Sourdough Pizza

It’s taken a good amount of delicious practice, but we’ve finally gotten our sourdough pizza game down.

The base dough recipe is essentially the same as for our artisan sourdough bread, with a few modifications.

To begin this recipe, you need active sourdough starter. The recipe explains how to revive a starter that’s stored in the refrigerator.

The tomato sauce base uses fermented ketchup and red miso paste mixed in for a little extra flavor and bonus fermenting points. If you don’t have those, we suppose you could get by with canned tomato sauce or a little watered down tomato paste.

Sourdough Pizza

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Prep Time 1 day 1 hour
Fermentation Time 1 day 4 hours
Baking Time 1 hour
Makes 4 10" pizzas

Equipment

  • Large heavy bowl
  • bench scraper
  • digital kitchen scale
  • pizza stone or steel
  • parchment paper
  • Pizza Peel

Ingredients

Dough

  • 350 grams plus 25 grams warmed water 80°F/27°C
  • 100 grams active sourdough starter
  • 500 grams flour total:
  • - 250 grams all-purpose flour
  • - 250 grams bread flour
  • 10 grams salt

Pizza

  • 2 Tbsp 30ml fermented ketchup, or tomato paste
  • 1 Tsp. 5 ml red miso paste
  • 3 ounces 100g mozzarella cheese
  • 1 ounce hard cheese like Romano or Parmagiana Reggiano
  • toppings of your choice, fresh basil, red onions, chopped greens like kale, olives, mushrooms, pancetta, prosciutto, etc.

Instructions
 

Making the Doughs

    Activate Starter (8 hours)

    • Discard all but 3 tablespoons (50g) of starter. You can use discarded starter for other purposes.
    • Mix in 50 grams of 78°F/26°C water and 50 grams all-purpose flour.
    • Mix thoroughly and make sure there aren’t any dry bits of flour.
    • Cover mixture with a towel or paper towel and let it rise overnight or about 8 hours.

    Mix Dough (40 minutes)

    • In a large heavy bowl, mix 350 grams of 80°F/27°C water and 100 grams of active starter.
    • Add the flours and mix thoroughly, making sure there aren’t any dry bits of flour.
    • Let the dough rest for 25 to 40 minutes.
    • At the end of the resting period, dough should look less shaggy and smoother.
    • Add 10 grams salt and 25 grams of 80°F/27°C water. Use your hands to mix it and make sure the salt is worked through all of it. Once the water and salt are mixed in and the dough feels more cohesive, do one or two turns.
    • To do one turn, take the side of the dough furthest away ("12:00" of the bowl), and gently lift it out of the bowl until it stretches, then fold it back on itself towards you ("6:00" of the bowl). Wait 10 seconds. Turn the bowl one-third (about 120 degrees) and repeat. Wait and turn one-third and repeat once more.

    Bulk Fermentation (4 hours)

    • This is the first rise for your bread, and it will take 3 to 4 hours if your kitchen is relatively warm (78-82°F/25-28°C). In a cooler kitchen, it will take at least 4 hours, maybe longer. Leave the dough in its bowl and cover it with a kitchen towel.
    • Every 30 minutes, do one gentle turn of the bread. During the bulk fermentation, you want your dough to aerate, so don’t push the bubbles out as you turn.
    • Dough will increase in volume noticeably after a few hours.

    Proofing (24 hours)

    • Flour your work surface and, using spatula or curved bench scraper, turn the dough from the bowl onto the floured surface.
    • With bench scraper, divide the dough into four equal pieces (weighing about 250g each).
    • Shape each piece into a ball. Use your bench scraper to tuck the dough under into itself as you rotate the ball around on the bench between the scraper and your palm.
    • Add 10g olive oil to each of 4 tall containers with lids (a quart size plastic "deli" container works great).
    • Gently place the dough balls into the containers.
    • Cover the containers and store in the refrigerator at least 24 hours.
    • Use doughs within 3 days (otherwise, they become too sour to enjoy!)

    Making Pizzas

    • Pull dough containers from the refrigerator (one dough for each 10-inch pizza).
    • Preheat an oven to its highest setting (usually 550°F/288°C) with a pizza stone or steel placed on the topmost rack.
    • Cut a 10" square piece of parchment paper for each pizza.
    • Invert the dough container onto the center of the parchment paper (it should slide out).
    • As gently as possible, spread the dough with your fingers into a 10"/25cm circular shape.
    • Mix ketchup/tomato paste, miso paste, and 1 teaspoon of water together.
    • Spread tomato mixture thinly over crust, leaving 1"/3cm of a border from the edge.
    • Slice or shred mozzarella cheese and spread evenly.
    • Add other toppings as desired, except fresh basil, which should be added after cooking.
    • Load parchment paper with pizza onto a pizza peel, and carefully put onto the pizza stone or steel in the oven. Slip the peel out quickly.
    • Set a timer for 3 minutes. After three minutes, rotate pizza ¼ the way around (90 degrees). Repeat setting the timer and rotating pizza twice more. After your third turn, set timer for 2 more minutes (total cooking time is 11 minutes).
    • Pull from oven, add fresh herbs, grate some more cheese, let cool slightly, then slice and eat!
    Have you made this recipe?Mention @fermentersclub or tag #fermentersclub!

     

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