Sourdough Pizza

Or how to get fat on a budget.

This is a great way to use up your sourdough starter during that time of the week when she needs to get fed.

The crust is pre-baked first, which I assume is to keep it crispy (which worked).

The sourdough lends a tangy background to the dough, which adds a depth of flavour to what is pretty much already a great dish (come on it’s pizza).

Only thing was that the dough was really difficult to remove from the pan afterwards. Part of it was my fault since I was a little too heavy-handed with the cheese and the melted cheese stuck the dough to the pan. But the dough stuck to the pan in the middle as well. Not sure if being more generous when oiling the pan will help, or if I should just invest in a baking stone.

I got the recipe for the crust from King Arthur Flour, which is pretty gold for bread recipes. The crust was still pretty crispy even though I didn’t have a baking stone (which you heat up first so the moment you put the dough on top it gets crisp).

Ingredients (makes 1 medium thin crust pizza)

• 1/2 cup sourdough starter (mine was 100% hydration)
• 1/4 cup warm water
• 150g all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp instant yeast
• Toppings of your choice (I used a tomato sauce cooked with anchovies, 1/2 a red onion, 2 eggs, cream cheese, mozzarella, and rocket)

Method

1. Mix the sourdough starter with the water, flour, salt, and yeast (make sure the salt and yeast are placed at opposite ends of the bowl).
2. Knead until smooth and elastic. Grease the ball of dough and place in a greased container.
3. Cover the container with cling film and leave to rise until doubled in size, about 2-4 hours. It took closer to 5 for me (but it’s pretty cold in my kitchen right now).
4. Coat a pan with olive oil. Flatten the dough onto the pan. Cover, and let rest for 15 mins. It will start to shrink back a little, just press the dough to the edges of the pan again.
5. Cover and let the dough rise until it’s as thick as you like.
6. Preheat your oven to 230°C. Bake the crust for 4-5 mins, then top and bake for an additional 8-10 mins or until the toppings are done as you like.
7. Remove from the oven and loosen the edges of the pizza with a knife. Carefully lift it onto a cooling rack to keep the bottom crisp. Or you could just eat it straight away from the pan.

Notes

• 100% hydration means my starter was equal parts flour and water by weight.
• To see how I started my sourdough starter, see this post.
• I suggest going light with the toppings. Mine was really overloaded and the pizza ended up being closer to 4 portions worth for me.