Homemade Pizza is not only super delicious, but it’s also an incredibly frugal meal. For just a fraction of the cost of a pizzeria pie, you can enjoy homemade with this easy Sourdough Pizza Crust.
Use up that sourdough starter discard in this delicious and flavorful sourdough pizza dough. Mix the dough in the morning and it’s ready to bake into pizzas at dinnertime. Take it over the top by cooking your pizza on the grill. You can stop eating out when you’ve got amazing homemade pizza!
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Should you decide to tackle the art of baking with sourdough, then you’re going to want to make a few things besides sourdough rye bread.
We can’t live on bread alone. We need pizza!
Whether you’re making a Quick & Easy Three Cheese Pizza or going for the The BEST Homemade Supreme Pizza, starting with a sourdough base will take your pizza over the top!
And Sourdough Pizza Crust is pretty remarkable. Tangy, chewy, and full of flavor, it’s the perfect base to your favorite pizza toppings.
Why Make This
It may be better for your tummy. Some say that sourdough is healthier for you than dough made with commercial yeast. They claim it’s more easily digestible. I’m not sure about that, but we do like the flavor.
It uses up a lot of sourdough starter. If you’ve ever fed a starter, you know that it quickly doubles and triples and explodes all over your counter. Conventional wisdom says to discard half of your starter prior to feeding it in order to control this rapid growth. I say, don’t throw it out, make it into pizza!
This is the best pizza dough ever. Well, my husband certainly thinks so! Grilling pizza is a highlight of his week, and he prefers the sourdough crust. You’ll definitely level up your home cooked meals with this pizza base.
Ingredients
You need just a handful of ingredients to whip up the best sourdough pizza!
Dough Ingredients
sourdough starter – Whether you use bubbly sourdough starter or the discard before you feed it, is up to you. I typically feed my starter on a Thursday night so that I have enough to make pizza and bread dough on Friday morning.
Love sourdough? Be sure to try our Sourdough French Toast.
warm water – You don’t want it boiling hot, but definitely on the warm side.
olive oil and honey – Many sourdough pizza recipes don’t call for olive oil or honey, but I find that they give it the right texture and balance out the sour in the sourdough. You can use whatever cooking oil you like as well as regular sugar if that’s what you have.
bread flour – Bread flour will give you best texture, but you can use a good quality, unbleached, all-purpose flour as well.
salt – Don’t omit the salt. I’ve forgotten it on occasion and the texture and taste of the pizza crust is just not the same. Be sure to include it.
yeast (optional) – If your starter is very bubbly and you start the dough first thing in the morning (or it’s a very warm day), you won’t need the yeast. I usually add it if I start the dough less than 5 hours before I want it to be ready.
This recipe makes three 12-inch thin crust pizzas. Adjust the number of pizzas on the recipe card if you’d like to make more or less.
Pizza Toppings
Once you’ve got the dough ready to go, you’re more than halfway there. But you do need toppings. Check out all the fun pizza recipes you can make yourself!
Here’s a short list of possible toppings for your sourdough pizza:
- pizza sauce – commercial or homemade pizza sauce
- shredded mozzarella cheese – you can also use Monterey Jack, pepper Jack, goat cheese, or feta on your pizza
- sliced pepperoni
- cooked and crumbled sausage
- sliced peppers and onions
- jalapenos
- cooked and chopped bacon
- chopped pineapple
- sliced mushrooms
Step-by-Step Instructions
Prepare the dough
Mixing up a batch of sourdough pizza dough is a regular Friday morning activity at this house. The process is pretty simple, especially if you have a stand mixer.
1. Weigh out the sourdough starter discard into a mixing bowl. Add the hot water, olive oil, and honey.
2. Next add the flour, salt, and additional yeast, if using.
3. Knead the dough with a dough hook until smooth and elastic, adding a bit of water if needed to make a smooth, stretchy dough.
4. Place the dough ball in a greased bowl and allow to rise 8 to 10 hours, or until doubled in bulk.
Form the pizzas
5. Transfer the risen dough to a large work surface that has been dusted with flour.
6. Divide the dough into equal portions. You can make large pizzas, single serve pizzas, or even mini pizzas.
7. Form each into a dough ball and allow to rest for a few minutes. If you have extra dough balls, you can freeze them at this point in greased bags or freezer-safe containers.
8. Form each dough ball into a large round. Place each round on a greased pizza pan or pizza screen. Add the toppings and bake or cook on the grill.
FAQs
I find that if my starter “discard” is still bubbly and I’m starting my dough before lunchtime, I usually don’t need to add any additional yeast to the dough, to have it rise by dinnertime.
