stone for one hour at 550 or at the highest your oven will go. I put the steel about 6 inches from the top broiler.
While the oven is preheating, prep your toppings and watch Youtube/Instagram videos on how to stretch dough by hand (no rolling pins! 😊). Just remember that it doesn’t have to be perfectly round! It will be still delicious regardless of symmetry!
Get nervous (just kidding but we all do!)
Dust the dough liberally with flour so that the dough won’t stick to your hands or the surface when you are stretching the dough. Dust your hands too. You can shake off all that excess flour once it’s stretched out (Excess flour makes the pizza chalky and or bitter- say no to excess flour). Once it’s stretched out you can place the dough on a floured pizza peel or parchment and then add your toppings.
Bake that pizza! Before you launch your pizza onto the steel/stone, engage your broiler. Make sure it’s glowing red. I use the broiler-first baking method which sees the broiler shooting down top heat to get the pizza top for 1-2 minutes (keep an eye on the pizza or it can burn quickly). This initial broil gets the top of the pizza baking quickly, helping develop that beautiful crust. After the initial broil, switch to regular bake to finish off the pizza. Your time may vary but the total bake time (including the broil at the beginning) is anywhere from 4-8 minutes depending on your toppings and the dough thickness. Just keep an eye on it while it’s baking.
Let the finished pizza cool on a wire rack for a couple of minutes before slicing. I can already see you smiling!
Take a few photos for the memories and enjoy that slice.
Make the next pizza!

Recipe used with permission by Chris Lem. March 3, 2021.