sourdough pizza dough and recipes

Sourdough Pizza Dough

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I’m a serious pizza eater. There were periods back when I lived near my dad’s restaurant where I’d eat fresh pizza almost every other day. On my way home from work, I’d stop in for a slice (or a whole pie) to sort out dinner. This detour was not because I was lazy and didn’t cook but because it’s hard to deny the call of a great pizza.

I’ve had endless different topping combinations but always fall back on classics: sometimes, I think the simplest things are the best. And pizza is a food I could conceivably eat at every meal without deviation. When visiting a new restaurant, there’s a real internal struggle when I spot pizza on the menu, especially if it’s sourdough pizza dough. My ordering becomes myopic: the entire menu fades away right in front of me, and pizza is all that remains. Even if it’s at some strange fusion restaurant with nothing to do with Italian food, my meal companions can bet I’m going to order pizza. And in the end, I’ll inevitably complain about it right after the first slice. What can I say? I’m picky.

sourdough pizza
Heaven on a plate: sourdough pizza cooked in a home oven.

I vividly remember several buddies and I, physically exhausted and running on zero sleep, stumbling into a Peruvian restaurant in the tiny city of Aguas Calientes outside Machu Picchu. We just finished the 4-day hike through the mountains in torrential rain and finally made it to the sacred site.

This was to be our first restaurant meal in days.

As I opened the menu, I spot the typical (delicious) Peruvian fare, but what do you know, they had pizza! Of course, everyone thought I was nuts ordering pizza in the middle of the mountains in Peru. Still, I can’t remember another item on that menu except for the pizza I ordered. For the record, and to their credit, it was certainly not a good pizza. But what should I have expected? Blinders.

When you think of great pizza, what comes to mind? I think the answer depends on your background, where you grew up, and just how much you’ve eaten. I’ll always have a special place for Naples-style pizza with that thin crust and that blistered and puffy cornicione, but it’s challenging to get this type of crust that comes out of a blazing hot wood-fired oven, and that’s ok.

Sourdough pizza with spinach and feta
Sourdough pizza topped with spinach, feta, and chile flakes.

Pizza at home doesn’t have to try to imitate pizza Napoletana, it can be exciting and delectable in a completely different way. The focus here is to make a sourdough pizza dough that’s incredibly tasty with a fantastic texture but also versatile and flexible when it comes to preparation. Most of us aren’t making pizza professionally, so an adaptable, naturally leavened pizza dough that works around your schedule—and could chill an extended period in the fridge, if necessary—is a good thing.

Great pizza has a thin, sturdy, and well-cooked crust with an airy and soft cornicione (rim). It should sort of sag a bit when you hold a slice in the air but not flop over completely like Neapolitan-style pizza. The bottom should be well cooked with dark spots scattered about, but not the typical leopard spotting you might find when cooking pizza in a high-heat oven. The toppings should be a light dusting of items, especially the cheese—everything in balance.

This sourdough pizza dough is versatile and adaptable. So, if you like a thicker crust, increase each dough ball’s weight, and don’t stretch it out quite so thin. If you like a thin, cracker-like crust, stretch the dough ball out thinner and cook for a few minutes until things firm up. You can even use this dough recipe for pan pizza and focaccia.

If you like a Chicago-style pizza… (gasp), I’m not sure I have any suggestions, but I’m sure you can make it work.

Sourdough pizza dough schedule

Sourdough Pizza Dough Schedule

You can adjust the schedule for this flexible sourdough pizza dough to suit your schedule. The dough can be made over two days or stretched to three or four days proofing.

Or, you could mix at 5:00 p.m. as I have listed here, and instead of shaping them into balls the next day at 11:00 a.m., you could shape them before work and cook the pizzas right when you get home.

Pizza Flour Selection

I would venture to say that Caputo flour from Italy is probably the most widely used flour for pizza. I’ve purchased a few sacks of Caputo 00 Pizzeria Flour on Amazon to test, and it is nice to work with. They list the protein percentage of their flour (in the blue bag) as between 12-13% (12.75%), but the water absorption is significantly lower than most of the flour I usually work with (meaning it cannot take on super high hydration).

The signifier Tipo 00 indicates it’s milled incredibly fine (it truly feels like light powder). You can’t go wrong with this flour—it performs exceptionally well and makes pizza with a thin, delicate crust that is strong enough to hang onto whatever toppings you throw at it.

sourdough pizza toppings and bottom
A “white” sourdough pizza with cherry tomatoes, basil, and cheese.

However, lately, I’ve been working more with Central Milling Organic Type 00 Normal flour (they also have a “strong” version with a higher protein percentage at around 13.8%), and I’ve come to enjoy this flour. Much like Caputo 00, it is milled incredibly fine, has a very high extraction, and feels powdery smooth. I like that it’s a closer geographic option, and I can order large quantities without too much of a hit to the bank. Using this flour, my pizza has a wonderful crust and a tender interior. Central Milling indicates their flour has around 11.2% protein and is a hard red winter wheat blend.

I know not everyone has a sack of Tipo 00 flour in their pantry; heck, I didn’t until recently. So, feel free to swap these flours out for all-purpose flour (or even a medium-protein bread flour). This sourdough pizza dough will still be naturally leavened, flexible, delicious, and made at home.

The next frontier for me with this sourdough pizza dough recipe will be to explore more fresh-milled grains as a more significant portion of the flour percentage (and I did just that here!). My sourdough pizza formula below is a great place to start, and the 10% whole grains I call for can easily be a springboard for experimentation: swap the whole wheat out for spelt or even Khorasan to play with the texture and taste. I think there’s an equilibrium to find: you don’t want the flavor of the grain to completely overpower the toppings you’re using, but rather to produce a balanced concert of flavors.

