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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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 Weight | 592 grams |
| Hydration | 69% (this hydration takes the water in the 100% hydration starter into account) |
| Yield | 2 x 290g dough balls (about two 12″ pizzas) |
| Buffer | 2% (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.
| Weight | Ingredient | Baker’s Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| 288g | Type 00 white flour (Central Milling Type 00 Normal) | 90.0% |
| 32g | Whole wheat flour (Giusto’s Stoneground Whole Wheat) | 10.0% |
| 165g | Water 1 | 51.4% |
| 50g | Water 2 | 15.6% |
| 2g | Diastatic malt powder (optional) | 0.5% |
| 6g | Fine sea salt | 2.0% |
| 48g | Ripe sourdough starter, 100% hydration | 15.0% |
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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:
- Take a 290g dough ball out of the fridge and shape out into a disc on parchment paper
- Turn oven from Bake setting (hopefully at 550°F (285°C)) to maximum Broiler setting
- Top dough disc with toppings
- Open the oven and slide in the pizza dough on top of the parchment paper
- Quickly spritz all sides of dough with a handheld water mister and then close the oven door
- Bake for 1.5 to 2 minutes (broiler should be on)
- Turn broiler off and set oven back to Bake at 550°F (285°C)
- After 1 minute, rotate the dough 180° using a pizza peel and carefully grabbing the corner of the parchment paper
- 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
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
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
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
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.
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!
Sourdough Pizza Dough
- Prep Time: 24 hours
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 24 hours 10 minutes
- Yield: 2 pizzas
- Category: Pizza, Sourdough
- Cuisine: Italian
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
- 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. - 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. - 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. - 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. - 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. - 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!
847 Comments
Hello, great recipes!
I wanted to discuss the hydration of you pizza dough.
To calculate the hydration of the dough, you divide the amount of water added by the total amount of flour. But you dont seem to take into account the amount of water that is contained in the liquid starter. Generally a liquid starter is 100% hydrated, which means that half of it is flour and the other half is water (this is going to be my working assumption). So, let’s take the amount of water plus the water contained in the starter (212 + 23.5 = 235.5) divided by the total amount of flour (which should include the flour in the starter) that is 285 + 32 +23.5 = 340.5 and the result is 235.5/340.5 = 69.16%. Granted this is not a large difference to the 68% you state, but depending on the amount of starter one uses for a given recipe (either pizza or bread), it can affect the hydration of the dough quite significantly.
Jerome, thanks for pointing that out and you’re absolutely correct. When presenting formulas here I do typically take the levain into account when calculating the overall hydration for a recipe as it’s the most accurate representation of how the dough will feel/act, however here, in this case, the amount difference is pretty small.
Thanks for the comment and I’ll add the note to the recipe!
Thank you so much for this detailed recipe. I have used it quite a few times now and it works every time with excellent results. The basis of your recipe and excellent detailed instruction is so solid that I have felt confident to make minor tweaks to take into account the products and tools that I have, especially when it comes to the metalwork in the oven!
You’re very welcome, Jayne and thanks for the feedback! Adjustment to one’s own kitchen is always necessary and it sounds like you did just that — happy baking!
Hi Maurizio,
Thanks for taking the time to post the detailed recipes and help troubleshoot. I’ve grown my starter using your method and it will typically double in volume in 16 hours or so. I tried to use it to make this pizza thinking it was active enough, however the pizza came out flat and chewy. I have a couple questions:
1. How will I know when the start is active enough? Should it be more than doubling in volume eventually?
2. How much should I expect this pizza dough to rise during bulk fermentation? It didn’t seem to do a whole lot during this period.
3. If my starter is active enough, are there other reasons one would end up with flat, chewy dough?
Thanks!
You’re very welcome, Keith! Answers:
1. Have a look at my post on Frequently Asked Sourdough Starter Questions — I’ve got an answer to this question (and more!) exactly.
2. You really won’t see massive rise in this dough during bulk fermentation. It should feel slightly more puffy and you might see some scattered bubbles here and there, but the real evidence won’t really appear until you go to divide and preshape. At that point, when you turn the dough out, you should see bubbles and fermentation evidence on the bottom of the dough mass.
3. Usually flat, chewy dough is due to insufficient fermentation in the dough. It might not be that your starter is the problem but it might just been the dough itself hasn’t had enough fermentation time before placing it in the fridge. Try to keep your dough warm after mixing (78°F would be ideal) and you could try leaving it out another 30 minutes to 1 hour before placing it in the fridge. This initial bulk fermentation is really important!
