Soft, chewy, and tangy, this sourdough pizza dough is the perfect recipe for those family pizza nights. Start the dough in the morning and it will be ready to bake up with your favorite toppings in the afternoon.
I know, I know. The audacity that I post a sourdough pizza dough when I’ve been devoted to this recipe for so long.
But hear me out. My sister was having a dinner party at her farm recently, and she purchased a pizza oven. Naturally, I offered to make some delicious sourdough pizza crust to take the wood fired pizza up another notch.
The crust turned out absolutely delicious. It was soft and chewy and bubbly. All the good things you want in pizza.
But you don’t have to have a pizza oven to get amazing results. This will work just fine in a standard oven or even on the grill.
Top with your favorite ingredients for your next pizza night.
Why you will love this recipe:
Tasty: The sourdough in this recipe adds so much flavor and tanginess.
Chewy: These crusts have the best chewy consistency.
Perfect for a pizza oven or grilling: I love this recipe to make delicious, grilled pizza or wood fired pizza.
Make ahead: Make these days or weeks ahead and have pizza dough ready for a quick and easy meal.
Tips:
- Be careful not to over-ferment the dough. This will leave you with a sloppy mess. Ask me how I know.
- This dough can be made days or even weeks in advance. If you are planning to use it within a few days, place in the fridge in an air tight container until ready to use. You can also freeze for later.
- This recipe is great for baking in the oven, a pizza oven, or even on a grill.
Pizza dough Ingredients:
Active sourdough starter: This is sourdough starter that has been fed within 4-12 hours, and it’s active and bubbly. You want to use starter that is at the peak of its bubbling in order to give the dough the most rise.
Flour: All purpose flour will work just fine.
Water
Salt: This adds a lot of flavor to the dough so it doesn’t taste bland.
Olive oil: This helps the dough to be softer and stretchier.
Tools:
Stand mixer
Measuring cups and spoons or scale
FAQ
Is sourdough good for pizza?
Yes. Sourdough starter and the fermentation process adds another layer of flavor.
Is pizza dough the same as sourdough?
Most pizza dough uses conventional yeast to give it rise. You will have to find a specific sourdough pizza dough recipe like this one to ensure it is sourdough or look on the ingredient list of a pre-made dough.
Why is my sourdough pizza hard?
This could be caused by a few different things, such as overbaking, overworking the dough, or adding too much flour.
How To Make Sourdough Pizza Dough:
The morning of pizza night, add the ingredients to a stand mixer bowl.
With a dough hook, mix the dough on medium speed until the dough passes the windowpane test, which might take up to 10 minutes. (This is when you are able to stretch a small amount of dough so thin, you can see through it.)
Place in an oiled bowl and cover with a lid or plastic wrap. Rest at room temperature for about 8 hours.
Preheat oven to 475.
Divide the dough into 4 equal sections and allow to rest while you prepare your toppings.
Roll out on a lightly floured surface. I like to create a bit of a ridge around the outside for hand stretched thickness.
Spread on sauce and top with toppings.
Bake for 13-15 minutes (I like to use a preheated pizza stone or cast iron skillet but you can also use a pizza pan.). Finish off with a 3 minute broil to achieve the browning on top of the crust. Our vintage oven has a bottom drawer for broiling and it made the most beautiful pizzas.
Another option is to cook it in an outdoor pizza oven. We had a pizza party at my sister’s house and enjoyed the dough with this method as well! She has an Ooni, and now I’m thinking about getting one for our home. It makes for an easy night of entertaining guests!
How to Store:
Store dough in the fridge up to a week, or place in the freezer after it has risen and has been divided. Wrap with plastic wrap and then store in a freezer plastic bag.
Pre bake crusts for about 8-10 minutes and then allow to cool. Wrap in plastic wrap and store in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Baking Schedule:
9 AM: Create dough.
5 PM: Split the dough and allow to rest before baking.
5:15-5:30: Bake the pizzas.
Pizza Variations:
Pesto pizza: Skip the pizza sauce and use pesto as the base. Top with cheese and your other favorite toppings.
Olive oil, goat cheese, and date sauce pizza.
Chicken Alfredo pizza: Replace pizza sauce with Alfredo sauce and top with chicken, cheese, and any veggies you like.
Meat lovers: Pepperoni, cooked sausage, and bacon work amazingly for this one.
How To Make A Margherita Pizza:
Create dough according to the instructions above.
Preheat oven to 475.
Roll out into circles and create a ridge around the edge.
Spread pizza sauce over all the crust.
Top with freshly sliced mozzarella and very thinly sliced tomatoes.
Bake for 13-15 minutes until pizza is bubbly.
Top with fresh basil and enjoy. You can also sprinkle it with parmesan.
Find More Sourdough Recipes:
- Sourdough Pumpkin Bread
- Sourdough Sandwich Rolls
- Easy Sourdough Dinner Rolls
- Sourdough Cheese Bread
- Sourdough Cornbread
If you try this recipe and love it, I would love if you gave it 5 stars! Also, tag me on Instagram @farmhouseonboone.
