Sourdough Pizza Recipes

Steps:

• Make a batch of our white sourdough, following the recipe to the end of step 10. When the dough is ready, tip it onto a lightly floured surface and divide into six equal pieces. Roll into balls and leave to rest on a floured tray, covered with a damp teatowel, in the fridge for at least 4 hrs, and up to 18 hrs - the longer you leave the dough, the more sour it will taste.
• Meanwhile, make the tomato sauce. Drain some of the juice from the plummed tomatoes and tip the rest into a bowl with the olive oil, oregano and a generous pinch of salt. Combine by either scrunching everything together with your fingers (this will make a chunky sauce) or blitz with a stick blender (this will make a smooth sauce). Chill until needed.
• To make the pizzas, heat a grill to high and prepare an ovenproof frying pan. On a floured surface, push and stretch a ball of dough into a circle roughly the same size as the pan. Get the pan very hot, then working quickly and carefully, drape it into the pan, spread over some of the sauce, a handful of mozzarella and some basil, if using.
• Cook for 2 mins, until little bubbles appear, then put the pan under the grill for another 2-4 mins until the sides are puffed up and the cheese has melted. Remove, drizzle with a little olive oil and cut into wedges. Repeat with the remaining dough.

Steps:

• Blend together the dry ingredients in mixing bowl.
• Pour in sourdough starter and olive oil and start machine; adding additional water and flour as needed.
• Knead for approximately 6-8 minutes until dough is smooth and elastic.
• Remove from bowl and form into 1 ball if baking pizza or 2 balls if grilling.
• Place dough in bowl(s) that have been sprayed with non-stick, turning once to coat the top.
• Loosely cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm draft-free place until doubled in bulk, about 1 1/2 - 2 hours (depending on your starter and the temperature of your kitchen).
• DO NOT PUNCH DOWN DOUGH.
• Dredge hands in flour and remove dough.
• Holding one edge of dough in the air with both hands and letting bottom touch work surface, carefully move hands around edge of dough (like turning a steering wheel), allowing weight of dough to stretch round to roughly 10 inches.
• Lay dough flat on lightly floured pizza peel (or inverted cookie sheet) and continue to work edges with fingers and stretching into a 14-inch round (or two smaller circles).
• Assemble and bake the pizza according to your favorite recipe.
• Suggestions:.
• Pizza Margherita Recipe #236789.
• Caramelized Onion and Gorgonzola Pizza Recipe #244305.
• Pizza/Pasta Sauce Recipe #227656.
• Grilled PIzza Recipe #322248.

Steps:

• First make your starter. In a large jar (a 1litre kilner jar is good) or plastic container, mix 100g of the flour with 125ml slightly warm water. Whisk the batter until smooth and lump free, whisking will help incorporate some airborne yeast particles to get your starter going. Leave the jar or container lid ajar for an hour or so in a warm place (around 25C is ideal), then seal and set aside for 24 hrs.
• For the next 6 days you will need to 'feed' the starter each day. To do this, tip away half the original starter and add an extra 100g of flour and 125ml slightly warm water, whisking well each time, try to do this at roughly the same time everyday. After 3-4 days you should start to see bubbles appearing on the surface, and it will smell yeasty and a little acidic. This is a good indication that the starter is working. The time it takes for fermentation to begin can vary between 1 to 5 days depending on temperature and environment, persevere for up to 6 days, if you still don't see any signs of life, or the starter smells unpleasant, throw it away and start again. On the 8th day the starter should be quite bubbly and smell much sweeter. It is now ready to bake with.
• Now you can make your first loaf. Tip the flour, 225ml warm water, salt, honey and sourdough starter into a large bowl, or a table top mixer fitted with a dough hook. Stir with a wooden spoon, or on a slow setting in a machine, until combined, adding a little extra flour if it's too sticky or a little extra warm water if it's too dry. Tip onto a work surface and knead for about 10 mins until soft and elastic, if using a mixer, turn the speed up a little and mix for 5 mins. The dough is ready when it bounces back when gently pressed with a finger.
• Place the dough in a large, well oiled bowl and cover with an oiled sheet of cling film. Leave in a warm place to rise for 3 hrs. You may not see much movement after this time, but don't be disheartened, sourdough takes much longer to rise than a conventional yeasted bread.
• Line a medium-sized bowl with a clean tea towel and flour it well, if you have a proving basket you can use this. Tip the dough back onto your work surface and knead briefly to knock out any air bubbles. Shape the dough into a smooth ball and dust it with flour. Place the dough, seam side up, in the bowl or proving basket, cover with a sheet of oiled cling film and leave for 6-8 hrs, until roughly doubled in size.
• Place a large baking tray in the oven, set to 230C/210C fan/gas 8, to heat up. Fill a small roasting tin with a little water and place this in the bottom of the oven to create some steam. Remove the large tray from the oven, sprinkle with flour then carefully tip the risen dough onto the tray.You can slash the top a few times with a sharp knife if you like. Bake for 35-40 mins until golden brown and hollow sounding when tapped. Leave to cool on a wire rack for 20 mins before serving.

