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Recipe
200gr of your discarded starter...............I find pure white gives most authentic, taste and look.
500gr white bread flour.............................I used Organic Canadian strong white ( get that online from Shipton Mills)
280 - 300gr water....................................this depends on your flour mine works best with 280gr with above flour
4-6gr Sea Salt.................................................depends on your tastes, obviously the less we use the better, I use 5g
I mix together starter, flour and water (don't add all your water straight away, start with 280 then adjust according to your flour) in my machine mixer until just combined. I leave for 10 mins then add salt and then mix on medium for 5 mins. Check your dough is springy and smooth, if so its ready. Cut into 3 portions and shape into a round ball by cupping hand over portion and rotating in a circling motion still you get a nice round shape.
Right !!! heres the science part, although I cant explain it.
modification to recipe is here >>>>>>>>>> http://sourdough.com/blog/pizza-crumb-picspre-baked
if i want to use the pizza that day i place the balls into a large slightly oiled container, covered with cling film and leave it between 3 - 8 hours..........Now the longer it sits the softer it gets and the harder to handle it is. However the taste is so much better. If i am not using straight away I put the balls into a plastic bag in the fridge, they have been happily sat there for up to 4 days and I have used with the same success.
When i take the dough out of the fridge I take it out the plastic bag and place in an oiled contained. I have had success with waiting as little as one hour before shaping and cooking ( easier to handle at this stage) OR left it as long as 16 hours (in a cool room) before shaping and cooking.
The above still works, however it's now quicker and simpler in my modification
Cooking
I always part bake the dough before topping just 2 - 3 mins each side at the highest , in a preheated oven.
To stop dough rising like a pitta bread i fork it all over. If i forget to fork it i just burst the explosion before topping
If i want a really thin cracker like base I try to get the dough as thin as i can then I part bake it on both sides 3 mins each side before topping. Your oven heat will be the guide to how long you part bake.
I always bake my pizza as high as my oven goes.
Using coarse semolina flour on your peel or parchment gives a nice extra chew and flavour to the base
Variations
I sometimes throw rosemary or other herbs in the dough with the salt just to mix it up the tatse of the dough.
O fcourse Topping is of your choice. My favourite is ham, cheese and onion or avocado, rocket and chilli oil.
I promise you all with out the oil the Pizza dough is just so much nicer in taste and texture...........HEYHO !! and its healthier.
The Dough
Ingredient | Metric | Imperial | Baker's Percentage |
---|---|---|---|
Flour | 500 grams | 17.65 oz | 100.00% |
water | 280 grams | 9.88 oz | 56.00% |
salt | 6 grams | 0.21 oz | 1.20% |
Starter I use my discarded when refreshing | 200 grams | 7.06 oz | 40.00% |
- Total Flour Weight:
- 500 grams
Percentages are relative to flour weight (flour equals 100%) and every other ingredient is a percentage of this. Flour from the starter is not counted. This recipe was originally in grams and has been automatically converted to other measures.
Replies
Hi Linda,
That is pretty much what I use for pizza - nothing more than a normal simple bread dough. I agree entirely that home made pizza leaves most of the rest for dead. I blogged (read bragged) about mine a while back.
I usually try to do my bulk ferment in the fridge so that the dough is at least 24 hours old and hot is the way to trot. Which is what they do in wood fired ovens - pizza first with the coals still in then other breads and so forth as the temperature falls with the coals out.
Keep on bakin'.
Farinam
Hi Farinam
Yep Sourdough pizza with no oil, its just perfect. As a newbie to using sourdough, only 8 months practice, I just cant advocate it enough. Here in Scotland not enough people work with it or even know about it. I just get so animated and excited talking about it and have probably become very anal to everyone i try to educate about the "greatness" of sourdough.
I love the touch feely process of sourdough, for years i had made pizza dough in a bread maker using shop bought yeasts, now the process of trying to form that NO OIL pizza sourdough in a near round shape and seeing the rustic way it bakes, the great flavour and texture it produces I wonder why i ever thought the bread maker version was OK.
the science thing with bread making and using sourdough leaves me stumped most of the time, however i have realised that the longer it sits before baking the better it tastes. I checked out you BRAG sorry BLOG and you seem to be well versed and a bit of an expert......prepare to be stalked and all your knowledge digested.
If i can, i am going to upload a picture of the loaf I made yesterday.......i feel it deserves a BRAG ooopsie BLOG.
thanks farinam
This is simply the best pizza base and also doubles with portion reduction for a mean pitta bread. Only thing is don't put the racks too close if using a normal domestic oven as the 'pillows' you end up with might wrap around the rack above. Have been making various pizza bases for many years with many recipes, this is the most successful and easiest. My 21yr old daughter is now our champion maker and we often make the portions up for anything up to a week ahead.. Whoever 'designed' this recipe, well done..
I too love the simplicity of just flour water and salt for my bread doughs. I seen and tried miolk , eggs, oils and other things to the dough but all my most memorable one were simply flour,(and starter) water and salt.
visit here for my recipes on sourdough pizza among others.
http://www.empowernetwork.com/northerntrials/blog/sourdough-recipes/?id=northerntrials
Enjoy...
Hi,
I'm a new in sourdough baking and your pizza dough looks fantastic, just a couple of simple question so that I can give it a try... Is your starter room temperature or straight out of the fridge? Does it matter what hydration level is it?
Thanks a lot
Hello Firefly,
The hydration of your starter will make a difference to the final hydration of the dough but it is just a matter of adjusting the amount of water that you add. A lot of people work at 100% hydration for their starter and the proportions in the recipe sound about right for that. If you have a different hydration starter and want to work it out you should be aiming for at least 70-75% for a good strong white bread flour. If you want to get really precise you can pick up a spreadsheet to do the calculations here:
http://sourdough.com/blog/hydration-calculating-spreadsheet
If you are really sure that your starter is good, there is no reason not to use it straight out of the fridge but it is common to 'build' your dough starter by taking (say) half the amount that you need and feeding it with the required amount of flour and water and setting it on the bench to get really active before making the dough. This has two 'benefits' - it proves that your starter is alive and well (cf the same approach often recommended/followed with commercial yeasts) and the beasties are alive and growing ready to attack the new supplies of food from the dough rather than being cold and dormant as they very well could be after a stint in the fridge.
Good luck with your projects.
Farinam
Thanks so much for the great recipe. I've finally tried it out and it turned out great!!
Your pizza looks amazing, definitely going to give this one a go