I hope that helps, let me know how it goes next time!
Hi Maurizio!
Many thanks for this recipe, I will definitely give it a go. I made a couple of sourdough breads for the past year however, I’m still quite the beginner and never made pizza at home. 😀
Just wanted to ask you a couple of questions. The recipe is for 2 x 290 g sourdough balls but in your tray I see 6 small balls, are the pictures not related?
Also, I don’t have a pizza stone (or steel) yet so I was thinking to try and make like a “grandma style” pizza ( I’ve been watching The Pizza Show on Munchies) using an aluminium baking tray. I have no idea how much dough I need for that and if it works to be honest. Any ideas?
You’re welcome!
That’s right, in the picture I scaled the recipe up (retaining the ratios of everything — and you can do this as well) to have 6 balls instead of just 2.
You can definitely use a sheet pan to make this, kind of like Roman style pizza, it’s delicious this way. It all depends on the size of your sheet pan. I’d say if your using a “half sheet pan” you might need 2 balls to cover it, depending on how thick you want to go. Other than that, you’ll have to experiment with how you’d like to stretch the dough out to cover the pan!
Enjoy 🙂
You sir, are a god among men. I think my girlfriend might secretly be getting jealous as I’m always talking to her about this Maurizio haha. Thank you for this stellar recipe, I lived nine years in Italy and ever since coming to America, I’ve longed for that perfect pizza, and now I can have it when ever my heart desires. I do have one question, as I look through the pictures your pizzas don’t seem to be as watery as mine when coming out of the oven, any idea why that is? Just the top quality mozzarella haha?
I don’t know how it happened but seven months ago I made a starter and fell in love with baking. My starter is insanely active, like….insanely active… and I’ve been lucky enough to have incredible success thus far, (I secretly think the compost toilet has something to do with it :b ) Anyway your website has taken things to a whole new level and I thought Id share my appreciation. Thank you. Keep up the awesome work. We depend on it :b
If you ever come to Maui and want fresh rainbow trout, watercress, and organic vegetables check us out. I’ll serve you some of your bread 🙂
https://www.instagram.com/kulahavenfarms/
Ps. theperfectloaf is officially my homepage.
Thanks so much Max, I really appreciate those comments! I definitely don’t want to get between you and your girlfriend, but hey, good bread and pizza might be worth it?! 😉
Yes, I find if the top of the pizza is too watery it could be from the tomatoes or the mozz. I usually chop up the mozz balls rather small, then let them either drain or rest out on paper towels to reduce the moisture — you really want them to be rather dry.
That’s so awesome your starter is doing so well out there! You’re in the land of lush, everything grows well out in that wonderful environment! I’ve been to Maui but it’s been a while. I have such wonderful memories from when I was out there — it really is a paradise.
Thanks again and happy baking!
The only problem with paradise is the two hundred dollar shipping on quality flour. Yikes!
Thanks for the quick response, I’ll give it a try next pizza Sunday 😀 !!
As a mother of five adult sons, I’ve tried more than the average number of pizza crust recipes, including sourdough. Always disappointed. This recipe is the best I’ve ever tried, thank you! It will be my go to recipe. My husband just bought a used pizza oven and I’m so excited to try this once he gets it up and running! One question for you. I saw a couple of posts about making the dough ahead and freezing. Do you have a recommendation as to when to freeze the dough? After the initial bulk fermentation? After the overnight refrigeration? And what are your thoughts on how to thaw/rise for the best results? Thanks again for the great recipe!
Awesome, Celine! Thanks for that feedback, glad to hear this recipe is working out so well for you and your family. I’ve not tried to freeze this dough, but if I were going to I’d probably do it during bulk fermentation after it has had a few hours of proof time on the counter. You don’t want to cool the dough too soon or it might not have enough activity to recover from the cold.
One other thing you could try, instead of freezing, is to just pop the dough (covered) into the fridge at various points in the process. So, not only could you do it in bulk (when it’s in one large container), but you could also place it back into the fridge after you take it out to divide and then preshape. I’ve found the dough is still very nice after 2-3 days in the fridge.
Hope that helps!
Hello there;
I was wondering if you’d be so kind to convert ingredients to, cups and teaspoon and tablespoon amounts… I bought all of the products you mentioned above and just having problems with converting and don’t want to guess.
Thank you so much..