Sourdough Pizza Dough
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup starter, 113g
- 4 cups flour, 600g
- 1.5 cups water, 354g
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, 26.6
Instructions
- The morning of pizza night, add the ingredients to a stand mixer bowl.
- With a dough hook, mix the dough on medium speed until the dough passes the windowpane test, which might take up to 10 minutes.
- Place in an oiled bowl and cover with a lid or plastic wrap. Rest at room temperature for about 8 hours.
- Preheat oven to 475.
- Divide the dough into 4 equal sections and allow to rest while you prepare your toppings.
- Roll out on a lightly floured surface. I like to create a bit of a ridge around the outside for hand stretched thickness.
- Spread pizza sauce and top with your favorite toppings.
- Bake for 13-15 minutes (I like to use a preheated pizza stone or cast iron skillet but you can also use a pizza pan.). Finish off with a 3 minute broil to achieve the browning on top of the crust.
Notes
- Be careful not to over-ferment the dough. This will leave you with a sloppy mess. If you can’t bake it after 8 hours of fermentation, you can place it in the fridge to bake a later time.
- This dough can be made days or even weeks in advance. If you are planning to use it within a few days, place in the fridge in an air tight container until ready to use. Freeze the dough after rising for up to 2-3 months.
- This recipe is great for baking in the oven, a pizza oven, or even on a grill.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Love how my pizza turned out on just my first try! I had some college students say it was the best and even my husband (who worked at Pizza Hut in high school and is now a “pizza expert” (: ) loved it and said he wants it to be one of our staple meals!
If I were to freeze the dough, how should I thaw it/how long to bring to room temp before baking?
Love to hear that! I just thaw it on my counter at room temperature until completely thawed.
Amazing
I’m somewhat new to sourdough but this was fantastic. Out Ooni needs to be cleaned so I’ve been making pizzas in the oven. I made the dough 3 days ago and left it in the fridge, it did rise more and the afternoon of pizza night I let it rest on the counter and rose a little more. It came out like a Neapolitan style pizza from my oven. I stretched it out on parchment transferee and cooked it on a stone plate.
Is the dough supposed to rise? Because mine didn’t. I haven’t cooked it yet, so we’ll see how it goes.
Yes, it should rise.
How much is it supposed to rise? Mine had only risen a little…
It usually gets close to doubling.
I made the sougerdough pizza crust and it turned out wonderful. I was the first time I tried the it, as I am new to this whole sourdough world. My husband liked it so much he has already asked me to make it again. Your directions we spot on. Thanks so much for perfecting it for us.
Hi! I notice sometimes you have the stretch and fold method and sometimes the mixer method. Can these be used interchangeably or do they have different effects?
Thanks!
They can be used interchangeably. I prefer the stretch and fold with some breads over others.
I made this tonight in New Zealand and it was incredible! The perfect amount of crispy puff, and I’m a newbie to sourdough. It was super simple to put together and with a range of toppings, absolutely delicious!
I feel like the measurements on this are off. I used 600g of flour and that was way more than 4 cups. It’s not rising right and looks like plaster. Didn’t turn out for me which was a real shame! Hopefully you can correct the measurements as it sounds great!
Thank you. I will look into the measurements.
Same issue- it was very sticky- I tried adding more flour and not ideal.
I will say I used bread flour- may be the difference.
That’s interesting. Was it sticky after the fermentation? That could be a sign of over fermenting the dough.
Delicious. This was the first time making a sourdough crust. In the past the traditional dough was so hard to work with. But this was so soft and stretchy. There’s a local restaurant that puts a chipotle raspberry jam on instead of pizza sauce and I canned up some jam last weekend with a jalapeno and raspberries and I spread it on the pizza with cheese, sausage, Canadian bacon and pineapple and it was the bomb. Seriously good. It was a lot like a jelly donut pizza.
Followed the recipe. Mixed by hand. Took less than 8 hrs in a Warm house, maybe 6 or so? It Made four small-medium sized pizzas. And it was so good!! Turned out perfect!!
It says 4 cups but 600 g for all purpose flour I thought 1 cup= 12Og which would make the total be 480g. Which measurement should I use to make it turn out right ?
I wondering this same thing Heather. I started out measuring and weighing 4 cups of all purpose flour. I could tell it wasn’t going to work so i added another cup of flour, it was still to soft. I then added 1 more cup of flour and it balled up perfect in my stand mixer. So i ended up using 600 grams of flour instead of 4 cups of flour which ended up making a perfect dough. I will be making and baking my pizzas tonight!! Can’t wait!
Glad that worked out for you!
I had a similar issue and completely forgot that the last time I made this, I found your comments and had to adjust the flour by quite a bit too. I have no idea how much flour it ended up taking. Because this takes so long to play around and so much tinkering with the recipe, I don’t know that I’ll use this dough recipe again. I notice with FoB recipes sadly, that there’s often little details that are left out and really frustrates me during the process.