To read more about how to adjust the flavor of your pizza, read through my ultimate guide to sourdough pizza →

Why is my sourdough pizza crust chewy?

Using high-protein white flour (13-14% protein) in your sourdough pizza dough can lead to a chewier pizza. If you’d like to reduce the chewiness, try using a lower protein flour for the pizza dough (like all-purpose flour or Type 00 with lower protein).

My Favorite Pizza Tools

I’ve decided to round up all the tools shown here in this post for those wondering what I’m using. I’ve found each of these to be great for their purpose, and I’ve finally collected everything I need to make pizza consistently each week.

  • Pizza dough proofing containers – I love these large, rectangular plastic containers that also fit in the home fridge.
  • Baking Steel – a highly conductive slab of steel to bake your pies on instead of stone (no cracking, higher temp, etc.)
  • Pizza Peel – for sliding the sourdough pizza dough (and bread!) into the oven.
  • Pizza Cutter – simple and effective pizza wheel cutter
  • Calabrian chili – these are so, so good. Perfect as is or to cook down into an oil for a spicy kick to your sourdough pizza.
Basil and tomato, classic

Sourdough Pizza Dough Formula

Why divide the pizza dough into 290g dough balls?

I like to think of pizza and bread as siblings separated in childhood.

In experimenting with varying dough weights for each pizza, I ranged from a 180g ball to a 300g ball, finally settling on 290g. This is personal, but I found 290g to be the sweet spot for a 12″ personal pizza. If you increase each ball’s weight, you can increase the crust thickness at the bottom or increase the pie’s size. Conversely, you can make a less pronounced rim or a smaller pizza by decreasing the weight.

What dough hydration is best for pizza dough?

One of the fantastic things about a super-blazing-hot wood-fired oven is that you can bake a pizza in about 90 seconds. Because it takes longer than that in a home oven, you’ll end up baking off a lot of moisture from the dough, so your pizza will turn out quite firm, like a cracker.

By increasing the dough’s hydration, the drying effect can be countered to some degree, so the dough can cook longer in the oven. I don’t think 69% is a set-in-stone number. Feel free to go up or down on this depending on how things turn out in the oven, and most importantly, to adjust for your flour.

Additionally, because I advise using parchment paper to launch your pizza into the oven (more below), increasing the hydration into the ’70s is possible (as you increase hydration, it becomes harder and harder to shape and transfer the pizza from your pizza peel to the oven).

Do I need to add diastatic malt powder to this pizza dough?

If you’ve read my site for a while, you’ll know I’m a fan of using diastatic malt powder in some of my recipes to increase enzymatic activity (the action of breaking down starches into sugars that yeast can utilize for fermentation) and add color to my crust.

Adding diastatic malt powder to this pizza dough is optional but recommended.

Vitals and Total Formula

Desired dough temperature: 78°F (25°C) (see my post on the importance of dough temperature).

Total Dough Weight592 grams
Hydration69% (this hydration takes the water in the 100% hydration starter into account)
Yield2 x 290g dough balls (about two 12″ pizzas)
Buffer2% (a little extra added to the recipe to ensure enough dough is made to cover the number of pizzas called for)

Note that the numbers add up to a little over 2 x 290g sourdough pizza dough balls (580g versus the listed total dough weight of 592g, above) in the chart below. I add a 2% “buffer” to the formula to ensure the resulting dough provides at least two 290g balls. You might end up with a little excess dough on your bench.

If you want to make more than two sourdough pizza dough balls, just scale everything up using baker’s percentages.

WeightIngredientBaker’s Percentage
288gType 00 white flour (Central Milling Type 00 Normal)90.0%
32gWhole wheat flour (Giusto’s Stoneground Whole Wheat)10.0%
165gWater 151.4%
50gWater 215.6%
2gDiastatic malt powder (optional)0.5%
6gFine sea salt2.0%
48gRipe sourdough starter, 100% hydration15.0%

Sourdough Pizza Method

Before we begin, a quick note about building a levain (leaven): I don’t create a specific levain to make this sourdough pizza dough. As I’ve mentioned in my Sourdough Starter Maintenance Routine, a sourdough starter and a levain are essentially the same things. A levain is built as an off-shoot, or splinter, that eventually dies off in the oven with the bread or pizza. With this pizza dough, there is such a small levain requirement there really isn’t a need to make a levain and wait for it to fully ripen before using.

Essentially, you’re using your sourdough starter discard to make this sourdough pizza.

1. Mix – 9:00 a.m.

The goal for mixing this sourdough pizza dough is to develop quite a bit of strength up front. This way, we perform fewer stretches and folds during bulk fermentation.

You can use a mixer to strengthen this pizza dough, such as a KitchenAid stand mixer, or you can do things by hand. I’ve mixed both ways to equal effect. In either case, the result will be a dough that’s not completely smooth but has a very strong feeling. Perhaps a little past medium development.

Mixer

To the mixing bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment, add the water 1, ripe sourdough starter, flour, salt, and malt. Turn on speed 1 and mix for a few minutes until everything comes together. Once the dough is cohesive, dribble in the remaining water 2 over a minute or two while mixing, waiting to add more water until the previous liquid is absorbed. (If you add the water all at once, the dough will slide around and around.) Then, mix for 4 to 5 minutes until the dough starts to cling to the dough hook and begin to smooth, but it will still be far from fully developed (see image below).

