Despite having Bernard, my sourdough starter, for over a year now, I've never made pizzas with it. For some reason I've dabbled plenty of times with sourdough croissants, yet never the simpler pizza. As with any bread making, my recipe for sourdough pizzas is a little involving. Yes, you have to roll your sleeves up and get a little messy. It is worth it for the perfect pizza, made in your own home!
As for toppings, go crazy. I've written a recipe for tomato sauce if you need it. Other than that my rule of thumb is more is more!
You can make the bases in advance and freeze it for later. Otherwise I you have dough left, why not make some garlic & mozzarella pizza bread!
Makes 3
Hands-on Time 20 minutes
Proving Time + 2 hours
Cooking Time 12 minutes
Ingredients
75g Sourdough starter
300g plus 1 tbsp plus extra for dusting Strong white bread flour
200ml Water
1 tsp Fine salt
30ml plus extra for greasing Olive oil
1 tbsp Semolina
Equipment
Mixing bowl
Spatula
Tea towel or clingfilm
Free standing mixer with dough hook or a large bowl
Small bowl
Baking sheet
The night before you want to make your pizza dough, combine your sourdough starter in a bowl along with 100ml of water and 100g of flour.
Cover and leave to feed overnight. The next day you should see lots of little bubbles have appeared.
Add the remaining 200g of flour to a large mixing bowl or freestanding mixer, followed by the sourdough, salt and oil.
Add the remaining 100ml of water and combine until all of the ingredients have come together.
Either knead in the machine for 10 minutes, by hand on a worktop. If you are kneading by hand, try not to add more flour even though the dough is rather wet. I found it’s best to pick the dough up and throw it back down onto the worktop, rather than kneading it in the more back and forth manner. If you do this for 5 or more minutes, which is quite a workout, you should find after a while the dough will cleanly come away from the worktop when you pick it up and will be a lot smoother.
Clean the mixing bowl and lightly grease with oil. Transfer the dough into the bowl and leave to prove until doubled in size, this may take a couple of hours. If you’re making the dough for use later you can freeze it in some Tupperware at this point. Likewise, if you’re only making one pizza, you can freeze the remaining dough. Be sure to defrost the dough in the fridge overnight when you go to use it, and continue with the steps below.
When you’re ready to make your pizza, preheat your oven to 220°C/200°C(Fan)/425°F/Gas mark 7.
Combine 1 tablespoon of flour and semolina in a small bowl.
Sprinkle some of this over a baking sheet.
Tip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 3 (if you’re making more than 1 pizza).
Flour the top and bottom of the dough and roll out using a floured rolling pin. If you feel like giving it a go, you could stretch the dough by hand.
Place the base onto the dusted baking sheet.
Top with 2-3 tablespoons of tomato sauce, add your toppings, and pop into the oven on a high shelf for 12 minutes.
Enjoy!
