Sourdough Pizza
Equipment
- Pizza Stone/Pizza oven
- Rolling Pin
- Pizza paddle
Ingredients
- Leaven
- 100 g White flour sourdough starter
- 50 ml Lukewarm water
- 50 g Strong white flour
- Dough
- 100 ml Water luke warm
- 2 Tbsp Olive Oil
- 150 g Strong white flour or T65
- 100 g Fine semolina
- 7 g Salt
Instructions
Setting the leaven
- Put the sourdough starter in the mixing bowl and add 50ml water and 50ml and 50g Stong White Flour. Whisk with a bakers whisk or fork. Cover and leave to stand for a 3 or 4 hours. If you need to leave the leaven overnight you could start with sourdough straight from the fridge, use cooler water to mix and leave the covered bowl on the work surface.
2a By hand
- I generally use this method
- Add the 100ml lukewarm water to the leaven and mix the leaven with the dough whisk (or fork).
- Add the flour and then mix with spatula until the flour and water are combined. Cover the bowl with a cloth and leave to rest for 1 hour.
- Salt: Sprinkle the salt on the surface of the dough. Wet you hand with cold water. Squeeze your hand through the dough 4 or 5 times. Leave covered for 1 hour.
- Stretch and fold: Again with wet hands, pull the dough from underneath, stretching and folding over the top. Turn the bowl 180º and repeat. Turn the bowl another quarter of a turn and repeat the stretching of the dough from underneath to top, and finally turn the bowl 180º and repeat. This tightens the dough and you will feel the dough become more difficult to stretch. You may choose to turn and stretch twice more depending on the feel of the dough. Leave covered for 1 hour.
- Repeat this stretching and folding each hour, 2 more times.
2b Stand mixer method
- If you are short of time then using a stand mixer will be quicker.
- Add the water to the leaven and mix well either with your stand mixer or a dough whisk.
- Add the remaining 75g Strong White Flour, Semolina flour and Olive Oil and mix for 3 minutes. Cover and leave to stand for 1 hour.
- Sprinkle the salt on the surface and mix for 7 minutes. This should form into a ball in the mixer. If the dough is too wet then add a little more flour – about 20g at a time.
3 Proofing
- Transfer to a plastic container and leave to stand for 3 or 4 hours and then put in the fridge overnight until ready to use.
4 Baking
- Heat up your pizza stone/pizza oven thoroughly to about 240ºC-260ºC
- Split the dough in 2. Roll one piece into a ball and then roll out on a floured surface.
- Although it is not traditional, I get good results by bakinig the pizza dough for about a minute without loading the pizza topping. Then turn upside down on to a bread board or paddle abd then top your pizza. Put back in the oven and bake until the mozzarella is melted through – perhaps 5 minutes.
- Prepare your 2nd pizza base in the oven while topping the 1st pizza.
Notes
Timetable
If you are baking pizzas mid-evening, then either method could start at the beginning of the day and it will be ready, though if you are using the “by hand” method, there will be less pressure if you start the leaven the night before. This is what I do.
If eating late afternoon, early evening, I would certainly start the evening before.
Alternatively, if you only decide to make pizza only a few hours ahead, then use the Pizza Dough recipe with active dried yeast
If you are baking pizzas mid-evening, then either method could start at the beginning of the day and it will be ready, though if you are using the “by hand” method, there will be less pressure if you start the leaven the night before. This is what I do.
If eating late afternoon, early evening, I would certainly start the evening before.
Alternatively, if you only decide to make pizza only a few hours ahead, then use the Pizza Dough recipe with active dried yeast
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!