What's cheaper than takeout, tastier than what you'll find in a restaurant and ready to serve in less time than it takes the delivery driver to get to your house?

Sourdough pizza, of course!

At my house, sourdough pizza has been a total game-changer. Gone are the days of delivery. Pizza night is at least a weekly tradition, if not more frequent, and always a highlight to look forward to! So I'm beyond excited to share my favorite pizza recipe with you.

A couple tricks for an incredible sourdough pizza:

Use a stand mixer. Simply throw all the ingredients in your mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment. The dough comes together easily and is kneaded for a few minutes. Check on it, maybe add a little flour or water as needed to get the right consistency. Then just drizzle some olive oil right in the same bowl, turn the dough to fully coat in the oil, cover with some plastic wrap and let the sourdough culture do its thing! In a couple hours you'll have pizzeria-perfect dough and it only took five minutes of active work.

Let it ferment as long as possible. With sourdough pizza dough, you don't really have to worry about overproofing. Once it's doubled in bulk, just throw it in the refrigerator until you're ready to use it - up to three days! The longer you can leave it, the better results you'll get: The dough becomes wonderfully strong for easy shaping, and the flavor just keeps getting better.

Follow the flavor principle. When choosing toppings, try to make each one more flavorful than the last - and keep the list short! A few punchy ingredients are more than enough to make your sourdough pizza amazing, without any flavors getting lost in the mix.

Some of my favorite topping combinations:

- Fiddlehead ferns or ramps, sauteed oyster mushrooms, thyme, goat cheese and garlic oil

- Chorizo, roasted red peppers, shredded mozzarella, BBQ sauce

- Fresh tomatoes, sliced mozzarella, classic red sauce, fresh basil (top with basil AFTER baking!)

- Pesto, sauteed peppers and onions, Italian sausage, shredded mozzarella and Parmesan

Bake at the hottest possible temperature. Commercial pizza ovens can get up to 700 or 800 degrees - far beyond what most home ovens are capable of! Fortunately, you can still bake a fantastic sourdough pizza at home. A baking stone or steel is your secret weapon: Preheat it in your oven at its top available temperature (normally around 500 degrees) for at least half an hour. The hot surface will help the pizza crisp up quickly during baking, so you'll get that perfect crust.

Really, you can't go wrong with sourdough pizza. What creative combinations will you invent?

Sourdough Pizza

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Category

Pizza

Servings

2 12" pizza crusts

It can be pizza night every night! Let this simple, versatile recipe for sourdough pizza crust be the canvas for your imagination. 

Ingredients

• 1 cup ripe sourdough starter

• 1/2 cup + 2-4 tbsp water, separated

• 1/2 tsp each garlic powder, onion powder, oregano

• 1 tsp salt

• 2 cups white all-purpose flour

• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour

• Olive oil, as needed

Directions

Mixing the pizza dough

1. Mix the ingredients together in order. If the dough is too dry, add 2-4 tbsp of water until just barely sticky.

2. Knead by hand (or use a stand mixer) for 3-5 minutes until dough is well-combined and smooth.

3. Shape the dough into a ball. Lightly oil a bowl with olive oil and turn to coat.

4. Cover tightly with plastic wrap or a towel and let rise in a warm place, 4-6 hours, until doubled in size.

5. Optional: Once risen, place the dough in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Remove from the refrigerator and let come to room temperature before proceeding.

Shaping & baking the pizza

1. Preheat oven to 500 degrees (or highest available on your oven). Place a baking stone in the center rack. Let preheat at least 30 minutes for the pizza stone to come up to temperature.

2. Divide dough into two halves and shape into balls.

3. Working with one dough ball at a time, gently stretch dough into a 12" round. Use olive oil to prevent dough from sticking to hands or work surface.

4. Place dough onto a flat baking sheet or pizza peel with a generous layer of cornmeal to prevent sticking. Top pizza as desired.

5. When ready to bake, quickly slide the pizza from the peel onto the hot baking stone.

6. Bake for 12 minutes, or until crust is golden brown and cheese is bubbly. Enjoy!

Recipe Note

Overnight proof

This pizza dough is ready to go the same day you prepare it. However, if you can plan ahead, you'll be richly rewarded! Letting the dough sit for one, two, even three days in the refrigerator will allow the flavors to develop and the dough to become very strong and easy to work.

Alternative flours

This recipe calls for all-purpose white flour as most kitchens will have it. If you have bread flour, you can substitute some or all of it for the all-purpose flour! Bread flour will make a stronger, stretchier dough. Bread flour is "thirstier" than all-purpose and requires more water to achieve the same hydration level, so be sure to add 2-4 tbsp of water per cup of bread flour and monitor carefully during kneading to make sure it's not too wet or dry. The dough should be juuuust barely sticky.