Steps:

• Put all ingredients except cornmeal in bread machine pan in the order recommended by manufacturer.
• Select dough cycle and start.
• Divide the dough into 4 equal portions and form into balls.
• With a rolling pin, flatten the balls into 12- to 13-inch rounds about 1/8 inch thick.
• Fold each round in half and transfer to a bakers peel or thin baking sheet sprinkled with cornmeal.
• Proof, covered, for about 45 minutes at 85 degrees F.
• Place a baking stone in a cold oven and preheat for at least 15 minutes at 450 to 500 degrees F.
• Add your toppings to the rounds of dough and transfer the pizzas to the hot baking stone (See Note).
• Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until crust is brown.
• Remove from oven with bakers peel.
• NOTE: It takes practice to transfer the pizza to the stone.
• As an alternative, bake the pizza on a traditional pizza pan sprinkled with cornmeal.

Steps:

• Sprinkle yeast into warm water and sugar.
• Stir and let stand until it because foamy.
• Mix in Oil, sourdough starter,salt and one half of the flour.
• Gradually add enough of the remaining flour to make a dough.
• Turn dough onto smooth, lightly floured surface.
• Knead until smooth and elastic.
• Put in lightly oiled bowl, turning to coat all sides, cover with a cloth and let rise until doubled. This will take about an hour.
• Punch down and shape into two pizza crusts.
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• Sprinkle pizza pan or baking stone with Corn meal before placing the crust on it.
• Prebake crust for 10 minutes.
• Remove from Oven.
• Brush crusts with olive oil and spread with tomato sauce, then top with toppings of your choice.
• Sprinkle with grated mozzarella cheese and parmesan cheese, if desired.
• Bake for 25-30 minutes at 425 degrees. Might take longer depending how thick your toppings are.
• Prep time includes rising time.
• 8-10 servings per pizza crust depending on size of slices.

Steps:

