Last week I shared my new love affair in the bread world – this totally rockin’ sourdough recipe that is well worth every rest and rise.  Since that recipe calls for fed sourdough starter, it requires removing a portion of the starter which is then…what?  Washed down the drain?  No!  Not that.  You can make sourdough waffles, yes.  I do love waffles but when I realized another option was pizza dough, you can guess which one I chose.  I wondered if maybe the sourdough flavor would be a bit odd in pizza but no, it was very tasty.  It wasn’t super strong either, but noticeable and I already have a few ideas of topping combos I think will go especially well on this crust.

The dough had a slightly different texture and required a somewhat gentler hand while shaping.  It did not hold up to tossing, as I normally do.  I employed the same techniques for baking the pizza as outlined in my post on making pizza dough, and they turned out a great pizza.  The bottom was crisp and the rest was nice and chewy, all thanks to the baking stone.  I did experiment with freezing this dough and just as with my normal pizza dough, this freezes beautifully.  So there you go…if you’re feeding your sourdough starter, make a ball of pizza dough and freeze it for later.  Done and done.

  • Yield Dough for 1 large pizza

Ingredients

1 cup sourdough starter, unfed (straight from the fridge)
½ cup warm water (about 110˚ F)
1¼ cups all-purpose flour
1¼ cups bread flour
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. instant (rapid rise) yeast

Directions

  • 01

    Place the sourdough starter in a bowl.  Add in the warm water, flours, salt and yeast.  Stir together until a dough starts to come together.  Knead until just barely sticky, adding more flour as needed 1 tablespoon at a time, until the dough is the desired texture.  The dough should be smooth and somewhat elastic.  Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl and cover the bowl with plastic wrap.  Let the dough rise until doubled in bulk (this may take 2-4 hours).  Once the dough has doubled in size, gently deflate.*  Transfer the dough to a floured work surface and roll the dough out into a 14-inch disc for a large pizza.  Top as desired.  Bake as directed (see this post for tips).

  • 02

    *At this point, the dough can be frozen.  Simply form into a ball, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and place in a freezer safe bag until ready to thaw and use.  I like to thaw frozen dough in the fridge the day before I plan to use it.

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