We are wild about naturally leavened pizza baking and eating. With our method your pizza will be complex in taste with subtle sour and a just right chewy texture!
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It’s been a long time coming, but we finally are ready to share the sourdough version of our pizza recipe.
Many years ago, we did not like sourdough versions of certain bakes that much, including pizza and croissants. But for some time now, results have been so good, especially with the pizza, we actually like it better than the yeast based version. Taste and texture of the crust (we play with the thickness, depending on the wishes of the consumers) are more complex and interesting, the chewiness and level of sour just right for us.
So here’s our straightforward sourdough pizza recipe. Hope you like it too.
Happy pizza baking!
A few notes
We use Italian typo 00 pizza flour for our pizza baking because of its properties. It makes the dough extensible but not overly elastic. If you do not have this type of flour, you can use bread flour. If the dough gets very elastic and bounces back during shaping, you can let it relax a minute during shaping and then continue.
We use a sourdough culture which is made with 100% whole rye flour. A sourdough culture based on rye flour is easier to maintain, does not go into a slurry when you forget about it, is easier to stir because it has almost no gluten and smells very nice, a bit like fruit. It is also very forgiving in the amount you feed it, everything seems to be alright. Normally we only feed it once a week, after our weekend baking we give it a few table spoons of water and rye flour, stir, ready!
Making the Preferment
For this recipe we are going to make a preferent made with an equal weight of water and flour and a small amount of sourdough starter culture and NO salt. Making this preferment helps bring more taste and strength to your bread.
| Ingredients for the preferment | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100 | g | Italian typo 00 pizza flour | ||
| 100 | g | water | ||
| 30 | g | sourdough culture | ||
Make the pizza dough preferment by mixing flour, water and sourdough starter with a spatula or dough whisk for about 1 minute until well combined. Cover the bowl and leave to develop at room temperature for 12 hours.
Making the Sourdough Pizza Dough
| Ingredients for the Pizza Dough | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| makes 4 pizza’s | ||||
| The preferment from step 1 | ||||
| 465 | g | Italian typo 00 pizza flour | ||
| 250 | g | water | ||
| 10 | g | olive oil | ||
| 13 | g | sea salt | ||
Knead dough in mixer
Combine all ingredients, including the preferment, in the bowl of your standing mixer and knead for 5 minutes (or knead for 10 minutes by hand).
- Preferment
- Flour
- Water
- Olive oil
- Salt
Smooth finish kneading
Take the dough out of the bowl and onto your work surface. Knead by hand for an extra minute to give it a smooth finish.
Rest the dough
Shape into a ball, place in an oiled container, cover and leave to rest for 10 minutes.
- Dough
- Little oil
Rest again
Place the dough back in the container and again leave to rest for 10 minutes.
Final rest before shaping
Place the dough back in the container and once again leave to rest for 10 minutes.
Divide and shape
Divide the dough into 4 equal parts of around 235 grams and shape them into balls.
Final fermentation
Place them in a container with enough room for each ball to develop and leave to ferment at room temperature for 6 hours.
Alternatively you can put the container in the fridge and leave the dough to develop slowly over 18 to 24 hours and use it the next day. The dough may develop more sour notes this way. It is something we do not aim for with our pizza, but if you do, you can use this method.
- Dough balls
- Container
Fermentation tip
Make sure the container has enough space between the dough balls so they can expand properly without sticking together.
Sourdough Pizza Time Table
Day 1 22.00 Make preferment let ferment for 12 hours at room temperature
Day 2 10.00 Make final dough
- 10:00 – Combine all ingredients and knead for 5 minutes with standing mixer (10 min. by hand)
- 10 minutes rest
- 10:15 – 2 sets stretch and fold
- 10-15 minutes rest
- 10:30 – 1 set stretch and fold
- 10-15 minutes rest
- 10:45 – Divide and shape into 4 balls
- 11:00 – Final proofing about 6 hours
- 17:00 – start preparing and baking the pizza’s
Sourdough pizza baking
We bake our sourdough pizza’s, one at a time, in our Roccbox pizza oven, using the gas flame. On average we bake the pizza’s at a temperature of 380 °C to 400 °C / 715 °F to 750 °F. Using the gas flame on halve power for the first halve of the baking time, to cook the topping, then go full blast with the flame for the second part. The total process, depending on the type of pizza and amount of toppings, takes about 2 to 2.5 minutes.
I was so nervous not adding any dry or instant yeast! What a wonderful result! I made 6 individual pizzas from the recipe and it is fantastic! Great flavor, easy to stretch and a great east recipe well written!
Thank you very much Paula, great to learn the recipe worked out so well for you, making 6 pizza’s. We also love the flavor and texture that comes with an enthusiastic sourdough culture and some patience.
Enjoy your pizza baking!
I switched to this dough from the regular yeast one and it’s looking promising. One observation, for a hot pizza over (410-420 C) reducing the hydration to 56-57% provides the quick oven spring that your other one does.
I found that using slightly oiled, 400ml, round containers, with a lid, worked a treat. No issues with sticking and a lot easier to keep in a home fridge, especially if you make say 8-10 of them.
Thank you for your great work with this site! You thought me how to bake and I’ve been doing that for almost 10 years now.
Hello Raz,
Thank you for sharing your useful pizza baking experience. Hope the SD pizza will be great too. 🍕
And we appreciate your kind words and sticking with us for a decade 🙏
Enjoy the baking for many more years to come!
Ed & Marieke
Have you any experience with freezing the pizza dough before cooking it and then thawing the dough and preparing the pizza?
Hello Keith,
We do not have any personal experience with our own dough but we did use it from another baker and that worked fine. Our advice would be to thaw it overnight in the fridge and get it out the next day a couple of hours before you want to start making your pizza’s.
Best of luck with it and enjoy your pizza baking!
Ed