• Day 1:To begin your starter, mix 50g flour with 50g tepid water in a jar or, better still, a plastic container. Make sure all the flour is incorporated and leave, semi-uncovered, at room temperature for 24 hrs.
• Day 2:Mix 50g flour with 50g tepid water and stir into yesterday's mixture. Make sure all the flour is incorporated and leave, semi-uncovered, at room temperature for another 24 hrs.
• Day 3:Mix 50g flour with 50g tepid water and stir into yesterday's mixture. Make sure all the flour is incorporated and leave, semi-uncovered, at room temperature for another 24 hrs.
• Day 4:You should start to see some activity in the mixture now; there should be some bubbles forming and bubbling on top. Mix 50g flour with 50g tepid water and stir into yesterday's mixture. Make sure all the flour is incorporated and leave, semi-uncovered, at room temperature for another 24 hrs.
• Day 5:The mixture should be very active now and ready for making your levain. If it's not bubbling, continue to feed it on a daily basis until it does. When it's ready, it should smell like yogurt.
• You now have a starter, which is the base to the bread. You'll need to look after it, but naming is optional! Keep it in the fridge (it will stay dormant) and 24 hrs before you want to use it, pour half of it off and feed it with 100g flour and 100g water. Leave it at room temperature and it should become active again. The longer the starter has been dormant, the more times it will need to be refreshed - the process of pouring off half the starter and replacing it with new flour and water - to reactivate. If your starter is ready to use, a teaspoonful of the mixture should float in warm water.
• For the levainMix 1 tbsp of the starter with 100g flour and 100g water (this is the same process as feeding the starter, but you should do this in a new, separate bowl, keeping the original starter as back-up, as this is the mixture you'll use to bake your bread). Leave the levain for 8 hrs at room temperature until it becomes active. When ready, a teaspoonful of the mixture should float in warm water.
• For the breadPour 600g tepid water into the levain and stir with a rubber spatula to mix together - don't worry if there are unmixed bits of levain. Tip in the flour and mix everything together with a rubber spatula to make a rough dough, ensuring all the flour is incorporated evenly and that there are no dry bits up the side of the bowl. Cover and leave somewhere warm for at least 30 mins, or up to 4 hrs.
• Sprinkle over the salt and add 50g water to the dough. Pinch and scrunch the salt and water through the dough with your hands. If the dough goes stringy (like old chewing gum), just keep working it until it's one smooth texture. Leave for another 15 mins.
• Wet your hands, grab the dough from one side and stretch it over itself, then repeat with the other side. This stretching technique helps develop the gluten. Pick the dough up and curl it around onto itself, then cover and leave for another 20-30 mins. Repeat this process two more times (three in total), then leave the dough for another 2-3 hrs until it's risen by about 30% and looks bubbly and soft.
• Using a rubber spatula, scrape the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and split in two. Fold each piece onto itself to create a ball, then leave uncovered for 30 mins. The dough balls will spread during this time.
• Dust two bread-proving baskets generously with flour. Scrape one of the balls of dough off the work surface, then fold it onto itself to create a tight ball that's trapped in all the air. Lift the ball into a basket, seam-side up, then transfer to the fridge to chill overnight, or for up to 18 hrs. Repeat with the other dough ball.
• Heat the oven to 240C/220C fan/gas 9 and put a lidded casserole dish in the oven to heat. Cut a sheet of baking parchment into a square slightly larger than the base of one of the loaves. Carefully remove the hot casserole dish from the oven and remove the lid. Invert one loaf onto the baking parchment, then, working quickly, score the top at an angle. Use the corners of the parchment to lift the loaf into the casserole dish. Cover with the lid and bake for 30 mins, then carefully uncover and continue to bake for another 10 mins (or longer for a darker finish). Carefully lift the bread out of the dish using a spatula, transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool to room temperature before slicing. Repeat with the second loaf.

Steps:

