Sourdough Pizza Crust

My friends, this recipe has been months in the making. It’s been tested, revised, re-tested, and overhauled from scratch by yours truly. Because, let’s face it, pizza is a serious matter. Soon after I began to bake my own bread I started experimenting with pizza crust. I found a delicious and simple recipe for a thick crust using commerical yeast. I can appreciate a nice thick, bready pizza crust. But a true pizza master knows how to make pizza dough both thick and thin. I had a difficult time mastering the thin crust pizza dough.

I got frustrated by recipe after recipe. I needed a recipe that was easy to throw together and versatile enough to make on a busy weeknight. I finally created my own recipe from scratch that was able to produce consistent results.

This dough is very wet and difficult to handle. The wetter the dough is, the thinner the crust will be. It’s about finding the perfect balance between a wet dough and one that just falls apart. I recommend using lot of flour on your hands and work surface when shaping the dough. The easiest way to shape this dough is to place it on a sheet of parchment paper and pat it into the desired shape.

Bake the crust for 5-8 minutes before adding any toppings or sauce. This will ensure that the crust gets baked through without overbaking the toppings. Pizza perfection.

I like to use whatever I happen to have on hand for toppings. This week I made zucchini spinach pizza. Just look at that thin, crispy crust!

I’m submitting this post to Yeastspotting. Be sure to take a look at the beautiful bread roundup posted every Friday!

Sourdough Pizza Dough
Created by Simple Math Bakery
Makes two medium-sized pizzas (feeds 2-3 people each)

1 cup sourdough starter
2 cups unbleached bread flour (substitute whole wheat flour for all or part of the bread flour, if desired)
1 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoons olive oil
3/4 cup lukewarm water

In the bowl of your mixer, stir all ingredients together with a wooden spoon or the paddle attachment on low speed. Switch to the dough hook and knead on second speed for 5 minutes. Allow the dough to rest for 5 minutes, then knead for another 5 minutes. Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover, and let rise at room temperature until doubled. My sourdough takes about 4 hours to double.

Use the dough immediately, or place it in the fridge, covered, for up to one week. If you refrigerate the dough, remove it at least one hour before baking.

Preheat the oven to 500° for one hour, with your pizza stone inside. Place a piece of parchment paper on a baker’s peel, or the back side of a cookie sheet.

Shape the dough about 10 minutes before the oven is ready. Dust the parchment with flour. Divide the dough into two halves, and place one half on the parchment. Using plenty of flour on your hands and on the dough, pat the dough into the desired size and shape.

Slide the dough, still on the parchment, onto the baking stone. Bake for 5-8 minutes. If any large bubbles appear and start to grow, use a skewer to pop them. Remove the dough from the oven when it looks slightly puffy and has just started to brown around the bottom edges. The crust should slide off the parchment easily. You can remove the parchment at this point if the crust slides off.

Use a pastry brush to apply a thin layer of olive oil to the crust before adding sauce and toppings. This prevents the sauce from seeping into the crust and getting soggy.

Once you’ve topped your crust, slide it back onto the baking stone and bake for 8-10 minutes or until the cheese has melted and begun to brown (or to your desired level of doneness).

To make pizza on the same day, skipping the 4 hour rising time:
Prepare the dough just after you turn on the oven. Add an extra 1/4 cup flour when mixing the dough to aid in handling. Allow the dough to rise for 45 minutes while the oven preheats. The crust will be denser, but still delicious!