Dough Dough Guides
Sourdough makes exceptional pizza — a blistered, chewy, flavour-packed base with the kind of depth a same-day yeast dough simply can't match. A long, cold ferment does most of the work for you. Here's how to make it at home.
Why sourdough for pizza?
- Flavour: a slow ferment develops a complex, lightly tangy, savoury crust.
- Texture: a puffed, leoparded, airy rim (the "cornicione") with a crisp-yet-chewy bite.
- Digestibility: long fermentation breaks down some of the gluten and starches, which many people find easier on the stomach.
The dough
This makes 4 pizza bases. The magic is in the cold, slow ferment — start it 1–3 days before you want to bake.
Ingredients
- 500g strong white or Italian '00' flour (see our Flour Guide)
- 325g water (65% hydration)
- 100g active sourdough starter, at its peak
- 10g fine salt
Method
- Mix: Whisk the starter into the water. Add the flour and mix to a shaggy dough. Rest 30 minutes, then add the salt and squeeze it through until smooth.
- Strengthen: Over the next 2–3 hours, give the dough 3–4 sets of stretch-and-folds, 30 minutes apart, until it's smooth and elastic.
- Bulk ferment: Leave at room temperature until risen by about 50% (roughly 4–6 hours, depending on warmth).
- Ball it up: Divide into 4 equal pieces and shape each into a tight ball.
- Cold ferment: Place the balls in a lightly oiled, lidded container (spaced apart) and refrigerate 24–72 hours. This is where the flavour develops — longer is better, up to 3 days.
- Come to temp: Take the dough out 1–2 hours before baking so it's not fridge-cold.
- Shape by hand: On a well-floured surface, press each ball from the centre outwards, leaving a 2cm rim. Gently stretch to size — never use a rolling pin (it crushes the air out).
- Top lightly: A thin layer of seasoned tomato, a little mozzarella, a drizzle of oil. Less is more — an overloaded base steams instead of crisping.
- Bake as hot as you can (see below).
Getting the bake right
Pizza loves ferocious heat. In order of best results:
- Pizza oven: 400–450°C, 60–90 seconds. Unbeatable.
- Home oven + steel or stone: preheat at maximum (250–280°C) for 45 minutes, then bake 5–8 minutes. A steel beats a stone for crispness.
- Grill/broiler trick: start the pizza on a preheated stone, then switch to the top grill for the last minute to blister the top.
Timing your starter: use your starter at its peak (bubbly, domed — about 2 hours after feeding with our accelerated culture). A sluggish starter makes a sluggish, dense base.
Want a flakier, buttery base instead?
If you're after something different — a shatteringly crisp, laminated, puff-pastry-style crust — try our Flaky Puff-Crust Pizza recipe.
Great pizza starts with a lively culture. Ours activates in 2 hours, so you can mix your dough the same day it arrives.
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