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Pillowy Sourdough Pizza Crust (beginner level)

This is our favorite recipe for fluffy, chewy sourdough pizza crust that results in a crisp bottom and soft bite. This pizza dough is naturally fermented and has the best flavor and texture!
Author: Amanda Paa
Yield: 5 medium pizzas
Prep Time :10 minutes
Cook Time :10 minutes
Additional Time :10 hours
Total Time :10 hours 20 minutes

Ingredients

  • 115 grams sourdough starter, fed and at its peak
  • 385 grams slightly warm water (about 85 degrees F)
  • 525 grams King Arthur Bread Flour
  • 30 grams all purpose flour
  • 8 grams olive oil
  • 13 grams fine sea salt
  • cornmeal and all-purpose flour for dusting
  • pizza sauce
  • toppings

Instructions 

  • Add starter and water to the bowl of a stand mixer. Stir with a fork to loosen starter and disperse starter.
  • Add flour and olive oil. Stir with a spatula to incorporate flour, then mix on low speed for about 20 seconds to further incorporate and no dry streaks remain. Add salt to top of dough and let the dough rest, covered, for 30 minutes.
  • Attach dough hook to stand mixer and secure bowl. Mix on medium low, speed 3 of KitchenAid stand mixer for for 8 minutes. *This is a very wet dough, and that's okay.
  • Remove bowl from mixer and cover with a towel. Let dough sit for 30 minutes, then do 2 sets of stretch and folds around the bowl. Let dough rest for another 30 minutes, then do 2 sets of stretch of folds around the bowl. Cover, and let dough bulk ferment about 4ish more hours if your house is at 70 degrees F (will take less time if it is warmer in your home), until dough is just short of doubling in size.
  • Once doubled, place parchment paper on large baking sheet and spray with non-stick spray such as olive oil.
  • Turn dough out onto floured surface and let rest for 15 minutes. The dough will be sticky and that is okay!
  • Dust the top of the dough with flour and use floured hands to press dough out slightly.
  • Using a bench scraper, cut the dough into about 5 pieces weighing about 200 grams each. Flour your hands generously, and stretch a corner of the dough out and bring it back to the middle, doing this with each corner of the dough so you're forming a ball. Use a bit of tension on the surface to make the ball a bit tighter, and close the bottom.
  • Place dough on a greased baking sheet. And repeat with all dough balls.
  • At this point you can let the dough rise on the counter for 45 minutes, for its second rise, until it has grown a bit and is puffier. Or you can put the pan with dough balls straight into the refrigerator, covered, and leave them in for 6 to 48 hours, and take out an hour before you want to make the pizza.
  • 1 hour before you're ready to grill or bake the pizza, lay out all of your ingredients at a station so you can work quickly once the dough is pressed out.
  • 30 minutes before you're going to grill the pizza, turn on the grill, with cast iron pizza pan on one side, over two flames turned to medium high. Leave the right side burner off. You'll want the interior temperature of the grill to be 650 degrees F. Or, preheat a pizza stone in your oven to 500 degrees F for an hour.
  • Lay a piece of parchment paper on your pizza peel and liberally dust with cornmeal and flour.
  • Dust top of dough ball with flour. With floured hands, pick up a dough ball and hold up with two hands on corners of the dough. The dough will start to droop downward with gravity, and you'll rotate the dough clockwise, like you're turning a steering wheel. And it will be a bit sticky. That's okay! Bring it down to the parchment paper, and lightly press out into a circle, stretching the corners. Do NOT use a rolling pin. This will make the dough too thin, resulting in a tougher crust. You're aiming for each pizza to be around 7-8 inches in diameter. Don't try to make the biggest pizza. Keeping it smaller will result in the fluffiest baked dough. Stretch and adjust the dough a little more, aiming to position one edge of the pizza all the way at the front edge of the peel.
  • Spread with a light amount of sauce, and put the the rest of your toppings on, including cheese. Error on the side of less toppings that piling it super full, to be sure the crust can handle the weight.
  • Shimmy the pizza onto the cast iron pan or pizza stone, without the parchment. Close the lid of grill, and let cook for 3 minutes on the pan/stone. Then open the lid, transfer the pizza to the right side, top rack, and close lid for another 4-5 minutes to finish cooking. OR If baking in oven, bake at 500 degrees for for 8-9 minutes, until bubbly and golden brown.

Notes

*this is a WET dough, and that's okay! use flour as you need while working with the dough after it's bulk ferment, to keep it from sticking to your hands or surface.