This recipe uses basic ingredients for a sourdough pizza crust that is full of flavor and can be made ahead of time.
💡Are you unfamiliar with the world of sourdough? Visit the beginners guide to sourdough baking, or get started with a sourdough starter of your own from scratch!
If you have been baking with sourdough for any length of time, you know that discarding your starter is a necessary evil. If you don’t do it, it will overflow the container and also starts to lose its vigor. But it feels so wrong! You are a baker, you are thrifty, you don’t like to waste things. Alas, it must be done. The solution is find recipes that use discard starter. Here’s one you’ll like. (And here’s another that’s totally different.)
When you love baking and love pizza, a sourdough pizza crust is a natural fit.
Step by step sourdough pizza dough
This is a simple recipe. We begin by combining all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Don’t worry about the order. In they go. Stir with a wooden spoon. Sometimes the dough will seem too dry and crumbly, like it will not come together.:
If this happens, add water a teaspoon at a time and mix the dough until a somewhat shaggy ball has formed:
Once you have achieved the right hydration level for your dough, simply cover it with a clean tea towel and let it rest on the counter for 30 minutes. This makes sure all the flour gets combined with the water.
After this brief rest, its time to knead. This dough only needs a short knead, so I do it by hand. A stand mixer would also work well for this. (Read this if you need tips on kneading with your stand mixer.)
You know you have sufficiently kneaded when the dough goes from sticky to smooth.
Once you are done kneading, shape into a dough ball and place the dough into a clean, lightly oiled bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap.
The dough rises at room temperature for three to four hours or overnight in the fridge. It will double in size, and look like this:
Divide into thirds, or whatever size you need for your pizzas. Shape into a rough disk on a floured surface and let them come to room temperature before stretching them out into a thin crust.
Baking pizzas with this dough
You can use whatever recipe you want to bake your final product. If you want (ahem) the best pizza recipe, I have one for New York style pizza.
Optional ingredients for sourdough pizza crust
- The most “authentic” pizza dough is made with Italian 00 flour. It has a very fine texture and can be subbed 1:1 for bread flour in this recipe. I can’t always find it at the store and it is expensive, but I do like to use it when I have it on hand.
- To help the crust brown even more in the oven, you can replace 1/2 tablespoon of the sugar with diastatic malt powder. For these pictures I just used sugar to show the color of the crust, but diastatic malt powder is a great product for sourdough bakers to have. The dough will rise a bit more and brown faster.
Here’s the video and the recipe:
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Sourdough Pizza Crust
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes plus 4 hours rising time
- Yield: 3 small pizzas 1x
- Category: dinner
- Method: baking
- Cuisine: Italian- American
Description
A thin and delicious pizza crust made with your sourdough starter!
Ingredients
- 3 1/2 cups of bread flour or 00 flour
- 1 1/2 cups of fed sourdough starter (see notes if you want to use discard starter)
- 3/4 cup water
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 2.5 tablespoons sugar
Instructions
1. Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl, mixing gently with a spoon until a ball forms. If the dough seems so dry that a ball is not forming, add more water a teaspoon at a time. Cover the bowl with a clean tea towel and let it rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.
2. Turn dough out onto counter and knead until dough feels smooth to the touch and loses its stickiness, about five minutes.
3. Place dough in a clean oiled bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Allow to rise 3-4 hours at room temperature, or overnight in the fridge.
4. To make pizzas: Remove dough from fridge and divide into thirds (or halves or quarters, depending on the desired thickness of your crust and size of your baking sheet). Preheat pizza stone to 500 degrees. Allow to come to room temperature before stretching the dough. 5. Stretch dough into desired shape and place on parchment paper sprinkled with cornmeal. Top pizza dough and bake at 500 degrees on pizza stone for 9-12 minutes, until crust is browned and center of pizza is baked.
Notes
If you want to make this recipe using unfed sourdough starter, simply mix your starter before using and add 1 teaspoon of instant yeast to the recipe. For a thinner and more tender crust, substitute Italian 00 flour for the bread flour For more browning and higher oven spring, substitute 1/2 tablespoon of the sugar with diastatic malt powder.
