Ever since the sweet and wonderful Sally encouraged me to take a walk on the wild side, any recipe with the word “sourdough” instantly captures my attention! If there is one ingredient that can transform any recipe from regular to extraordinary, it would be sourdough and pizza crust is no exception.

I have used my sourdough starter to make bread,muffins, pancakes, crepes, brownies, crackers, English muffins ,cinnamon rolls and every single time the results were amazing. Using a sourdough starter adds a certain depth to recipes, a layer of flavor that is not necessarily sour. At times you can’t detect any tang but still the addition of the sourdough starter improves the texture and flavor so much that now even my kids say that any recipe gets extra points if it contains Harry.

If you don’t have a sourdough starter ( and if you visit the recipes mentioned above you will know that you really MUST get one!), head over to my tutorial on how to create your sourdough starter and come on this sourdough adventure with me. Believe me it is easier and tastier than what you think 🙂

For the last Secret recipe club assignment this year, I chose to make sourdough pizza.

The blog I was assigned this month was the keenan cookbook . Chris and Rachel, are the deo behind the blog along with The Toddler and Baby Boy.I love how they describe the blog dynamics in their about page :”Chris does most of the cooking, posting and online socializing. Rachel takes most of the photos, proof reads posts, and taste tests before giving her seal of approval on new recipes.” If you stop by their blog, you will realize that they are a great team who work well together to produce great recipes.

I bookmarked their spinach and cheese dip and their pumpkin pie smoothie but when I saw a recipe for sourdough pizza crust I knew immediately that it is going to be “the one”. I made this pizza crust three times this month and it was amazing every time. Not only is it a great way to use up the starter you would usually discard at every feeding but it was easy to make with very little active working time. The best part however was the taste and the texture. I love my go to pizza recipe that uses regular yeast but now it has some very strong competition!

Sourdough pizza crust

• 1 cup sourdough starter, fed or unfed
• 1/2 cup hot tap water
• 2 1/2 cups pizza flour (or all purpose flour )
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast

Add the hot water, flour, salt, yeast to your starter.

Mix to combine, then knead till smooth and slightly sticky, about 7 minutes at medium speed using a stand mixer with dough hook.

Place the kneaded dough in a lightly greased container, and allow it to rise till it’s just about doubled in bulk. This might take 2 to 4 hours; it might take more. A lot depends on how vigorous your starter is. For a faster rise, place the dough somewhere warm (or increase the yeast). To slow it down, put it somewhere cool.

Lightly grease a jelly roll pan  or a round pizza pan or line it with parchment.

Shape the dough into a flattened disk or oval.

Roll it out or spread it using your knuckles to desired crust thickness.

When the dough starts to fight back,  and shrink, cover it and let it rest for 10 minutes then try to spread it to the shape and size that you want.

Cover the pan and let the pizza rise for 1-2 hours (the time depends on how active you starter was and how warm it is in your kitchen)

Preheat the oven to 450

Just before baking, spray the crust with water. This will encourage it to rise to its fullest.

For a thicker crust, pre-bake the crust for about 8 minutes before topping.

Top, then bake till toppings are hot and cheese is melted and bubbly, about 10 minutes.

Pizza toppings

I made this sourdough crust three times with three different toppings.

• Kashkaval with smoked turkey.
• Chicken meatball pizza
• My go to quick easy and simple topping

 

One of our favorite toppings is kashkaval cheese and sliced smoked turkey

My quick and easy pizza. For the sauce I simply pulse oil packed sun dried tomatoes with a clove of garlic some dried basil and oregano and use that as my sauce. For the topping I add a few fresh basil leaves, fresh mushrooms, green peppers, cheese and some salami.

For thin crusts, bake for 4 to 5 minutes, then top and bake for an additional 8 to 10 minutes, or till toppings are as done as you like.

Enjoy your home made pizza!

Notes

Sourdough dynamics

The less-used your starter, the more liquid on top, the more sour it’s likely to be; using a starter that hasn’t been fed for weeks will yield a pizza crust that rises slowly, and tastes quite tangy.

On the other hand, a starter that’s fed regularly will yield a less-sour crust, one that will rise much more quickly. .