Making homemade pizza has become a Monday tradition for our family, especially now that we have mastered the art of pizza crust! We have filled many bellies with this pizza crust recipe. It’s simple to make, a joy to eat, and easy to digest.
In my opinion the crust is the difference between a good pizza and a great pizza. This crust is not too thin, not too thick, and has all of the digestive benefits of sourdough bread. In order to get these benefits, I usually prepare the dough the night before our feast.
I take my starter out of the fridge Sunday morning and wake it with a feeding. Then I’ll let the starter sit on the counter until it becomes nice and bubbly. Once it’s active, I add the ingredients to my stand mixer with the dough hook to form the dough.
Once the dough is pulling away from the sides of bowl, I turn my stand mixer off. You may have to add a little more water depending on how hydrated your starter is – I usually have to add an extra tablespoon or so. Next, I cover the bowl with plastic and set it on top of my stove to ferment. I leave my dough out all night long until around 3:00 p.m. the next day when I go to make the pizza.
If we decide to have pizza last minute, however, I’ll use my starter directly from the fridge (without a feeding or waiting for it to become active). Obviously you don’t get the benefits of fermented dough, but you’ll still end up with a delicious pizza!
To roll out the dough, I will use my wooden rolling pin. I have formed the dough by simply pressing it out with my fingers, or even picking it up and letting gravity pull the dough down. Really any way you do it will work since the dough is fairly soft, and easy to work with when it has been able to ferment overnight.
Once the dough is about the size of your pizza pan, oil the pan, and transfer the dough to the pan. I find the easiest method for this is to generously flour the dough, fold the dough, transfer the dough to the pan, and then unfold.
At this point you can simply add your toppings and bake! If you want a thicker crust, you can pull the dough so that it cascades over the edge of the pan, then fold back and press down with your fingers. You can also make a stuffed crust by putting cheese around the edge of the pan before you fold the dough back over onto the pan.
I hope this recipe fills many bellies in your home as it has in mine. Enjoy!
Sourdough Pizza Crust
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup fed sourdough starter
- 3/4 cup water
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp salt
Instructions
- Add starter, water, flour, and salt to stand mixer bowl. Knead dough using the dough hook attachment until dough is pulling away from the bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a wet tea towel and set in a warm place to ferment. Let the dough ferment overnight for better digestibility, or you can skip the fermentation step if you are pinched for time.
- When you are ready to bake, preheat oven to 450°F. Lightly oil pizza pan and set aside. Remove dough from the stand mixer bowl and place onto a lightly floured work surface. Lightly knead the dough with your hand to form a round ball. Using a rolling pin, or by pressing the dough with your fingers, roll the dough out to form the pizza crust.
- Place crust on pizza pan. Lightly pull at the edge of the crust so that it hangs over the edge of the pan. Fold the edge back over onto the pan and press with your fingers.
- To make stuffed crust, put your cheese of choice along the edge of the pan. Fold the edge of the dough back over onto the pan, pressing down with your fingers to seal the crust.
- Add sauce and your toppings. Bake at 450°F for 25 minutes.
3 responses to “Sourdough Pizza Crust”
LOVE THIS!!😃
Yummy for my well-digesting tummy!
The best recipe! Not only tastes amazing but so much better for my digestion