If the starter has been refrigerated or I start the dough late in the day, I add a teaspoon of SAF yeast to guarantee a good rise.
Yes, you can freeze pizza dough, but you do run the risk of the dough not rising as well after thawing as it might when freshly made. That said, freezing leftover pizza as well as formed rounds, pizza dough, and ready-to-bake mini pizzas makes it easier to enjoy pizza more often.
We’ve made this dough with both unbleached, all-purpose flour and bread flour. My daughters actually did a science experiment, determining the amount of gluten in both kinds that we use, Wheat Montana and Bob’s Red Mill, respectively.
There isn’t a huge difference in the gluten development of the two. Both are good and we didn’t see much difference in texture in the finished product.
Recipe Costs
Knowing how much it costs you to prepare a recipe can help you decide if it’s the type of recipe to make regularly or one you might want to save for special occasions. Let’s crunch some numbers and see how this recipe pencils out.
- starter – $0.08
- olive oil – $0.40
- honey – $0.21
- bread flour – $1.09
- salt – $0.03
Shopping at a mid-range grocery store at non-sale prices, one can expect to pay about $1.81 for the dough to make 3 pizzas. This works out to 60 cents/pizza!
Commercial pizza dough ranges from $1.49 to $3.79, making homemade the surefire winner!
Tell us what you think!
We love to hear your experiences with Good Cheap Eats. Click the STARS on the recipe card or leave a STARRED comment to let us know what you think of the recipe.
Sourdough Pizza Crust
Equipment
- bread machine
- stand mixer
- large mixing bowl
- bench knife
- cutting board
- pizza screens
- pizza cutter
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cup sourdough starter discard
- ¾ cup water heated
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon honey or sugar
- 3 ¾ cup bread flour or unbleached, all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoon salt
- ¾ teaspoon active dry yeast optional
Instructions
To mix in a stand mixer:
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the sourdough starter discard, hot water, olive oil, and honey. Add the flour, salt, and yeast, if using.
- Using a bread hook, knead the dough until a smooth, elastic dough forms. If the dough doesn't mix easily, add a few more tablespoons of water to achieve this.
- Transfer the dough ball to a greased bowl. Or remove the dough ball, grease the mixer bowl and place it back in. Cover with a lid or plastic wrap and allow to rise at room temperature until doubled in bulk, about six to eight hours.
To make the dough in a bread machine:
- In the pan of the bread machine, place the ingredients in the order listed by the manufacturer. Set the machine to dough and start. Open the lid after a minute to scrape down the sides, careful not to catch the dough paddle.
- Listen for when the dough cycle ends.
To mix by hand:
- Combine the ingredients in the order listed in a large mixing bowl. Stir until the dough starts to form a shaggy ball.
- Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead until a smooth, elastic dough forms.
- Transfer the dough ball to a greased bowl. Cover with a lid or plastic wrap and allow to rise at room temperature until doubled in bulk, about six to eight hours.
To form the pizzas:
- Move the dough to a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough into three equal portions and form each into a round dough ball.
- Stretch each dough ball into a large round and place on a greased pizza screen.
- Add your toppings and bake on the grill or in the oven at 475 until the crust is crisp and the toppings are cooked, about 5 to 8 minutes.
Notes
Nutrition
This post was originally published on January 14, 2020. It has been updated for content and clarity.
Stacy Peterson
This recipe is swoonworthy! My husband was less impressed than I but hoo-boy it smelled just like a pizzeria in here as soon as the dough got hot and really started to bake. I’m so happy I have a reliable recipe now for a great pizza crust with a nice bite and incredible flavor. It was a little wet and messy but I’m just trying to get this sourdough thing figured out. Any tips there? I doubled the recipe and had to keep adding flour and kneading it till it stopped giving me dough fingers. Thanks for such a great recipe!
Jessica Fisher
I think conditions will vary based on the humidity at your house and in your starter. I use 100% hydration starter (I feed equal parts by weight of water and flour each time). Doing something different may make it more wet. My general advice is to play with the flour and maybe dial down the water a bit next time.
Brandi Q
Such a great way to use a ton of discard. I had almost a full L jar so I doubled the recipe. I was a little short of three full cups so I did have to add a touch more water while it was mixing because it just didn’t want to incorporate all the flour. Also made my mixer struggle a bit so be careful.
I did not use the yeast, just cold discard straight from the fridge. Finished mixing it about 10am and it was doubled by 5. Actually ended up more than doubling before I got to it about 630.