• Levain
• Prepare your 120g of starter by mixing 40g of starter with 40g of water and 40g of flour. This is a 1:1:1 starter preparation, but other builds are fine too. Mark your jar with a rubberband and let it sit at room temperature for 4-8 hours until roughly tripled.
• Mixing and First Rise
• Mix the ingredients, including the 120g of mature starter, together by hand, or in a mixer with the dough hook attachment, until everything is incorporated and forming a ball around the hook.
• Scrape the dough out onto a floured counter and knead it for 3-5 minutes, adding a small amount of flour until the dough is manageable.
• I prefer to hand knead the dough, but if you want to keep the dough in your mixer for 5-10 minutes until it passes the windowpane test, that is fine too. Covering it while it's still shaggy, and doing several rounds of stretching and folding over the course of a couple of hours is also an option.
• Lightly oil a bowl, dab the "top" of your dough ball in the oil, then lay the bottom side down in the bowl and cover.
• Let the dough rise until it has approximately doubled. I tend to leave the dough at room temperature for a few hours and then put it in the refrigerator for a day or so, and finally pull it out when it is fully risen or close to fully risen and just needing a few more hours at room temperature.
• The bulk fermentation can be just a few hours if you use warm water and have a warm house or put the dough in a lit oven, or this can be five days if you use sleepy starter and put the dough in a 37F refrigerator. I did the latter recently, and the pizza was tasty-sour and the crust perfectly bubbly.
• Preshape and Second Rise
• When the bulk fermentation is finished, lightly oil a 9x13 baking pan and your counter.
• Scrape out the dough onto the oiled counter, gently press out most of the air, and divide the dough into 4-5 pieces. The total dough weight is approximately 1140g. This makes five approx. 225g or four 285g pizzas. (You can go larger and smaller, but you may need to adjust cook time.)
• Form each piece into a ball by folding the sides of the piece inward. Then hold the ball in one hand with the taut top on your palm, while you pinch the bottom pieces together with your other hand.
• Place the balls in the oiled pan seam-side down, and cover or put the entire pan in a plastic bag. The final proof can be at room temperature for 45-90 minutes or in the refrigerator for 8-12 hours. Various combinations of room temperature and cold proofing work, and a lot depends on how warm the dough was when you shaped it, and if your room temperature is very warm. Even in a heat wave, I've not seen a big difference in pizza outcome when the first dough ball of a batch was formed into a pizza and cooked an hour before the last dough ball.
• Topping Prep
• 45-90 minutes before the dough is finished proofing, set up your toppings and the area where you will be stretching and "decorating" your pizza. My preferred pizza sauce is NYTimes Classic Marinara plus 6 ounces of tomato paste (sometimes I skip the paste). I like to make it ahead of time, and simply pull it out of the refrigerator to warm up a bit when I'm setting up the toppings.
• Shaping and Baking (by oven type)
• Wood-Fired Oven
• About 30 minutes before your dough is finished proofing, fire up your pizza oven. Make sure your Uuni or other pizza oven is clean and ready to go -- the stone tiles have been brushed off, and the charcoal/wood tray has been emptied.
• Have everything you need on hand: kindling, charcoal, gloves, an aluminum pizza peel, and a "hot plate" to lay the door on (also the cast iron pan if you cook vegetables or meat too). I use a couple pieces of kindling as a rack, and steel/aluminum baking sheets and cooling racks for the pizzas that come out of the oven. (See gallery)
• Your damper in the chimney should be open, and the flue at the base of the chimney inside the oven should be about half open.
• Place 4-6 pieces of very dry kindling in the fuel area of your pizza oven. Light them and put the cover back on. Checking on them every few minutes, let them burn for about 5-10 minutes, until they are fully burning. Add about 15 pieces of lump charcoal and wait another 10 minutes or until the temperature is over 700F. About 5 minutes before cooking your pizzas, you can add wood again for an extra burst of heat. Wait a few minutes for the wood to be fully lit and the smoke to be white or clear, not black, before before loading a pizza. This entire process takes about 20 minutes, and this is what has worked for me, but you may prefer different time parameters, fuel types and amounts.
• Prepare your pizza peel with flour and cornmeal. Rub the flour into the wood and sprinkle the cornmeal on the top of the flour. I prefer a wood peel for prepping and loading pizzas, and an aluminum peel for removing them. A third smaller peel for turning the pizza is a helpful option, too.
• Remove a dough ball from the proofing pan and gently grasp one side of the circle with both hands. Holding the top edge of the circle (10 o'clock and 2 o'clock), let the rest of the dough droop/stretch downward while you then rotate and re-grab the dough like you're turning a steering wheel. This will develop about a 1/2-1 inch crust edge and stretch the middle. (Using a rolling pin is fine too.)
