Sourdough Pizza Dough Recipe
This easy and delicious sourdough pizza dough recipe gives you Neapolitan-style pizza staright out of your home oven. Made with 100% natural yeast, it has a crisp and chewy crust that is perfect for pizza night!
Servings: 6 8-inch pizzas
Equipment
- baking stone or steel
Ingredients
Levain (1:1:1, ready in 3-4 hours at 78ºF)
- 30 grams sourdough starter about 2 Tablespoons
- 30 grams flour about 1/4 cup
- 30 grams water about 2 Tablespoons
Sourdough Pizza Dough
- 500 grams type 00 flour see recipe notes, about 3 3/4 cups
- 340 grams water about 1 cup plus 6.5 Tablespoons
- 75 grams levain see recipe notes, about 1/3 cup
- 12 grams salt about 2 teaspoons
- flour/semolina for shaping
Pizza Sauce (Neapolitan Style)
- 1 28 oz can San Marzano-style tomatoes whole peeled or crushed, see recipe notes
- 40 grams extra virgin olive oil about 3 Tablespoons
- 2 grams salt about 1/4 teaspoon
- pinch of crushed red pepper optional
Instructions
Levain (1:1:1 ratio ready in 3-4 hours at 78-80ºF)
- Mix together 30 grams starter, 30 grams flour and 30 grams water. Cover and let rest in a warm 78ºF place for 3-4 hours until bubbly and active. If it is colder than the 75-80 degree range, use warm water to mix the levain. If the ingredients are warmer than 75-80 degrees, use cooler water. You can substitute 100% hydration active, ripe sourdough starter for the levain in this recipe.
Sourdough Pizza Dough
- In a bowl, mix together the ripe levain, water, salt and flour with a dough whisk, your hands or a stand mixer. Once a shaggy dough forms, use damp hands to pick up one side of the dough and fold it over on itself. Repeat until the dough is cohesive and mixed together (about 30 seconds to a minute).
- Bulk Fermentation/First Rise: Cover the dough with plastic wrap, a shower cap or even a kitchen towel and let rise for 3-4 hours at 78-80º Fahrenheit. The dough will puff up and rise a little bit but won't double in size.
- Pre-Shape Dough into Balls: Prepare a 9 by 13-inch pan with a light drizzle of olive oil. Use a bench knife to separate the dough into 6 pieces, around 150 grams each. Pick up a piece of dough and pull/pinch up the sides until it forms a ball. Roll the ball on the counter using your hand in a cupping shape to seal the ball and create tension. Place the dough ball in the pan and repeat with the other balls of dough. Cold Refrigerated Option: Once the balls are shaped, the dough can be refrigerated for 48-72 hours for a long cold ferementation.This will give great flavor to your pizza dough if you planned ahead for pizza night. Skip this step for same-day pizza.
- Proof the Dough (Second Rise): Cover the dough balls and let rise for about 3 hours at warm room temperature (78ºF). After the dough has risen and puffed up, it can be used immediately for pizza or placed in the refrigerator for a couple hours if needed.
- Prepare the Oven: Move the rack to the highest setting in your oven near the broiling element. Put a pizza stone/steel or an upside-down rimmed baking sheet on the rack. Preheat the oven to 500-550ºF for 30 minutes.
- Prepare a cutting board or pizza peel. Sprinkle semolina flour or cornmeal on the board. This creates some friction for the pizza to slide around and not stick when you launch the pizza into the oven.
- Make Pizza Sauce: In a blender, blend together the whole or crushed tomatoes, olive oil and salt. Add crushed red pepper if desired.
- Shape Dough: Take a piece of dough and cover both sides of the dough and your hands with some flour. Use your fingertips to gently press down the dough from the middle of the dough out toward the edges. Do your best not to press any gas out at the rim/edge of the dough. You want the crust/edge to rise as high as possible. At this point you can lift the dough up and rotate it around your fingers in a circular motion, stretching the dough as you go. Set the dough on the prepared board. Make sure the pizza dough can move around a bit. If it sticks, add a little more semolina/cornmeal or flour to the bottom of the pizza dough. Each piece of dough makes about an 8 inch pizza.
- Top the Pizzas: Top your pizza with sauce, good quality mozzarella (not pre-shredded if you can help it) and any toppings you’d like. Reserve toppings that don’t hold up as well in the oven (e.g.: prosciutto/fresh herbs/arugula) to put on after the pizza is baked.
- Bake the Pizzas: Turn the oven on to high broil. Launch the pizza on top of the baking stone/steel/upside-down sheet pan by thrusting the board with the topped pizza on it quickly into the oven and pulling the board back out, leaving the pizza to bake on top of the stone. Broil for 1-2 minutes (watch closely). Depending on your oven you may need to change the setting back to bake 500-550ºF instead of broil - every oven will be a little bit different. After 1-2 minutes, rotate the pizza using a pizza peel or a combination of oven mitts and a fork. Bake for another minute or two until the crust is evenly golden with a few scattered black/charred spots. Remove the pizza from the oven and let cool for a minute before slicing and enjoying. Repeat with the remaining pizzas.
Notes
Make Ahead Options: This pizza dough can be made 2-3 days ahead of time and stored as balls in the refrigerator. Let dough rise before using. It can also be frozen for about 5-7 days. I also like to par-bake the crusts - baking them until just barely baked through but not yet browned. Let cool and freeze the par-baked crusts to top and finish baking later.
Type 00 Flour: I really love this pizza with type 00 flour. It can be found online or at local grocery stores. If you can't find type 00 flour you can substitute bread flour. If you use the King Arthur Flour 00 flour, you'll want to add 50-60 extra grams of flour during mixing to compensate for a lower protein content.
Levain: Substitute 100% hydration ripe, active, sourdough starter for the levain in this recipe if you have it on hand.
For Faster Pizza: add ¼ teaspoon instant yeast to the recipe. Cover and rest for 2 hours. Shape into balls. Proof in fridge up to 48 hours OR room temperature for 3-4 hours.
Pizza Oven Baking Directions: Turn the pizza oven on. Preheat the pizza oven for 30 minutes to about 700ºF. Bake pizzas at 700ºF for about 30-40 seconds. Rotate the pizza after about 30-40 seconds and bake until the crust is golden with a few scattered black/charred spots. Let cool for a few minute before slicing and enjoying.
Pizza Sauce: This is a very simple tomato sauce that I like using on our pizzas. Use a blender to blend the sauce together. You can also substitute jarred pizza sauce.
-Whole Peeled or Crushed Tomatoes: I love using good quality tomatoes in this pizza. I buy San Marzano style tomatoes and also love the Bianco DiNapoli brand of tomatoes.
-Olive Oil: This emulsifies the sauce and adds fat which makes the pizza not as “soupy” when the sauce bakes.
-Salt: A little salt for flavor
-Crushed Red Pepper: If you want a little bit of heat to your sauce, add some crushed red pepper to taste.
Recipe Update: This recipe originally called for a long cold fermentation in the refrigerator before shaping into balls. I have found more often than not, I make the recipe all in one day OR I like to shape into balls and then refrigerate for later.
Nutrition
Calories: 371kcal | Carbohydrates: 63g | Protein: 10g | Fat: 8g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 5g | Sodium: 910mg | Potassium: 84mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 0.3g | Vitamin A: 2IU | Vitamin C: 0.01mg | Calcium: 15mg | Iron: 1mg
