It has been four years since I last wrote about the sourdough pizza recipe.
I still regard it as the best pizza base recipe I’ve read and refer back to it frequently.
What has changed in the years since I first wrote about making sourdough pizzas?
The dough hasn’t changed. I use the same ratios, but in a larger quantity (more mouths to feed now).
The sourdough starter hasn’t changed. I’m still using the same one since Jan 2016. It is a workhorse sourdough. I’ve made jam doughnuts, pizza, many types of breads, burger buns, pancakes (who wants pannies for breakfast?) with some regularity.
ALDI changed their flour, it no longer is 10.2 g protein. More like 9.8g from memory. It is still OK for pizza.
We changed our oven a few times, our current one is far too cold for pizza. You can tell because it takes upwards of 12 minutes to cook one. That’s too long. My remedy for this (not wasting money on an oven) to come later in the article.
My method has changed. I’ll discuss this new method too.
Ingredients
This recipe will make 6 large sized pizzas. 1 - 1.5 of these would make a nice dinner for me.
| Ingredient | quantity |
|---|---|
| Water | 650g |
| Flour | 1000g |
| Starter | 50g |
| Salt | 30g |
Start the week before
Take all the ingredients and bung them into a very large bowl. Its 1kg of flour! Mix them up very well. You might want to add all the water and then 100g of flour at a time if mixing is too hard for you.
Knead
The dough is sticky. You can wet your hands with tap water which will help keep the dough from sticking to you. I knead it for a good 10-15 minutes. Until it is nice and stretchy and doesn’t tear as much when you really pull it out and apart.
Cold rise in the fridge
I tear the dough into 6 equal lumps (6 pizzas remember) and put them into separate oiled containers in the fridge. Your dough will rise over a period of minimum 5 days in the fridge! Amazing. Don’t bother if you don’t have at least 5 days. 7 days is good too, I haven’t tried anything longer (hungry person).
On the day you want pizza simply take out of the fridge!
Wait! I don’t have 5 days to spare sir!
Oh sorry. I didn’t see you there Unprepared Person! You need to make pizzas for tonight? Sorry look elsewhere. Pizzas for tomorrow? That’s possible. Just prepare this the night before and perhaps leave in the fridge. Then take out and leave for about 10-12 hrs on the bench, or in the oven with the oven light on (for warmness, not because the dough is scared of the dark).
Making the pie
Just take your ball of dough and with your hands stretch it out into a pizza shape. Don’t use a rolling pin, since that would knock out the air bubbles. Make the base really really thin, thin enough to see light through it is OK. Make your crust areas nice and plump. They’ll puff up and form the pie around your pizza.
Cook with a frying pan and the oven grill
I put the oven grill as hot as it will go (remember my oven is terribly cold). I make the pizza base, dress with toppings and cook in a frying pan on the gas top!! This will crisp up the base and get it a delicious golden brown colour in parts. Then put the whole frying pan and pizza straight under the oven grill to cook the top. Should be about 4 -5 minutes under the grill.
If I am feeling fancy (and lets face it, I am always feeling fancy) I put some mixed herbs into the oil of the frying pan. This gives the pizza base a sourdough herb bread flavour. Amazing.