Sourdough Pizza Crust, Mostly in Pictures

I know you guys have been asking for a common wheat pizza crust for a while, but I haven’t really been baking. My right wrist is loose but mostly better, however, so I decided to go on ahead and do a short knead for this and actually get some dough made! Strangely, although I’m left-handed, I mostly knead with my right.

I’m primarily going to narrate this recipe through pictures and captions, but am giving the ingredients list first. I didn’t want to mess with paying a whole lot of attention to quantities, so while I did round them off, I mostly baked how I wanted but had the bowl on the scale so I’d know what happened.

Here’s what you’ll need

250 grams of all-purpose (or whatever) flour

150 grams of sourdough starter (I used the Danish so I could freeze the rest of it for later)

1-2 tablespoons olive oil (not pictured)

1 tablespoon salt (we like ours salty; drop the amount if you don’t probably by half. Not pictured)

1 tablespoon of sugar (not pictured), or you can use an alternate sweetener

2 teaspoons garlic powder (not pictured, but optional)

125 grams water

Here’s what you’ll do

Flour in bowl!

Starter in bowl! Mix it in, too.

Add spices, oil, sugar, plus apparently not enough water.

125g was enough water. Get it to around this texture, then walk away for 30.

Knead the dough for maybe 3-5 minutes lightly, or until it’s actually smooth and elastic as I opted against doing. Then either oil your bowl and stick it back in, or oil something else and do the same. I discovered this little crock that I forgot I had, so I put it in there so as to justify keeping the crock.

Cover in some capacity. I think I got this at Home Goods 3-4 years ago. You can see why I wish to keep it, huh? Either way, let it rise until it’s doubled in volume or you’re hungry. Mine was doubled, but I forgot to take a picture because I handed the operation off to Ross once he was home from work.

Bake time!

Put your dough into some kind a pizza shape in whatever fashion you prefer. Generally I hand press it, and I think I thought Ross uses a rolling pin but evidently he only uses his fingers unless it’s a particularly stiff dough. Some people roll with wine bottles. Some toss up in the air. Whatever it is you like, do that. Then add sauce if using, then toppings. We usually just have a standard pepperoni pizza, though sometimes I make two so we can have something other than pepperoni. Child Tester always stares at us like she suspects some kind of mutiny is under way when this happens.

Make sure you heat your oven! I do mine at 450F/230C/GM8 on a stone. Some people prefer a longer bake at lower temperatures, some people prefer to max out the oven. However you like to do it, on whatever you like to bake it on, is fine. But do not put it straight on the rack like you can with a lot of frozen pizzas! You will be saddened by what occurs if you disregard this advice. I bake 10-15 minutes, depending on whether there’s some burnt cheese to bicker over yet, once we get to 10. Cool it for 5-10 minutes when it comes out so you can avoid burning your mouth with lava, then cut and nom!

This recipe makes enough dough for 2 personal pizzas or 1 family sized.