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.
I made the dough a few days ago and it has been fermenting in the fridge…just put it together and oh my….this was amazing. It will be hard to beat…I’ve definitely found my pizza dough recipe…WOW….amazing
Glad it worked so well for you. Love that you left it in the fridge for days. Yay for meal prep.
Does this recipe make 4 12 inch crusts?
Yes. 10-12 inch crusts.
Hi Lisa,
I don’t have a hand mixer. Could you possibly mix all of the ingredients together and let it sit as a shaggy mixture for an hour to reduce the amount of kneading time? Or would this hurt the dough consistency in the long run?
Thanks!
I would think that would work fine.
Could I make this pizza dough recipe with inactive sourdough starter? Also, could I let it rise in fridge overnight? how would I adjust the rise time etc?
It would depend on how inactive the starter is. I would think it would take a longer to rise. The time would really depend on how long it takes to about double in size.
I don’t have a stand mixer so I put the ingredients in my bread machine for 30 minutes and it passed the window pane test. Going to mix up more for tomorrow’s supper
I just finished mixing up the pizza dough and noticed that in your comments you mentioned that it could be frozen after the rise. This is prior to baking it, correct? How do you recommend freezing the dough? Putting it in containers or bags? And then do we just let thaw and bring to room temperature before baking in the future? I love this idea of having future dough ready for use!
Yes. It can be frozen prior to baking. Wrap in plastic wrap and then in a container or zip-lock bag. Yep, then just thaw the dough and roll out.
Should I let thaw out overnight in fridge ? Or on counter? How long does it usually take to thaw out on counter before ready to use? When should I take out of freezer if I want to bake the pizza at 5:00pm for supper let’s say?
Question. All the bread recipes I have used 4 cups AP flour weighs 480g. Are you using different flour? Thanks.
This is a measurement from freshly milled flour that I then measured into cups. If that makes sense.
In germany we have no Bread flour. Just just white spelt instead. The dough was really flobby after rising ( just did 3 hours) could this have been because of it or other factors. Will still try and bake it tomorrow morning. Im really exited how it will turn out! Lots of love from Germany
Lisa, can I put thisin my bread machine to save time? I hope to get a Stand mixer for Christmas with a bread hook
I did in my bread machine and the dough came out perfect!
I also don’t have a stand mixer – did you use the dough setting on your bread machine and let it run the entire cycle?
Hello Lisa,
Having to adjust the recipe for my daughter who can only eat certain flours. I feel like the dough is coming together but it doesn’t pass the windowpane test no matter what I do – could this be because we are having to use certain flours?!
Thanks so much!
It could be. What type of flour did you use?
Rye is my sourdough & then the other flour I used was Cassava.
Ah ok that would be why. Rye has only a little gluten and cassava is gluten free. The windowpane test determines if the gluten formation is adequate. So those two flours wouldn’t make the necessary gluten strands to pass. Hope that helps.
By far the best sourdough pizza dough I’ve made yet! And I’ve tried quite a few. Thank you!
What a compliment. Thank you for sharing. Glad you enjoyed the recipe.