• If the dough only stretches a bit, lay it down on your floured counter for 5-10 minutes while you work on your other dough balls and check on your oven temperature. By the time you come back to the first circle, the gluten should have relaxed and you will be able to stretch it further. Try not to let any part of the dough get thin enough to see through or you may end up with a hole.
• Lay your pizza dough on the floured/cornmealed pizza peel. Stretch and adjust the dough a little more, aiming to position one edge of the pizza all the way at the front edge of the peel. When you insert the peel into the oven, the front edge of the dough will "catch" on the hot stone, making it easier to slide the peel out from under the pizza.
• Now top your pizza dough to your liking and put it in the oven. If you leave the pizza on the peel for more than a few minutes, it may begin to stick to the peel, so keep your assembly line moving.
• After about 1.5 minutes of cooking, rotate your pizza with an aluminum peel. The heat is strongest in the back of the oven near the fire, so this will encourage even cooking and char spots. After about 1.5 more minutes, your pizza is likely done.
• Using an aluminum peel, remove the pizza from the oven and put the pizza on a rack if not eating right away (this keeps the bottom crispy), or on a plate or a steel/aluminum sheet to serve.
• Repeat with the next pizza and so on. When you're finished cooking the pizzas, let the fuel burn off and the oven cool down before cleaning and storing it.
• See the last photo gallery for ideas for things to cook while the oven is warming up (pitas), cooling down (s'mores, garlic knots from extra dough), and still very hot (steak and veggies).
• Kitchen Oven
• About 30 minutes before your dough is finished proofing, preheat your kitchen oven with a baking stone or steel in it to 500F, using the top shelf if you have a top broiler. You can also use an upside-down baking sheet as your baking surface, with parchment paper under the dough, and preheated to only 450F.
• Flour and sprinkle cornmeal on the peel as described above, or use a square of parchment paper for each pizza.
• Remove a dough ball from the proofing pan and gently grasp one side of the circle with both hands. Holding the top edge of the circle (10 o'clock and 2 o'clock), let the rest of the dough droop/stretch downward while you then rotate and re-grab the dough like you're turning a steering wheel. This will develop about a 1/2-1 inch crust edge and stretch the middle. (Using a rolling pin is fine too.)
• If the dough only stretches a bit, lay it down on your floured counter for 5-10 minutes while you work on your other dough balls and check on your oven temperature. By the time you come back to the first circle, the gluten should have relaxed and you will be able to stretch it further. Try not to let any part of the dough get thin enough to see through or you may end up with a hole.
• Lay your pizza dough on the piece of parchment paper or floured/cornmealed pizza peel. Stretch and adjust the dough a little more, aiming to position one edge of the pizza all the way at the front edge of the peel if that is what you're using. When you insert the peel into the oven, the front edge of the dough will "catch" on the hot stone, making it easier to slide the peel out from under the pizza.
• Now top your pizza dough to your liking and put it in the oven. If you leave it on the peel for more than a few minutes, it may begin to stick to the peel, so keep your assembly line moving or use parchment paper.
• For a pizza stone or steel, bake for 7 minutes, then switch to broil for 1 minute more. Keep the oven on broil an additional minute before you load the next pizza. This helps reheat the stone before you switch back to bake mode.
• For a baking sheet, bake the pizza on parchment paper on the sheet for 8 minutes, then broil (still at 450F) for 1-2 minutes. Then move the pizza to a bare lower rack, removing the parchment after the transfer, and bake 3-4 more minutes.
• Remove the pizza from the oven with a peel, spatula, or even by tugging on a corner of the parchment paper.
• Put the pizza on a rack if not eating right away (this keeps the bottom crispy), or on a plate or a steel/aluminum sheet to serve.
• Repeat with the next pizza and so on.

Steps:

• Load bread machine according to manufacturer's instructions. Watch when it starts the kneading cycle & adjust dough consistency with either a bit of flour or water as sourdough starters vary in thickness. Goal is an elastic somewhat soft but not at all sticky dough (a little softer than a baby's behind LOL).
• Once dough cycle completed, roughly knead & then dump dough into an oiled bowl & let rise 2nd time, either room temp or in fridge(for use the next day).
• Knock down after 2nd rise & divide into 2 pieces. Shape your pies (dusting your work area with semolina flour) and add your favorite sauces & toppings. Bake on preheated stone at 475 degrees F for 14 - 16 minutes.
• Oiled dough can also be divided & frozen in freezer bags with the air expressed. If freezing, remove from freezer & allow to thaw, do 2nd rise & use for pie.