By Hand

To mix this sourdough pizza dough by hand, follow the same procedure as sourdough bread. To a large mixing bowl, add the water 1, water 2, ripe sourdough starter, flour, salt, and malt, and mix by hand until incorporated. Once incorporated, dump out onto your counter and slap and fold the dough for about 5-7 minutes until it firms, smoothes, and holds shape on the counter.

If you don’t want to do slap and fold, you can also perform turns in the bowl, stretching the dough up and folding it over for several minutes until it is strong and resists stretching and folding. See my guide to mixing for more information and techniques on mixing dough.

Sticky and slack dough
Sourdough pizza dough just after mixing.

The dough should have smoothed but still shaggy at the mixing end. The low hydration of this dough means it will be hard to mix further at this point without letting it relax. Transfer dough to a thick-walled container (I use a large ceramic bowl) for bulk fermentation on the counter.

2. Warm bulk fermentation – 9:15 a.m. to 11:45 a.m.

At 75-77°F (23-25°C) ambient temperature, bulk fermentation should go for about 2 and 1/2 hours. Perform 3 to 4 sets of stretch and folds—a North, South, East, and West fold for each set – spaced out by 30 minutes during the bulk.

After the third set, check how the dough feels: is it incredibly stiff and resists any stretching? If so, let it rest for the remainder of the 2.5 hours. Give it the final fourth set if the dough is still extensible and slack.

3. Cold bulk fermentation – 11:45 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., overnight)

After 2 and 1/2 hours in bulk fermentation, use olive oil and lightly oil a bowl large enough to hold the dough. Then, dump the dough onto the counter and, using two hands, shape the dough into a very tight boule. You can spin the dough on the counter to create tension on the outside or drag it toward your body while using your pinkies to pinch the dough under itself (like how I shape a boule).

Getting the dough nice and taut is important; don’t worry about degassing.

Wrap the bowl with reusable plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator overnight.

sourdough pizza dough end of bulk
Smooth and strong sourdough pizza dough with lots of fermentation activity at the end of bulk fermentation.

4. Divide and shape sourdough pizza dough balls – 11:00 a.m.

Pick a container to hold your shaped dough balls. With only two, you can use a small baking sheet (like a quarter sheet), or, even better, a high-walled baking dish. I like to use large containers specifically designed to proof pizza dough.

Regardless of the container, lightly oil it with olive oil to make it nonstick.

dividing pizza dough
Dividing sourdough pizza dough.

Remove the bulk container with the dough from the refrigerator and scrape it out onto your un-floured work surface.

Divide the dough into two 290g dough balls and, using almost no flour, form each into a very tight ball. It’s incredibly important to create a ball with a completely closed bottom with no seam. You want a tight skin on each of these surrounding the dough ball.

balling sourdough pizza dough
Shaping sourdough pizza dough into 290g balls.

There are a few ways to do this, but my favorite way is to pick up the ball and, using both hands, tuck the dough back and into itself as you rotate it around in your hand (see the upper-left image above). Work your way around and around, stretching and tucking, then flip the ball over and pinch the bottom to close the seam.

Then place it onto the bench and lightly tug it towards my body one or two times to ensure things are sealed and perfectly round.

Here’s a video of me shaping these sourdough pizza dough balls:

The ball should be smooth all over and on the bottom—try not to have creases, seams, or holes. Transfer to your lightly oiled proofing container.

sourdough pizza dough balled up
Dough balled and ready for proofing.

See my guide to balling pizza dough for a longer walkthrough →

5. Proof – 11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Once the balls are shaped and placed into the proofing container, cover them with an airtight lid or plastic wrap. The balls will proof on the counter, around 75°F (23°C), for about 6 hours. At the end of this period, the dough should be puffy to the touch and should have relaxed out from its tight ball into more of a disc shape (see below).

fully proofed sourdough pizza dough
Fully proofed sourdough pizza dough, ready for shaping and cooking.

If you’d like to use the dough immediately, start preheating your oven. Alternatively, when the dough is finished proofing, you can place it into the refrigerator, which will hold for several hours, even overnight.

6. Preheat oven at 4:30 p.m., shape and cook at 5:30 p.m.

Preheat the oven on Bake setting for one hour at 550°F (285°C) (or the highest your oven will go). Gather your handheld water mister and place it by your oven; you will use this to lightly spritz the pizza once you’ve placed it into the oven (more on this below).

While your oven is preheating, gather your pizza toppings. Make the pomodoro sauce (see recipe below), and cut the mozzarella into cubes. Remember, the smaller the blocks of cheese you make, the faster they will bake (and burn); there’s a sweet spot to find.

SHAPING TIP: If you find the dough hard to shape, place the proofing container with dough into the refrigerator to chill slightly for about 15 to 30 minutes. Shaping slightly chilled pizza dough is much easier.

Home oven setup for pizza with Baking Steel
Pizza cooking in a home oven.

I use a Baking Steel in my oven to bake my pizza, and, as I mentioned before, it does one heck of a job of staying super hot and transferring massive heat to the sourdough pizza dough.

You can see above how I setup my home oven to make pizza.

I place a Baking Steel a few rungs down from the top broiler element. Note that the bottom pizza stone is unnecessary; I keep it in my oven and never move it to save some extra masonry mass for heat retention.

In early pizza trials, I placed the Baking Steel as close as possible to the top broiler with the thought that when I turned that broiler on to superheat the steel, it would get insanely hot—and it sure did. However, that residual heat from the boiler sticks around, so when you launch your pizza on the steel, it cooks the top of the pizza a bit too fast.

