We will be doing something a little different this week, sourdough crust pizza. I’ve never done this before so it could be interesting. I had too many doctor appointments this week to make bread so I thought this could be a quicker alternative.
First decision was what to use for flour. I wanted to get a crispy crust as opposed to a New York style crust that folds. In the end I chose to use a mix of Caputo 00 flour and King Arthur All Purpose flour (I have no affiliation with either company). Next decision was to decide on hydration level. From the research I did I learned that 00 flour doesn’t absorb as much water a domestic flours, so 60% hydration would be appropriate. AP flour could go 70% or more. In the end I arbitrarily decided 65% hydration. Next was how much olive oil to add. I wasn’t sure how the addition of a fat would impact sourdough since I hadn’t done it so fat. I decided to keep it low at just under 5%. I also wasn’t sure how it would effect gluten formation and decided to add after most of the flour was incorporated in the water and starter mix.
The next decision was how much starter. I decided to use the equivalent to one teaspoon of instant yeast 70 grams of starter. The salt was 2% just like any dough.
I should add, my original plan was to make the dough the day before and do an overnight cold ferment in the fridge. That didn’t happen because I had an eye doctor appointment and couldn’t read anything afterwards with my pupils dilated. That meant the dough had to be mixed, fermented, formed, proofed and baked in one day. Not what I planned, but I thought it would work with a small sacrifice of flavor.
The other decision was how much dough do I need. I had hoped to make two 14” crusts. I ended up with two 12” crusts. Research indicated that a 14” crust takes 15 ounces of dough or 30 ounces of dough for two. In grams that would be 850. I decided to go slightly higher and my formula ended up at 885 g. That should have been enough but the dough resisted stretching and kept shrinking back even with several rests to allow the dough to relax. After forming the dough balls I probably should have waited more than 15 minutes before forming the crusts.
The Formula
| Ingredient | Amount | Bakers % |
| 100% Hyd. Starter | 70 g | 14.7% |
| Total flour | 475 g | 100% |
| Caputo 00 flour | 275 g | 58% |
| All Purpose flour | 200 g | 42% |
| Water | 310 g | 65% |
| Salt | 9 g | 2% |
| Olive Oil | 15 g | 4.8% |
My Process
- Weigh out all ingredients for the dough.
- Mix the starter into the water thoroughly.
- Mix the two flours together until uniform.
- Add the flours to the water mixture one or two handfuls at at time mixing with a danish dough whisk until about 3/4 of the flours are added and a shaggy wet dough has formed.
- Add the olive oil to the dough and mix in with dough whisk until thoroughly combined.
- Add the remaining flour mixture and mix by hand until all flour is incorporated into the dough.
- Cover mixing bowl and let dough rest 20 – 30 minutes.
- Add salt to dough and mix by hand until completely incorporated. Salt grains will will still be visible in dough but will disolve and be further mixed into dough with subsequent folds.
- Tranfer dough to covered container for bulk fermentation. Bulk fermentation takes roughly 7 hours.
- Stretch and fold dough 4 times on 60 minute intervals, then let rest for the remainder of bulk fermentation.
- When dough has increased by about 30% in volume and is soft to the touch remove the dough from the container and divide into 2 equal pieces.
- Form each half of the dough into a tight round ball. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest 15 minutes.
- Place baking stone in oven and preheat oven to 525F on conventional bake (not convection).
- Take one dough ball leaving the other covered. Lightly flour a work surface and form into a 12” crust. I used a combination of rolling with a tapered rolling pin and stretching by hand to form and the dough resisted all the way. I let the dough relax several times but still struggled to get to 12”.
- Let crust rise a few minutes before topping.
- Top crust with favorite toppings. We used sauce, homemade Italian sausage, red onions, sliced black olives, sautéed mushrooms, mozzarella and parmigiana reggiano cheese.
- Bake 13 minutes or until crust is lightly browned.
This turned out delicious. It may be one of the best crusts I’ve made. This surprises me because most of the pizzas I’ve liked best have had a very yeasty crust which this definitely wasn’t. The crust was crispy and didn’t sag with the weight of all the toppings. I really don’t like floppy or crusts that fold.
There are somethings I will do different the next time. I felt the dough was slightly stiff and fought me when forming the crust. So I will add another 10 grams (to 67%) of water. I will increase the total flour to 500 grams in hopes of getting closer to a 14” pie. I will do the bulk fermentation in the fridge possibly 24 hours but at least overnight.
I will continue to work on this and try to improve it. I will continue to use the Caputo 00 flour as I like it for both pasta and pizza dough. I have some Caputo Semolina on hand so I may try an all Caputo flour crust. Caputo flour comes from Naples Italy so it would be appropriate. Or I may try using the flours used this time in different percentages. Next time however will be the same percentages with the changes documented above.