Sourdough Pizza Dough

Yay! Now that we've finally woken up our starter (see last post), we can make some tasty breads! Let's start easy. Pizza! I love it. I could have it every day. Once I actually had it for five consecutive meals, and no, that's not an exaggeration!

The reason pizza dough is so easy is because it only has one rise. Most breads go through two rises, or proofs: once after they are just mixed up, and then another after they have been shaped into whatever form you plan to bake them. Pizza dough, however, just has the one initial rise, then is rolled out, topped, and baked. Here's my recipe:

1 1/2 cups starter

3 tablespoons warm water

1 tablespoon sugar

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 - 1 1/2 cups bread flour

1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Mix your newly fed starter with the warm water, sugar, olive oil, and 1/2 cup of the flour, adding the salt halfway through the mixing process (it creates a "buffer" so the salt doesn't kill the starter). Keep adding flour gradually until the dough comes together and you can work it with your hands.

Turn out onto a well-floured surface.

Knead the dough until it becomes smooth and elastic, adding flour as you go if it becomes too sticky. The length of time to knead the dough will depend on how aggressive you are! What you're doing is building up the gluten strands, making a sort of webbing that creates the structure of the dough. Really work the dough, smooshing it, rolling it around, pressing it with the heels of your palms, etc. It will start to come together and look like this:

Round it out and place it in a bowl that has been oiled with olive oil. Smear a little olive oil over the top of the dough to keep it from drying out.

See the webbing that has formed now?

If you plan to make pizza immediately, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, place it in a warm location, and wait until doubled in size. Then you can roll it out and top it. I like to make the dough on my days off and keep it in my fridge, covered in plastic wrap, and then use it for an easy dinner after work. I've kept pizza dough in my fridge for two weeks before using it, and it's great! Just take it out before work to warm up and proof, and it's ready to use when you get home. Here's the newly made dough sitting next to my leftover starter from the the feeding.

Bake the pizza dough at the highest temperature your oven will go; usually somewhere around 500 degrees. If you have a pizza stone, they're fantastic for getting a great crispy crust. If you have difficulty getting a topped pizza onto your pizza stone, par-bake (partially bake) your crust until it's set, take it out and top it on the back of a cookie sheet, and slide it back onto your stone to fully bake.

Happy baking!