I found this extra top-heat to harden off the crust prematurely, stunting dough spring. As you can see, I like it a little lower, just low enough to still get significant heat from the broiler when it’s kicked on but not too close to overdoing the top of the pizza.

flipped sourdough pizza dough
Fully proofed sourdough pizza dough ready for shaping.

Here’s a video of how I like to stretch pizza dough:

Cut a piece of parchment paper to fit your pizza peel and place it on top. Lightly flour your bench and the top of a single sourdough pizza dough ball from the fridge. Using a dough scraper, gently remove the dough ball from the proofing vessel and place the top-side down on your bench (place the remaining ball back into the fridge).

Flour your hands and the side of the ball facing up and begin shaping. Using two hands shaped like an inverted letter “V,” press down the dough uniformly, starting at the side of the dough farthest from you, working toward your body. You want to keep your hands flat with the dough. Try not to press out any gas at the rim of the dough where the edge will form—you want this to rise as high as possible.

While pressing, turning the disc from time to time is easy, and press from top to bottom in different orientations. You’ll feel yourself slightly pressing the gasses from the dough’s interior out to the edges as the center flattens and the border becomes more and more pronounced. If you find the dough sticks too much to your hands and the bench, use more flour, but I find this rarely to be the case. The dough’s cold retard just before shaping helps strengthen the dough, and the light dusting of flour takes care of any residual stickiness.

Once pressed out several times, you have a choice: you can transfer the disc to the parchment paper on the pizza peel and finish stretching the dough out on the parchment if that’s more comfortable, or you can lift the disc off the bench and using the back of your hands stretch the dough out as you work around (imagine an Irish-style boxer with their fists up, knuckles pointing away from the body with the dough draped over them).

Another method would be the Naples style “slap,” where you hold the disc on the bench with one hand, stretch the dough outwards with the other, and then lift the disc and rotate it to work around the entire dough. Each method takes some practice, and if you’re starting, shaping on parchment paper is a great way to get a feel for the process while still making it easy to slide the dough into the oven.

Once your dough is on the parchment paper and shaped, switch your oven from Bake to Broil (high). This will engage the broiler, usually taking a minute or two, while you top your pizza. When you have the dough on the parchment, you can relax and focus on working your oven and topping your pizza.

topping sourdough pizza

If using my tomato sauce recipe listed below, grab a ladle and scoop out a medium amount of tomato sauce. Pour onto the dough and spread out circularly using the back of the spoon. Top with the remaining items called for in the recipe.

If using parchment paper, slide it into your oven and cook the pizza on the parchment once the dough is topped.

OPTIONAL: Quickly grab your handheld water mister and carefully spray in your oven to slightly wet the dough. I’ve played with misting and not misting. I find it helps give the dough a little moisture (which, if you recall, is a problem with a home oven: we lose moisture before the pizza is cooked, drying out the crust) at the beginning to rise high and prevent overly drying out the crust. If you do not want to use a handheld mister, by all means, skip this step.

The broiler should still be active at this point, and your dough will get an initial blast of the bottom and top heat. Bake with the broiler on for 1.5-2 minutes until you see the dough slightly color, then switch your oven from Broil back to Bake (at maximum temperature). Bake for an additional minute, then using your pizza peel, carefully rotate your pizza 180º in the oven to even out the baking.

Continue baking until done to your liking. I like to underbake these ever-so-slightly, so they are still very soft. Remove from the oven using your pizza peel and transfer to a plate. Top with remaining items (basil, a little more olive oil, etc.), cut, and serve. Repeat for remaining dough balls.

Here is my overall sourdough pizza dough cooking process:

  1. Take a 290g dough ball out of the fridge and shape out into a disc on parchment paper
  2. Turn oven from Bake setting (hopefully at 550°F (285°C)) to maximum Broiler setting
  3. Top dough disc with toppings
  4. Open the oven and slide in the pizza dough on top of the parchment paper
  5. Quickly spritz all sides of dough with a handheld water mister and then close the oven door
  6. Bake for 1.5 to 2 minutes (broiler should be on)
  7. Turn broiler off and set oven back to Bake at 550°F (285°C)
  8. After 1 minute, rotate the dough 180° using a pizza peel and carefully grabbing the corner of the parchment paper
  9. Bake for an additional 4-5 minutes or until done to your liking

Sourdough Pizza Recipes

Below are a few suggestions for pizzas I make often. I like to top my pizza lightly, using only small amounts cheese and sauce. You’ll see in the recipes below and my images throughout—it’s just my preference.

If you like a full pizza, by all means, pack it on. And, of course, feel free to modify these to your heart’s content—use whatever is fresh, local, and in season.

If you have special dietary restrictions, many modifications can be made. For example, my wife cannot eat (most) dairy, so I’ll always sub out the mozzarella for mozzarella di bufala (lactose-free) or goat cheese with a light shaving of aged parmesan.

Basic pomodoro (tomato) pizza sauce

Bianco DiNapoli tomatoes

This is my go-to tomato sauce for just about any pizza.

  • One 28oz. can whole peeled tomatoes (Bianco DiNapoli or San Marzano)
  • 1.5 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp dried oregano

Drain the whole peeled tomatoes reserving the liquid for another use (like pasta, see below). Place tomatoes, olive oil, salt, and oregano in a blender and blend until desired consistency (I like it very smooth). Taste the sauce and adjust the seasoning if necessary. It will last about a week in the fridge.

LEFTOVER SAUCE TIP: To make a simple and delicious weeknight pasta sauce recombine the leftover sauce with the reserved tomato liquid and cook with kalamata olives and sliced garlic on the stove until reduced significantly (it should sort of coat the back of a spoon), about 30-40 minutes. Top pasta with basil/parsley, freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, and extra virgin olive oil.