Vaughn
Hey there! Unfortunately I can’t do the conversion to volume measurements, it would take me quite a long time to do that for each of these recipes. That said, I highly recommend (if you have a scale) to use weight measurements, especially with pizza and bread! Volume can be inaccurate when dealing with flour and I find weight measurements to be the most accurate possible.
There are some utilities online to convert flour weights to volume measurements, you always use one of those as well. Sorry about that and happy baking!
Hello, Maurizio! Me again:D. I’m trying to absorb everything here. :DDD Is the material of dough tray you recommended plastic? It looks like is. Did you mention you have a favorite organic 00 flour brand? Would you please share with us :)) I made the pancake and the waffle using your recipe, they are perfect!!! (Although the waffle pan got sticky and burned, I finally end up using the mix on the griddle lol, I guess it’s the fire problem?) Anyways, thanks a lot!!!
Hey there! Yes, the dough tray is all plastic, but it’s very sturdy and doesn’t bend at all. I’ve been using Central Milling Type 00 (organic) for a while now and really like that flour!
Glad to hear the pancakes/waffles turned out well! Make sure you oil whatever pan you’re using so the dough doesn’t stick when you ladle it in.
Hope that helps!
Thank you very much! They have a pickup place near the farm where I get my meat, surely will try when I finish my inventory.
Will you worry about the “plasticizer” if the tray is plastic? Apparently you are picky (like me ;p) in cooking and the tools according to your website.
Happy Christmas!
Usually I’m very cautious about using any plastic in my cooking at home — just a personal choice, I prefer glass, metal, ceramic, etc. However, the dough for this pizza is only in contact with these trays for a relatively short period of time (and theoretically separated by a layer of olive oil). These trays are pretty standard in the food industry here in the USA as well.
So, yes, while I’m usually concerned with this I’m willing to “look the other way” for the convenience of these awesome trays 🙂
Happy holidays!
Have you ever used the Roccbox to bake any of your other breads? Your site is great btw…
Thanks, I appreciate that! I have used the RB to make focaccia (fantastic) and other small food like calzone but not bread that requires steaming. I feel like the opening on the oven is a bit small to do larger breads and it would be challenging to seal it up for steaming!
Hi there! Is there any reason you wouldn’t divide after bulk fermentation? It seems it would make for less work and cleanup to portion out the dough balls on the same day of mixing.
Hey! You could definitely do that without issue. Usually I mix up the dough late at night and like to just throw the whole bulk container into the fridge — easier when it’s late. 🙂
I’m concerned I’ll be gone too long for the proofing stage so looking to adjust the timing. I could proof around 65 degrees for 6 hrs or, do you think it’d be ok to extend the initial time in fridge after bulk? Thinking like 9pm to 430pm after work the next day. Then I’d shape and proof and then retard again till baking the next night. I’ve seen other recipes that only retard and referidgerate once shaped which I could also do but wasn’t sure if there was a benefit to the fridge time after bulk as opposed longer time once shaped. Thanks!
I prefer to retard the dough in the fridge when it’s in bulk, and only do it once it’s been shaped if a schedule conflict comes up or some other issue. That said, the dough should last well enough if it’s not over proofed by the time you place it in the fridge for the second time. I know some bakers who say they get great results with prolonged proof times in the fridge, even after a cold bulk.
The dough is pretty flexible! I’d play with both options, you could try proofing at a warmer temp for the bulk stage, it should be ready in a shorter time to shape.
I hope that makes sense!
Thanks so much for replying! It does make sense. Your one on one assistance to enthusiastic home bakers is unparalleled! I guess I’ll just have to make more pizza on a wide variety of timelines and see what we like best. 😂
Glad I could help 🙂
But that’s how most things with baking go, I think at least — just get in and experiment! Use your experience and intuition (and sometimes a little luck) and see how it turns out!
Hey Maurizio, I’m so excited to try this recipe! I have (maybe a dumb) question: do you cover the dough during bulk fermentation on the counter? Thanks!
That’s actually a great question! Yes, I always keep the dough covered (usually with these reusable plastic covers) — it’s especially important here as I live in a very dry climate. Have fun with the recipe and enjoy!
Awesome, thanks for your quick reply, I’ll go cover it!
I have made this recipe a few times and always turned out spectacular. its becoming a weekend tradition around the house everybody getting to top their own pizza. I could not shell out the cash for a baking steel so I have been using a large 17″ cast iron skillet flipped upside down in the oven it seems to be working great. only possible down side is it raised the cooking surface several inches above the oven rack so you must plan accordingly.
