Easy Sourdough Pizza Recipe - An Italian in my Kitchen (2024)

FAQs

How much sourdough starter to use for pizza dough? ›

The amount of sourdough starter you need to make pizza dough can vary based on the flour used and the fermentation schedule. Typically, I like to have between 10 to 20% sourdough starter in my pizza dough.

Although not all Neapolitan pizza is made from sourdough, there's no reason it can't be. In fact, sourdough starter is mentioned in the official Neapolitan pizza guide (AVPN) as one of the ways to prove pizza.

For Crispy and Chewy Pizza Crust, Use 00 Flour

00 flour is finely ground Italian flour that contains about 12% protein, or 12% gluten. It's the traditional flour used to make Neapolitan-style pizza. Since its gluten content is similar to bread flour, it also produces a pizza crust with chew.

Simple Sourdough Pizza Crust: The details

You absolutely can use bread flour or tipo 00 flour (read more about tipo 00 flour here) if you can get your hands on either. If you have been having a hard time finding flour, Baker's Authority is a great option — great prices, too, even with shipping tacked on. 75% hydration.

In this recipe I used 00 flour for the starter as this is generally the best for Neapolitan style pizza. Strong white bread flour is a good substitute though. You can also experiment with adding some wholemeal/rye flour to your starter (eg 25%-50%).

The most common issue is not kneading enough between rises. The yeast cannot float through the dough, so it has to just eat the flour near it. If it exhausts that supply, it's stuck. Kneading the dough a bit - and it doesn't take much - puts the yeast and bacteria back in touch with fresh food.

Born in Napoli, la pizza Napoletana is one of the most famous types of Italian pizza. Protected by a Traditional Specialty Guaranteed (TSG) certification, this style must be made in a very particular way. The dough is comprised of wheat flour, yeast, salt, and water and is left to rise for up to 24 hours.

To be authentic

According to the TNPA (True Neapolitan Pizza Association), a governing body that upholds the original pizza standards, only Margherita and Marinara are acknowledged as authentic Italian pizzas (Neapolitan pizzas). The Marinara uses tomatoes oregano, extra virgin olive oil and if preferred, basil.

Active Dried Yeast - Most Common

Active dry yeast is the most commonly used type of yeast for making baked goods. It is yeast that has been dried out so that it has a longer shelf-life.

Is 00 or bread flour better for pizza dough? ›

American bread flour is commonly used for making NY-style or Detroit-style pan pizzas. The high gluten content in bread flour allows for a longer fermentation. This helps the dough develop a more complex flavor profile. The fineness of 00 flour is ideal for pizzeria-type light and airy Neapolitan pizza.

Another difference is that 00 flour is made from durum wheat, while all-purpose flour is not. This means that all-purpose flour creates stretchier gluten strands and will tend towards producing a chewy pizza base, rather than a crispy one.

I keep 1 ounce of starter and feed it with 1 ounce of flour and 1 ounce of water because I rarely need a massive amount of starter on hand, but various other sourdough luminaries advise different amounts. If you don't have a scale, go for 1/4 cup starter to 1/2 cup of flour to 1/4 cup water.

There is no single best ratio, but I've found a ratio of 1:5:5 fed twice daily at 12-hour intervals to produce a sourdough starter that's strong and healthy. This ratio corresponds to 20% ripe starter carryover, 100% water, and 100% flour (a mix of whole grain rye and white flour) at each feeding.

How much of my starter should I use for a sourdough loaf? As a general rule, I like to use a 20% innoculation of active sourdough, at 100% hydration. This means that my sourdough has equal weights of flour and water, and for a dough containung 1000 grams of flour for two loaves, I will use 200 grams of starter.

So, a sourdough feeding ratio is the relative amount (referring to weight) of old sourdough compared to fresh flour and water. Typical feeding ratios are 1:2:2 or 1:3:3 (old sourdough: fresh flour: water). However, even extreme ratios like 1:50:50 would still work.