Sourdough pizza with pomodoro, mushrooms, peppadew, and padrón peppers

sourdough pizza with mushrooms

I accidentally discovered peppadew at the market one week, and I can’t get enough of these sweet and tangy little peppers. They’re my secret weapon. They are fantastic on pizza (when used sparingly) as they give an unexpected, but not overpowering, a burst of sweetness that pairs incredibly well with this pizza’s savory and salty flavors.

  • One 290g ball Sourdough Pizza Dough
  • 1/3 cup Basic Pomodoro Sauce
  • 35g mozzarella cut into cubes or torn by hand
  • Several padrón peppers with stems removed
  • Handful peppadew “sweet drop” peppers
  • 2-3 medium-sized white mushrooms
  • A handful of kalamata olives (optional)
  • Several basil leaves
  • Drizzle olive oil

Spread the pomodoro sauce evenly around the pizza in a circular fashion while keeping a 1” border clean around the dough’s outer edge (this will be the crust). Then place the padrón peppers, peppadew, mushrooms, and olives in an even distribution over the pomodoro sauce. Slide the pizza into the oven and cook.

When the pizza is finished cooking, scatter the basil on top with a drizzle of olive oil.

Sourdough pizza with spinach, feta, and garlic confit

sourdough pizza dough with feta and spinach

I based this recipe on a pizza from the Gjelina cookbook (one of my all-time favorite cookbooks), and it has just the right balance of flavors. There’s no tomato here, so it’s a good break if you are tomato-ed out. I like to add a pinch of red chile flakes to this one after I finish cooking the pizza.

  • One 290g ball Sourdough Pizza Dough
  • 2-3 cloves garlic confit (roasted garlic will work also), chopped
  • 2 cups whole spinach leaves
  • 35g feta cheese
  • 35g mozzarella cheese cut into cubes
  • Pinch red chile flakes (optional)
  • Pinch of dried oregano
  • A drizzle of olive oil

Scatter the chopped garlic over the dough and then pile the spinach leaves mainly in the center but a few, reaching out to the crust here and there. On top of, and occasionally below, the spinach, scatter the mozzarella and feta cheese (try not to break the feta into tiny pieces) throughout. Drizzle olive oil lightly on top and cook as described above.

When this pizza is cooked, the cheese will melt on top of and below the spinach, which is just delicious.

Sourdough pizza with pomodoro crudo, mozzarella, basil, and oregano

sourdough pizza with tomato

I love this pizza. I’ve had a variation of this in Italy, and each time I see it on the menu, it’s my first choice. This pizza’s flavor is lighter than one with a traditional tomato sauce, and I think this is what I like so much about it. The taste of oregano, olive oil, and slightly roasted cherry tomatoes is pretty out of this world.

  • One 290g ball Sourdough Pizza Dough
  • 35g mozzarella cheese cut into cubes
  • 2 handfuls of multicolored cherry tomatoes, cut in half
  • Scattered kalamata olives (optional but tasty)
  • Dried oregano
  • Several fresh basil leaves
  • Drizzle olive oil

Scatter the mozzarella cheese on the dough while leaving a 1-inch border from the edge clean. Starting at the dough center, place cherry tomatoes cut side down, radiating outwards randomly (these look awesome mixed and matched with the highest density in the middle). Drizzle a few “circles” of olive oil around and slide the dough into the oven to cook.

When finished, sprinkle the dried oregano and place the basil leaves on top. This pizza would also be awesome with a pinch of red chile flakes or Calabrian chile oil.

Conclusion

Nowadays, I find myself heading to my dad’s restaurant a little less frequently, but at least when I can’t make it out during the week, I can get some pretty darn good pizza at home with my sourdough starter and this sourdough pizza dough recipe.

Also, who says it’s bad to have homemade sourdough pizza at home during the week and then head to the restaurant for more pizza on the weekend? I love that idea.

Whew, that was a hefty post! Lots of process photos, pizza photos, and comments on how I’ve been honing my sourdough pizza dough-making skills at home. I hope you do not feel overwhelmed by the length of this post but rather come away feeling like you have a single place to go back to for all the tiny details that sometimes get lost with making pizza at home.


Want a deep dive into pizza? Check out my cookbook.

The Perfect Pizza book cover.
The Perfect Pizza book cover.

My new cookbook, The Perfect Pizza, covers every step of the sourdough pizza process, with 40+ dough recipes (and toppings!) to help you make pizza in your home oven.

Sourdough pizza recipes, including:

  • My go-to home oven dough
  • Detroit pizza
  • Chicago tavern-style pizza
  • Neapolitan
  • And a whole lot more, including what to make with extra dough: English muffins, breadsticks, pita, and sub rolls!

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sourdough pizza with basil

Sourdough Pizza Dough

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  • Author: Maurizio Leo
  • Prep Time: 24 hours
  • Cook Time: 10 minutes
  • Total Time: 24 hours 10 minutes
  • Yield: 2 pizzas
  • Category: Pizza, Sourdough
  • Cuisine: Italian
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Description

A versatile sourdough pizza dough recipe for the home oven.