That’s fantastic, Richard! Glad to hear my recipe has worked out so well for you and your family. I’ve read other places that say a skillet works well, too — I haven’t tried this but it’s worth a go even though I have a steel in my oven. Thanks for the kind words and the comments, happy baking!
The dough freezes fine!
I made two balls a week ago. I baked one right away and stuck the other in a quart ziplock and put it in the freezer.
The first one came our fine – as expected. It is now my wife’s favorite pizza crust after a lot of trials with other recipes.
Now one week later, I took out the frozen pizza ball, actually more of a disc, since I froze it after the final proof but before shaping. I let it defrost for 24 hours – it formed up very nice and baked up and tasted the same as the fresh one.
Bottom line – I will double or triple the recipe next time – and freeze some more !!
I am SO trying this next time. I’ve been using leftover dough to make focaccia but it’d be great to always have some on hand for an impromptu pizza night. Thanks!
Just to be clear, I defrosted the dough in the refrigerator. If I want to eat at 7pm, I turn on the oven at 6 pm… pull the dough (now thawed) out of the fridge at 6:50 – form the final pie, top and it’s ready to launch. Shaping the dough when cold, as you recommend, makes this so much easier.
Excellent. Yes, working with cold dough is so, so nice. I’ve started experimenting more and more with a cold bulk with my doughs lately — it’s a really nice technique especially when working with high hydration mixes!
I had a go at making pizza with this dough last night and it turned out pretty stellar. I have tried a few other recipes over the past few months and the only other pizza I’ve made which was as enjoyable to eat is the Serious Eats Detroit Pizza and that’s a whole other beast. Thank you for the incredibly well written recipes and pictures. It’s very easy to follow along and the pictures provide great checkpoints to see how everything is coming along comparatively. I’ve uploaded a few pictures of the two pizzas I baked yesterday to Imgur here: https://imgur.com/a/V6rkE
P.S. I was previously using semolina flour to help launch pizzas with my peel, but I found your parchment paper method to work much better. The other benefit of using parchment paper is that I should be able to queue up pizzas ready for the oven instead of having to wait to take a pizza out of the oven to re-cover it in semolina flour each time, so turnaround time between pizzas is reduced and less burnt semolina accumulating on the baking steel.
Pierre thanks for sending over those shots and the feedback — your pies look awesome! That’s making me want to make a ‘roni pizza tonight… thanks 🙂
Glad my recipe has worked out so well for ya. There’s a lot that goes into it, but once you get the process down it’s pretty straightforward. I find myself mixing up some dough the night before, shaping in the AM, then pizza in the afternoon or early evening. So easy!
And yes, parchment paper has been a lifesaver in the home oven, it’s just so much easier to launch by just sliding it in there 🙂
Thanks again and enjoy!
Have you found any difference when baking sourdough pizza dough as compared to long yeast fermentation dough? Will there be any difference in terms of taste and crust ?
I have very limited experience in working with commercial yeast so I don’t have much of a basis for comparison. Since I have a sourdough starter always ripe and ready to go here in my house it’s just what I use — I also find the texture and taste to be incredible.
I’m not sure this helps but I hope you give this recipe a go!
Thanks Maurizio. Appreciate the response.
I have been trying various Sour Dough Pizza recipes over the last 6 months. This was the best by far. I really appreciated the detailed technique description as well. I used KAF Bread Flour instead of the 00 – no other substitutions. Perfect result. I baked one on a stone and the other on a steel – no difference that I could detect
Really, really glad to hear that! Thanks for the comments. I haven’t tried with KAF Bread Flour — will have to test that out. Happy baking!
Great stuff as usual. I recently have using your recipe as a base and running my own experiments. Couple things. Why don’t you use olive oil in the mix? I like the pastry flavor it adds, just curious to get your reasoning. Then on my most recent trial, I substituted the wheat flour for Central Milling T85 and increased the hydration. And woah. It was great. Have you tried this?
Thanks, Jimmy! I’ve never added OO to my dough mix for pizza, I like to add it to the sauce and/or on top instead. It gives me a bit more control with the oil: there might be times I don’t want the flavor to come through at all (depending on my topping selection).
I haven’t tried using T85 in my pizza dough but it sounds great. That’s one of my favorite CM flours and I’ll have to try this out very soon! I’ve been meaning to work more on whole grain pizza doughs (I do have a “more whole grain pizza dough” posted, though!), including more wheat, kamut, and spelt.
Have fun!
