Sourdough pizza

TIME30 hours MAKES2 pizzas (12 inch) PORTION
0.5x 1x 2x 3x

Sourdough neapolitan-ish pizza with a home oven is the holy grail. While the dough (and homemade sauce) is relatively straightforward, your home oven makes or breaks this pizza. I’ve tried over the years using different ovens, pizza stones, and pizza steels, and while I haven’t got quite happy with the end result just yet, the resulting pizza is still utterly delicious.

The timings provided below are super flexible — you could choose to start mixing the dough at 5pm (instead of 9am) and do a shorter overnight bulk ferment, shape and proof the dough before work (for baking after work), or even extend the cold bulk ferment over multiple days.

This dough uses a ripe starter directly (no seperate levain), a long cold bulk fermentation for flavour, and is baked on a baking steel using the broiler to mimic a pizza oven. Adapted from The Perfect Loaf.

INGREDIENTS

  • 288g 00 flour (or bread flour)
  • 32g wholemeal flour
  • 165g water
  • 50g water (reserved)
  • 48g ripe sourdough starter
  • 6g fine sea salt
  • 2g diastatic malt powder (optional)

Pomodoro sauce

  • 400g can of whole peeled tomatoes (drained)
  • 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 2-3 basil leaves
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp dried oregano

STEPS

Mix

  1. Combine the 165g of water, starter, flour, salt, and malt powder, and mix until it comes together. Gradually add the reserved 50g of water. Mix in a stand mixer with the dough hook for 4-5 minutes, or slap and fold by hand for 5-7 minutes. The dough should be smooth and strong, a little past medium development.

Bulk fermentation

  1. Leave the dough in a warm spot (23-25ºC) to bulk ferment for 2 hours and 30 minutes. Perform 3-4 sets of stretch and folds, 30 minutes apart. If the dough is very stiff after the third set, skip the fourth.

  2. Shape the dough into a tight boule, place in a lightly oiled bowl, cover, and refrigerate for cold bulk fermentation.

Divide and shape

  1. Divide the dough into two 290g pieces. Shape each into a tight ball with a completely sealed bottom, and place into a lightly oiled container and cover.1

Proof

  1. Proof at about 23ºC for 5-6 hours, until puffy, soft, and relaxed into a disc. Proofed dough balls can also be refrigerated for several hours or overnight if needed.

Bake

  1. Place a baking steel a few rungs below the griller in the top third of the oven (not too close to the griller or the pizza topping with burn), and preheat the oven to its maximum temperature (ideally 285ºC) for 1 hour.

  2. While the oven preheats, blend all of the pomodoro sauce ingredients until smooth.

  3. Stretch a dough ball into a 12 inch disc on a sheet of baking paper. You can use some semolina flour to help reduce stickyness. If the dough is difficult to shape, chill it for 15-30 minutes first. Switch the oven to the griller (high), and top the pizza.

  4. Slide the pizza (on the baking paper) onto the steel using a pizza peel. Spray the pizza and the sides of the oven with water from a handheld mister. Grill for 1.5-2 minutes, until the crust starts to colour.

  5. Switch the oven back to bake, leave for 1 minute, then rotate the pizza 180º and bake for a further 4-5 minutes until done. Repeat with the second pizza.

NOTES

  1. Alternatively, divide and shape the dough into balls straight after bulk fermentation, and refrigerate the balls directly overnight. ↩︎

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