Ingredients

  • 288g Type 00 white flour (or all-purpose flour)
  • 32g whole wheat flour
  • 215g water
  • 2g diastatic malt (optional)
  • 6g salt
  • 48g ripe sourdough starter

Instructions

  1. Mix – 9:00 am
    Add the ingredients to a mixing bowl or stand mixer. Mix until medium development (the dough should be smooth but still shaggy and elastic. Transfer the dough to a bulk fermentation container and cover.
  2. Warm bulk fermentation – 9:15 am to 11:45 am
    This dough will need 3 sets of stretch and folds during bulk fermentation at 30-minute intervals.
  3. Cold bulk fermentation – 11:45 am to 11:00 am, overnight
    Remove the dough from the bulk fermentation bowl and lightly oil the interior with olive oil. Tighten the dough on the counter into a ball and transfer it back to the oiled bowl, seam side down. Cover the bowl and transfer it to the refrigerator overnight.
  4. Divide and preshape into a ball – 11:00 am
    Divide the dough into two 290g pieces. Shape the dough into a very tight ball with no seam on the bottom. Transfer to a pizza dough tray or baking sheet and cover.
  5. Proof – 11:30 am to 5:30 pm
    Proof the dough on the counter at around 75°F (23°C) for 5-6 hours. When fully proofed, the dough will have relaxed outward and be soft to the touch. If using the dough soon, preheat your oven. Alternatively, you can place the dough back into the fridge until the next day.
  6. Cook – 5:30 pm
    Preheat your oven with Baking Steel, one or two rungs from the top, to 550°F (285°C). Shape a dough piece into a large circle on parchment paper. Switch the oven to Broiler setting, top your pizza dough, and slide the dough onto the Baking Steel. Spritz the inside of the oven a few times with a handheld water sprayer. Bake for 1.5-2 minutes with the broiler on, then turn the oven back to the Bake setting at 550°F (285°C). After 1 minute, rotate the pizza in the oven. Bake for another 4-5 minutes until done to your liking. Repeat for the other piece of dough.

Notes

There is no need to make a levain for this recipe, use your ripe sourdough starter.

What’s Next?

If you’d like a different pizza direction, have a peek at my rectangular sheet pan pizza recipe; it’s also a winner!

Or, for more sourdough pizza shaping, stretching, and cooking guides, check out my ultimate guide to sourdough pizza.

If you use this recipe, tag @maurizio on Instagram so I can take a look!

Picture of Maurizio Leo
Maurizio Leo
Maurizio Leo is the creator of the independent sourdough baking website The Perfect Loaf. His cookbook, The Perfect Loaf — The Craft and Science of Sourdough Breads, Sweets, and More, is a James Beard Award-winner and a New York Times bestseller. He lives in Albuquerque, NM, with his wife and two sons, where he's been baking sourdough for over a decade. He's been labeled "Bob Ross but for bread."

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847 Comments

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  1. Hey Maurizio! I’ve been looking all over for a good sourdough pizza dough that uses 00 flour. BINGO! Just one question regarding timing. How long can the separated and proofed dough balls be refrigerated before baking? Is 48 hours too long? Should I cut down on the proofing time if I want to leave them in the fridge for longer?
    Thanks!

    1. Right on! You can really push that time in the fridge, I’ve found. I’ve left them in there for 2 days and the resulting pizza was still really awesome! Try it out and if you notice sluggish rise in the oven cut it back a bit next time or you can put it in the fridge sooner so you have more time. Have fun!

  2. Cynthia, thank you, really appreciate that! I too am missing summer in a bad way. I want to make some fruit tarts, pies and all things basil + tomato.

    I agree with the overnight rest on the dough, really adds some complexity that isn’t found in a single day ferment. Those peppers sound amazing!

    I have not seen the Serious Eats test but just found it on the Google. Will be trying some of these soon and really, really surprised by the results! Crazy.

    Thanks for the comments and let me know how the pizza turns out!

  3. Hi Maurizio – so glad to have found you! Congrats, btw, on the new gig blogging for King Arthur Flour. FWIW I think I found this blog by Googling around after seeing your awesome looking cinnamon rolls on KAF’s Instagram.

    Anyway, back to pizza. I’m anxious to try your recipe – it reads, and looks, great but I’m wondering how it freezes. I’ve been using Peter Reinhart’s “Sourdough Pizza Dough” recipe from his “Artisan Breads Every Day.” As he says, though, the sourdough in that recipe is used more as a flavor enhancer than as leavening – there’s a teaspoon of commercial yeast in there as well. My custom has been to freeze the Reinhart dough until the day of “pizza night” and it works super-well after thawing and proofing. My concern is that the freeze might adversely affect the leavening power of the sourdough much more so than it does the commercial yeast. Have you frozen any of this dough for later use and, if so, how has it performed after thawing?

    1. Jeff — glad to have you along! Thanks, I’ve had a great time thus far working with KAF, great bunch of folks! I actually have not tried freezing this dough, but my feeling is it would work. I’ve frozen bits of my starter before and thawed them just fine. It would take some experimentation but I feel hopeful! I sometimes keep my shaped pizza dough in the fridge for even a day after I plan to bake it and it works pretty well, you might be able to also just keep the dough in the fridge.

      Hope that helps, thanks again for the comments!

  4. Thank you so much for the amazing blog! I have read it all in one sitting. It would be awesome to see here more recipes for sweet breads. Like the russian pirogi dough. Where you put some jam inside or farmers cheese.

    1. Wow, the whole thing! That’s great and thank you 🙂 I like the idea of doing more sweet bread recipes, I’ll add these to the list — thanks so much for the suggestion!

