Recipes

Sourdough Pizza Dough

Pizza · Pizza Oven · Sourdough · Breads

Sourdough Pizza Dough
Prep 1 hr, plus about 30 hr
Cook 2 min per pizza
Serves 3–4 dough balls
Level Medium

Bryan Ford’s sourdough pizza dough for a very hot pizza oven: a levain built from a spoonful of starter, a little whole grain, a three-hour rise and a day in the refrigerator.

Untested: I have not cooked this one yet — the pizza oven has not been bought. It is here for the Pizza Ovens dive, and it is adapted from the source named in the Notes.

Ingredients

Levain

  • 50 g mature sourdough starter
  • 50 g “00” or bread flour
  • 50 g whole-grain flour
  • 100 g warm water

Dough

  • 310 g warm water
  • 10 g fine sea salt
  • 200 g of the levain
  • 425 g “00” or bread flour
  • 75 g whole-grain flour
  • Flour for dusting; olive oil for the container

Directions

  1. Build the levain. Mix the starter, flours and water in a jar and mark the level with a rubber band. Leave at room temperature 3–4 hours, until doubled.
  2. Mix. Dissolve the salt in the water, then dissolve 200 g of the levain in it. Add the flours gradually, by hand. Rest 10 minutes uncovered.
  3. Knead 10–15 minutes by hand (or 10 minutes on low and 2–3 on medium in a mixer) until smooth and springy.
  4. Bulk rise. Shape into a tight ball, put it in an oiled tub, and leave 3 hours at room temperature, until at least doubled with bubbles under the surface.
  5. Ball and chill. Divide into 3 or 4 balls, set them on a floured tray, cover, and refrigerate about 24 hours.
  6. Warm up about 2 hours at room temperature before stretching.
  7. Bake on a stone of about 900–950 °F for 1–2 minutes, turning about every 20 seconds.

Notes

Source Adapted from Bryan Ford, “From Starter to Finish: Bryan Ford’s Sourdough Pizza Dough,” on Ooni’s recipe pages.

Numbers not printed by the source Ford does not give a ball weight or overall hydration. Dividing the dough in four gives about 255 g per ball; taking the levain as half flour and half water, the whole dough is about 68% hydration. Both figures are arithmetic here, not his.

Freezing After the bulk rise, the dough can be frozen in oiled, lidded containers for up to 3 months.

The photo The photo shows a finished sourdough pizza, not the dough.

The rules The AVPN allows sourdough in place of yeast at under 10% of the flour.

Temperatures are for the oven floor (stone), read with an infrared thermometer. A pizza oven’s built-in gauge reads the air, which runs much hotter.

The Pizza Ovens dive on the Food site covers the oven, the fire and the dough in depth.