I can never get my sourdough to rise! Maybe its my starter? It does go bubbly and it recently smelt of acetone so its definately active! When you add the starter to the recipe should it be recently fed?
You want to use your starter for this recipe when it’s mature (or ripe), meaning it’s been some number of hours after your last feeding and it has fermented almost to the point where the level of your starter will start to fall in the jar (if it’s a liquid starter). If you use it too early it’ll take quite a long time before you see any activity in your dough.
The key is to always use a mature starter to mix into dough or to build a levain.
Hope that helps!
Just a quick question about the flour, is this the whole wheat high protein (fine) flour? Their flour options can at time be a little overwhelming.
That’s correct, the ww high protein fine. Really though, any ww you have would work well!
Is it too much to say I love you! or perhaps love your sourdough knowledge as thats a little less stalker-ish 🙂 You’ve completely turned my sourdough baking around. I’ve had 1 year of mostly flops, still eatable, but nothing amazing and since following your advice and researching through your page I’m now super proud to say I’m baking beautiful sourdough; light, a nice rise, beautiful taste and that amazing crust, so thank you! Pizza is next on my list, we have friday night pizza every week but have yet to try the sourdough base. Will post again. Thanks
It’s not too much 😜 It’s great to hear your sourdough bakes have gone so well — it’s always such a wonderful thing! I hope you enjoy the pizza, it turns out so well I make sourdough pizza so, so often over here. I just cant get enough. Enjoy!
Hi! I have build a fire wood oven in my garden but never tried the sourdough. How much hydratation would you suggest for fire wood?
Thanks!
Ahh, very jealous of your oven! What an awesome thing to have. I would suggest you lower the hydration since you’ll most likely be cooking these at a much higher heat. I’d suggest anywhere between 63% to 65% will give you great results (remember to adjust as necessary for your flour!).
Have fun!
I’ve been making pizza for decades in my oven. I’m fairly new at sourdough pizza though. Regardless of recipes (I’ll try yours too, soon!) is the pizza steel you’re using necessary, or can I use my stone? I have two, and a family of 6, so I make many pizzas in one night… I like baking on pizza stones, as it brings out the flavor, and I usually bake on both racks/stones at once, so I can do two pizzas each time, switching pizzas from racks halfway through baking, for evenness. Suggestions?
You definitely don’t need the Baking Steel to get good pizza, I just find it’s a great tool and present it here for those that might be interested. I’d say if your stones are working well then stick with that! If you’re in the market for a replacement some day in the future, perhaps consider it, but not 100% necessary.
Happy baking!
Hi thanks for this recipe! I tried this a few times and it works great! This weekend i wanted to make 12 dough balls so I scaled everything up proportionally. After I took the dough out of the refrigerator it was very sticky and impossible to form balls.. Do i have to use more flour or less water or did i do something wrong :-)? Thanks!
Glad the recipe has worked out for ya! If you scale everything up in the same percentages you do not have to adjust anything. Is it possible you were using a different batch of flour? Was your weather drastically different each time? And finally, a larger mass of dough can hold its warm temperature longer, it’s very possible the dough fermented quicker than you expected.
Just some ideas!
Hi thanks for this awesome post! Like others I came here for your starter and bread guidance but knew you must have pizza dough recipe as well. Quick question- would I be able to freeze this dough to use on random weekdays? I rarely have enough time to be at home for two days in a row, so if I could make a large batch to freeze that’d be perfect. Then I can pull out a dough ball on any weekday that I’m craving pizza – which like you is quite often. Thanks in advance!
Also I’ve recently made my own starter and my first two loaves from scratch and they were mind blowingly amazing! Probably some of the best bread I’ve ever had and on my first try – all thanks to your posts!
I’ve actually never tried freezing this dough, but theoretically it should work. I’d give it a try and see how it goes, perhaps test 1-2 dough balls 🙂
Really, really glad to hear about your recent bakes!! Happy baking Anthony.
I made two balls a week ago. I baked one right away and stuck the other in a quart ziplock and put it in the freezer.
The first one came our fine – as expected. It is now my wife’s favorite pizza crust after a lot of trials with other recipes.
Now one week later, I took out the frozen pizza ball, actually more of a disc, since I froze it after the final proof but before shaping. I let it defrost for 24 hours – it formed up very nice and baked up and tasted the same as the fresh one.
Bottom line – I will double or triple the recipe next time – and freeze some more !!
Wow that’s super awesome to hear, thanks for reporting back on this! Now I really need to give this a try…