  5. This has been a challenging recipe for me. It is my third attempt and I cannot get past the mixing stage to bulk fermentation because the dough is too runny and difficult to handle. I use a mixer and reserve the last 50 g of water until the end. I make sure to add the water gradually but once the last 10-15 g are in the dough becomes so runny and sticky that I can’t do the stretches and folds even if I extend the mixing stage. It is a very different experience handling this dough compared to the country sourdough with less levain and longer autolyse recipe. I’m also concerned that if I don’t add the whole 212 g of water I’ll end up with a crust that is too dry. Any suggestions Maurizio?

    1. It sounds like the flour you’re using just can’t take the hydration. I’d reduce it until the dough feels ok to you, don’t worry too much about a dry crust. I would try it out with the water reduced and see how it turns out, if it’s too dry increase the water slowly each attempt until it’s just right for your flour!

  6. I look forward to trying this out, the last time I made pizza dough (in hindsight) the dough was way over proofed and over hydrated.

    p.s You must be getting offers for hand modelling. I mean, come on!

    1. Right on, have fun with it! It’s a pretty versatile recipe and I make it just about every other week or so now at this point — love it.

      Perhaps a second career for me?? 😉

  7. Hi, my broiler is a separate compartment below my oven and I don’t think can be on at the same time. How would I bake the pizza without the broiler? thanks for your help

    1. If your broiler and main oven heating elements are not in the same cavity you won’t be able to use both together (easily). I’d recommend just ignoring the broiler altogether and use the oven. You might not get quite the level of browning on the top part of the crust but it will still taste fantastic!

  8. In my oven I just turn it to bake and preheat like normal. Then, right before I load my pizza (as described above) I turn on my broiler (which in turn turns off “bake” mode and turns the broiler heating element on). I am not sure about preheating with your broiler for 1 hour, I would just do a normal preheat and then use the broiler when you load your pizza. Usually ovens have sensors inside to disable the broiler once it gets too hot so a preheat with the broiler on might not work…

    Hope that helps!

  9. Anthony thanks so much for the comments, I really appreciate it! I’ve tried Prairie Gold in the past and liked the grain/flour, I’ll have to give it another try soon. Of course I can’t find it in stores here so it’ll be an order.

    I really find my baking steel to be superior to the baking stones I’ve used in the past. As you mentioned it really has the ability to transfer much more heat directly to the dough and gets incredibly hot. It’s as close as I can get to a wood fired oven (until I finally do get one). A good idea might actually be to place another baking stone at the top of the oven right below the broiler to heat that up as well… I’ll have to try that out!

    I’ll definitely add a touch more water when upping the whole wheat, it usually can take on a little more for the reasons you mentioned. Looking forward to experimenting some more with that here very soon, especially with fresh milled flour.

    Thanks for the comments Anthony, really appreciate your input on all of this! Happy baking 🙂

  10. Making this tomorrow from my leftover starter from today’s sourdough loafs! I’m in Texas, we just moved here and I have yet to bake in this weather and 55-100% humidity. My house is about 65 degrees. Your ambient temp was closer to 70-75 I believe? Will that extend my bulk fermentation and proofing times?

    I’ve been eagerly waiting a long time for your pizza recipe thank you so much for sharing and happy holidays!

    Jenn

    1. So sorry for the late reply! Yes, my ambient is usually around 75ºF. It will definitely extend your bulk fermentation and proof time for this pizza dough. It’s hard to say exactly how much you’ll have to extend things but it will be necessary. Give it a few extra hours and see how it looks and if it’s ready try it out. If the dough rises way too much and doesn’t taste fermented enough give it more time next time to develop.

      Good luck and happy baking Jennifer!

  11. Hi! Thanks for an inspirational post! Im a beginner with sourdough, and calculating alternate timings for fermentation is tricky… if i have whole day at home and want to start baking at 6pm, how would you schedule it, especially after bulk? I dont assume the dough needs refrigeration then?
    Thanks again.

    1. I always do a long cold proof with my bread to add in additional fermentation time and flavor, usually around 8 hours. You don’t have to do this if you don’t prefer it. You’ll still need around 4 hours of bulk time (assuming you’re following everything else I have here on my site) but instead of an 8-12 hour cold proof in the fridge you can do like 3-5 hours on the counter at around 74ºF. You’ll have to ultimately determine when exactly to bake depending on how the bread is developing. Google “poke test” to help you gauge this but usually 4 or so hours works for me.

      Hope that helps!

  12. For a 100% whole wheat version, would you use the same process that you use for bread? (sift out bran and soften with boiling water) ?

    1. Adam — I probably wouldn’t bother doing that for 100% ww pizza dough. I find this dough to be much more forgiving and a whole wheat version should work just fine, perhaps with less rise overall. I’ll be exploring that myself here very soon!

  13. Oh my!!! This is beyond awesome. Such a gift to have access to your knowledge! So grateful. Thank you so much! Can’t wait to try 😊

  14. Hey Maurizio,

    Super excited about this post. Any thoughts on how to handle your baking suggestions in a bottom broiler oven?

    Thanks,
    Matt

    1. Matt, an oven with no top broiler element? You can still definitely use this dough recipe and make pizza but without direct downward heat you might be limited to what kind of scorching you can get on the top crust. This isn’t to say it will turn out bad, I’m sure it will still be delicious, just different.

      What could work is if you had two baking steels setup with space between them to slide in your pizza. This way the top steel and the bottom steel will be super hot providing plenty of heat. Just an idea!

  15. hello ! i finally made your pizza dough after drooling over it on your instagram feed. i am a sourdough beginner… so it didn’t turn out perfectly, but it was still delicious! thank you for the recipe! i look forward to trying this again very soon. in the final stage (proofing), my two boules spread out a lot. in the end i just kind of threw them onto the counter and pushed them to spread out into a pizza shape, so it was fine… but if you have any tips for this problem i am very happy to hear them 🙂 ! thanks again.