I did have to cook it longer than the recipe says. I don’t have pizza peels, just regular pizza pans, so I did it for 4 minutes with only sauce and toppings before adding the cheese. I ended up needing to cook it about 8-10 minutes more before the crust browned but 2 of them were still a bit soggy in the middle.
Sara
Since we’ve been using our scales to measure out our ingredients while on the sourdoughjourney, it would be lovely if the grams were included in the measurements. So I have just put my dough in bowl to rise. I believe that’s what’s next if u use a mixer, but it doesn’t say, so i switched to manual instructions. I didn’t knead it. I hope that’s ok, the mixer (actually i used my dough blade on my food processor) formed the dough in seconds.
Jessica Fisher
Hey Sara, re: grams. Just click the word Metric under the ingredients and it will convert to grams for you. As for the bowl, yes, you can swap to a greased bowl. When I make it in my mixer, I just leave it in the mixer bowl at that step. Thanks for letting us know that the wording needs more clarification.
Heaven
I wanted this too, so there’s a little thing that says like US version and then right next to it in blue words “metric”. if you click on the metric then you get grams, hope this helps 🙂
Jessica Fisher
Thanks, Heaven!
Chloe
How long would this dough last in the fridge? Can the dough be frozen? It is just me in the home.
Jessica Fisher
I would store it in the fridge only as long as overnight. If you want to make a smaller batch, you can scale the servings on the recipe card. Otherwise, as soon as you make the dough, divide into dough balls and freeze two. You can learn more about freezing pizza here.
Heinrich
Cannot wait to try this. Question though, I have a 1:1:1 starter and my discard is kept in the fridge which means it is cold when initially mixing the dough which will affect proofing times. because it is a 1:1:1 discard it is also more runny. Is your starter room temp when mixing the pizza dough? Should I take out some discard the previous night and let it come to room temp for the next mornings mix? How would you go about it?
Jessica Fisher
I’ve done it with cold starter that hadn’t been fed in a week as well as fresh bubbly starter. It always works fine. I find the trick is just to start the dough early enough in the morning to give it time to rise. Otherwise, use the optional yeast assist.
Kayla
Hello ! I wanted to double check before I made this. If mixing bread in a mixer does it not need to sit and rise for 6-8 hours ? Does it seem yo take longer if not using the active yeast?
Thank you,
Kayla LaLond
Jessica Fisher
How you mix it won’t affect the rise time. Adding yeast (or not) will. If you’re in a hurry, add the yeast and give it at least three hours. If you need shorter time, up the yeast to 2 1/4 teaspoon.
anonymous
This is way better than the discard dough recipe I was using previously! So delicious and easy to put together. My husband has requested that this be our go-to recipe from now on.
Michelle
Yummy dough. I made this to practice my dough making skills and use some discard. I let the dough rise too long but it was still delicious. I am re-heating slices in a hot cast iron skillet so the crust will be crisp.
Magdalene
Made this 2 times. Easy and yummy.
Jenn Alberts
This has been our go to favorite pizza crust for months!! Thank you for this awesome recipe!!
Jessica Fisher
So great to hear. Thanks for the feedback!
Leona Winrob
Wow! Great way to use discard and such a crispy flavourful crust. I added a little garlic powder to the dough. My go to recipe from now on. Thank you Jessica!
Marie Moor
Oh my goodness, My niece gave me a sourdough starter that I kept feeding and feeding and feeding. Before I knew it, I had this monstocity of sour-dough. Your pictures of overflowing sour dough most certainly captured my immediate attention. So, I had the King Arthur sourdough bread recipe which I was super excited to try and it turned out as hard as a rock, and I tossed both loaves of brick straight into the trash. I was highly discouraged and tempted to throw out the massive amounts of sourdough starter. I thought, prior to doing that, I would try one more recipe and yours is the one I picked for pizza dough, since we own a pizza dough oven. I was absolutely elated. I followed your recipe using a mixer with dough hook and it was fabulous. I will now be up all night making a million or so batches which I intend to freeze, but I did want to take a moment to thank you for the great recipe and tips. ( Your recipe made it to my personal favorite pins board )
Marie Moore/ Pinterest Magazine.
Jessica Fisher
Yay! So glad you enjoyed it — and have something to do with the starter. lol The King Arthur Crumpets recipe is one of our favorites.
Debbie
Love your recipe! After trying many, this recipe is the best! You mention to weigh out the sourdough discard, but didn’t say the weight? Could you please let me know what that weight would be? I appreciate that you talk about weighing flour on your site. It is so much easier, and I think less messy to weigh ingredients. Thanks for the recipe!
Jessica Fisher
This is one of my quirks. I weigh the starter in grams, so it shows up in the recipe card when you toggle to metric. Sorry for being weird!