This recipe comes from Alexandra Cooks. Use a kitchen scaleto measure the ingredients in grams. Metric measurements are more precise for baking sourdough pizza and bread. I don't have experience measuring sourdough ingredients in cups, so I cannot guarantee that will work.
Prep Time15 minutesmins
Cook Time21 hourshrs
Total Time21 hourshrs15 minutesmins
Course: Main Course
Servings: 8
Author: Jenné
Ingredients
Sourdough Pizza Dough
375gwater
100gsourdough starter
10gsalt
500gall-purpose or bread flour
Marinara Cheese Pizza
1cupseasoned tomato sauceI make my own, or use a jar
1cupvegan mozzarella style cheese
handful fresh basil (add after pizza
Potato Kale Pizza (or Butternut Squash)
1cupvegan mozzarella style cheese
2clovesgarlicminced
1-2cupssliced yukon potato OR butternut squashmust be very thinly sliced
3cupskaletorn into chunks
1/2tspolive oildrizzle on after pizza has cooked
Instructions
Mix the dough
In a bowl, combine the water, starter, and salt and stir to break up and sort of dissolve. It doesn't need to be perfectly dissolved.
Add the flour, and stir until combined. You can use your hands to help, by squeezing the ingredients. It will be extremely sticky.
Transfer the dough to a greased bowl, and cover with a kitchen towel, and let it rest for 30 minutes.
Let the dough rest for 30 minutes, then repeat the stretch and fold 3 more times. 4 times total.
Ferment & Rise
Now that you've finished the stretch and fold, cover the dough with a kitchen towel and leave it on your counter at room temperature, about 70-75°, for 8-12 hours.
The dough should rise 50-100% (or double). I let it sit on the counter overnight or at the beginning of the day. Depending on your house it could take more or less time to rise.
Alexandra Cooks (the blog I took this recipe from) says that she has better structure in dough that has been allowed to rise 50% rather than double. I let mine double and have also had fantastic results.
Portion it
Now that your dough has risen, transfer it to a heavily floured workspace. I like to flour my hands before transferring the dough so that it doesn't stick as much.
Use a bench scraper or a knife to cut the dough into 4 equal portions.
Next you'll need to shape the dough into tight balls. To do this, fold the bottom of the dough under and spin the dough as you do this. Watch this to see how it's done.
Line a baking pan with parchment or a cotton tea towel, and sprinkle a bit of whole wheat flour on the surface.
Transfer the dough balls to the tea towel, and fold the towel to create a divider so that the dough doesn't stick.
Cover the dough with a plastic bag (I use a clean grocery bag), and twist to close it up.
Let the dough sit in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours or up to 3 days, after which you can freeze the dough if you don't want to use it right away.
Make your pizza crust
Take as many dough balls out of the refrigerator as you would like to bake, and set them on a floured workspace.
Let them come to room temperature for about 1 hour. I have rushed this process with good results. The point of letting it warm up is that it will make it much easier to work with the dough.
Preheat the oven to 550°, and place your pizza stone or cast iron in the oven while it heats.
Shape the dough into a round pizza crust, about 10". You can make it thin or thick crust. I always make thin crust.
Transfer the crust to parchment paper, then top.
Transfer the pizza on parchment paper to the hot baking vessel, then bake for 6 minutes, or until the crust is golden.
You can bake more than one pizza at a time if you have enough baking pans.
Remove from the oven and add your fresh basil, extra virgin olive oil, or other delicate toppings. Let the pizza cool a couple minutes before serving.