    1. Awesome, super glad to hear that! If they spread out too much then it’s most likely because the dough wasn’t strong enough, or shaped tightly enough, when you divided the dough. Because the hydration is so low with this recipe I’d be hesitant to say there’s too much water in the dough, but depending on the flour you’re using this is also possible.

      I’d make sure to mix a little longer next time so the dough is very strong by the time you get to bulk OR do an extra 1-2 sets of stretch and folds during bulk to add more strength.

      Hope that helps and have fun with it!

  16. I am so excited to try this recipe!

    Question – at the moment I do not own a baking steel (I’m assuming you can also use a pizza stone for this?). So I was wondering….could I potentially heat up the bottom of my cast iron combo cooker and bake a slightly smaller pizza in that?

    1. Yes, you can definitely use a baking stone! You could also use your combo cooker, anything that retains and transfers a large amount of heat will work well. Just be careful loading your dough into the preheated combo cooker, it might get tricky! You’ll have to make smaller rounds also so they fit the combo cooker but it will work out for ya.

      Happy baking!

  17. Bruce,
    Calzone is always a good fallback — I’ve done this myself 😀

    I played around with hydration for this recipe A LOT. As you know it’s a very big deal with pizza and just changing a few percentage points can drastically change the outcome. I find using the parchment paper helps with the higher hydration quite a bit since you don’t have to worry about it not launching off that pizza peel (I would occasionally have issues here).

    Hope your bake goes well! I have one coming up this weekend as well 🙂

    1. Right on! Did you blast the baking stone with the broiler before loading your pizza? I find that extra blast of heat really helps.

      Another thing you could try is to slightly reduce the top, downward heat so the top of the pie doesn’t bake quite as quickly. I found it took a little experimenting for me to get the top and bottom heat to be where I want it, and in balance at the end of the bake.

  18. I love how you are so opinionated about how you like your pizza. Also, do you think I can just bake pizza in a baking sheet or will you judge me if I do? LOL

    1. I find pizza to be a very, vey contentious thing so you have to be careful how you talk about it to people — especially Italians 😉

      You can absolutely bake this in a baking sheet, no problem at all! That’s traditionally how foccacia is made anyways, and heck, they are pretty close 🙂

  19. Hi, your pizza dough doesn’t have 67% hydration. I think it has 69%.
    You have also the water from starter.
    So, 212ml water + 23ml water from starter = 235ml. 235ml total water /(317g flours + 23g flour from starter) = 69%.

    1. Yes, you’re correct that’s a mistake in my calculations up there! I’ll fix it, thanks so much for catching that.

      If you don’t count the malt towards the flour total weight you’re right, overall hydration is around 69% (including the starter). If you do count the malt it’s 67.9%. I do usually include the malt as part of the flour calculation so the correct hydration for this should be 68% (rounding up).

      1. Hi, I tried last night this pizza dough. Was a nice dough but not equal to yours. I’ll try again and let you know.
        Thanks for reply.

  20. Looks great, I will try it next weekend. One question — do you bake with the parchment paper throughout the baking period? I ask because the picture with the baking steel seems to indicate no parchment paper. Thanks.

    1. Thanks for asking that, I should have clarified: I bake the pizza on the parchment paper even though the image shows it without. I actually alternate between the two and find baking on parchment to be much easier with essentially no drawbacks.

  21. I have been making and baking pizza in a very similar way for the last couple of years and I have never looked back…I just tend to keep my balls of dough much smaller though. You eat an incredibly large pizza I must say!

    1. That’s awesome! I find this method to be super straight forward and incredibly tasty. Yes, they are large dough balls, I work out hard and I eat a lot of pizza 🙂 Scale it up/down to suit your preference!

  22. Just bought a small bag of 00 (but its a low protein soft wheat – all they had at my local store)! Excited to try your recipe as I’ve been playing a lot with sourdough pizza dough lately. Baking in both my Uuni 2 and home oven which gets to 500 degrees. Having that stone/steel good and hot is so key! Thanks Maurizio!

    1. That 00 flour should be ok, give it a shot. The flour I use isn’t high protein either, I just make sure the dough is strong enough otherwise it can be a challenge to shape uniformly.

      How do you like your Uuni? I’ve been looking hard at those and trying to decide whether I’d like one instead of a full on wood fired oven.

      Thanks so much, hope you like the recipe!

      1. Hey! The Uuni is for tinkerers I’ve decided-it’s not for everyone. When I first got it, I brought it to a family picnic by the lake and it was interesting to see who really wanted to get it to work and who just wasn’t at all interested. I got to know one of my nephews a lot better haha! He hung in there with the problem solving. I really love it and the challenge of getting it to work right. On the plus side, it’s not very expensive, portable, and runs on wood pellets, so if you just want to make a couple of pies or a lot, it’s perfect. On the con side, it does take some experimenting. But there is an enthusiastic community on FB who discuss their success and failures and will answer any questions. Thanks for the flour advice. I should be baking pizza in a couple of days.

        1. That’s the conclusion I drew about the Uuni as well. I’m definitely interested in it but I’d hate to buy something I’d eventually end up returning for a full on wood fired oven. I’ll hold off until I can get the bigger oven for the backyard 🙂

          Have fun with the upcoming bake, if you end up using the Uuni let me know how it turns out in there!

    2. p.s. made a great pie last weekend with pesto, sautéed onions and leeks, and sweet rowan farmstead mountain ash – a rich creamy cow’s milk cheese.

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