With Laura’s Pizza Research Extravaganza going on right now, this seems like the perfect time to share my recipe for sourdough pizza crust.
We’ve gotten rather hooked on sourdough pizza crust in the past few months. I’m not sure that it is historically accurate (i.e. I don’t think that pizza arrived in this country until AFTER the California 49ers immortalized sourdough as THE food for gold miners.) This recipe is pretty flexible but it does require sourdough starter and a little advance planning:
BK’s Sourdough Pizza Crust
Make a sponge with:
- 2 cups warm water
- 1 c. sourdough starter
- 1 T. sugar
- 2 t. salt
- 2 c. flour
- 1 t. yeast
When the sponge is bubbly and frothy, mix in 1 T. olive oil and knead in an additional 4 to 4 1/2 c. bread flour.
Let this dough sit for several hours. It will rise slowly. If it doubles in size before you’re ready to use it, punch it down and let it rise again. If the dough is too sticky to handle easily, flour your hands thoroughly and take a little extra time to work the dough slowly.
Spread the dough out onto 4 large pizza stones or pans. This dough makes a nice thin crust that bakes up nicely.
Yes, I know that four pizzas is a lot of pizza. That’s my standard pizza meal these days with 4 teen guys and a husband living in my house. Keep in mind that you can make half this much OR you can freeze half for later.
If you don’t let the crust rise all day because you don’t have time, it will still turn out fine. Sometimes I will make this recipe with about 1/4 t. yeast instead of a whole teaspoon of it. When it’s time for it to rise, I stick the ball of dough in a plastic bag, seal it, and throw it in the fridge. After 3-5 days in the fridge, the dough gets very sour. I bring the dough back up to room temperature and spread it onto pizza stones when it’s time to make pizza.
The slower the dough rises and the longer it takes for the gluten fibers to develop, the more sour the taste and the better the texture.
Add the toppings of your choice and you’re on your way to pizza heaven.
Barb
8 Comments
May 31, 2008 at 1:41 am
Okay, this has inspired me to try (again!) to make my own sourdough starter. The last one ended badly because I misunderstood some important instructions. This time around, it seems to be doing a lot better, and I should be ready to make some sourdough bread/crusts in a couple of days.
November 2, 2008 at 10:40 pm
[...] started with our standard sourdough crust for 3 large pizzas. While the crust was rising a little, we started rummaging in the fridge and [...]
December 29, 2008 at 8:50 pm
[...] with sourdough pizza crust. All of the recipes this week will work with regular crust too if you’d rather keep things [...]
December 29, 2008 at 9:37 pm
[...] sourdough crust [...]
December 29, 2008 at 10:12 pm
[...] Sourdough crust, baked and cooled [...]
December 30, 2008 at 8:53 pm
[...] Sourdough Crust [...]
February 2, 2009 at 10:58 pm
[...] 1 double batch of bread dough (recipe courtesy of my son, Nate) or sourdough pizza dough [...]
May 1, 2009 at 2:39 pm
[...] Sourdough Pizza Crust [...]