Keywords: sourdough pizza dough, recipes using discard starter, beginner sourdough recipes, sourdough pizza crust
Anonymous says
Hello:) wana ask you if i can half bake just the crush n put them in the freezer for later use?
Katie Shaw says
I’ve never tried it but it should work fine
Victoria Stefani says
Can this dough be frozen?
Katie Shaw says
yes, in theory. I find that it never rises quite as well in my experience though.
Anonymous says
Can you make in cast iron skillet ?
Katie Shaw says
yes, but I would still preheat it and use parchment.
Teddy Marchant says
Do you leave the dough on the parchment paper when you put it on the hot stone?
Katie Shaw says
yes! I have tried it without and it stuck
Greentea says
Thanks ! I made 3 very nice pizzas 🙂 I’m glad that I can use my starter easily.
I baked the pizzas without a stone at 270 degrees C and they were crusty.
Thanks for the recipe !
★★★★★
Katie Shaw says
I’m so happy to know the pizzas were crusty without a pizza stone! this is one of our favorite uses for starter too 🙂
Kate says
I’d like to make this ahead of time. How long will it last in the fridge, or can I freeze it?
Katie Shaw says
I wouldn’t freeze it, but it will be fine in the fridge 3 days. I would lightly coat the ball of dough in olive oil and cover with plastic wrap.
Rosa Lee says
I’ve followed this recipe and it was amazing!!! I have a question, what happens if I use AP flour instead of bread flour?
Thanks!
★★★★★
Katie Shaw says
Hi Rosa! It should be fine, with two differences: AP flour absorbs less water. I’d reduce the water by 20% to start, then add a bit more if needed. Also it might not be quite as chewy. 🙂
Kaden says
Is there any reason to use instant yeast instead of regular active dry? I happen to have a big bag of the regular stuff on hand, and the rising time does seem to be enough.
Katie Shaw says
Regular is fineZ, just add it to the liquid at the beginning 🙂
Lindsay says
I did the overnight in the fridge method and this morning my dough is hard as a rock. My starter was very active and I followed everything else exactly. Any ideas how I might salvage it?
Katie Shaw says
Lindsay, put on the counter and cover it with plastic wrap. it should soften a lot as it comes to room temp 🙂
Karen says
It was delicious! I didn’t have time to wait for my starter to be ready (just took it out from the refrigerator) so I added a tsp of yeast. I used garlic salt because we love garlic and added 2 taps of Italian seasoning. Made large and medium size pizza baked on cast iron pans. This will be my pizza dough recipe from now on. Thank you for sharing your recipe!
★★★★★
Katie Shaw says
so glad you liked it Karen! I will have to try the garlic salt and Italian seasoning, that sounds delicious!
André says
Katie Shaw – DO NOT use “garlic salt”, but “GARLIC POWDER”. 👍
Stephanie says
First time baking sourdough pizza crust and had a terrific result with this recipe – thanks for sharing it!
★★★★★
Katie Shaw says
glad you liked it Stephanie!
Mel says
Used twice the water.
The crust was ok but not great. Diastatic Malt didn’t brown the crust anymore than if it hadn’t been used.
Mary says
Have you ever frozen this dough? Wondering if I make it today and don’t get to it tomorrow, if I can freeze it for when I’m ready to make pizza. Time to feed Gus (my starter) and it’s good and bubbly, so I don’t want to waste the discard. Thanks!
Katie Shaw says
I have frozen it and I felt like it didn’t rise so well after it was defrosted. I would just make it now and tuck it in the fridge overnight.
Angela says
this looks like a delicious alternative!
Elise says
This looks delicious! Which pizza stone do you recommend?
Katie Shaw, Heart’s Content says
I have this one from Williams Sonoma I had a cheap one a few years ago and it broke 😩 so sadly I think the more expensive ones are better.