We’re sticking with sourdough recipes that don’t need as much rise for now, in case you’re still nurturing your baby sourdough starter and waiting for the bubbles you really want to see, like this:Look at the beautiful air pockets right through the side of the jar!  This starter is ready to leaven some bread!

I am totally planning sourdough pizza for next week after checking out some options for this post.  Lots of drool all over my keyboard here.  I haven’t tried sourdough pizza dough yet, but Sarah Wood has, and she shares her recipe:

Soaked sourdough pizza crust

Adapted from Mike Avery’s recipe

Ingredients

1.5 C “discarded” sourdough starter
2 T olive oil
3/4 t salt
1 – 1.5 C whole wheat flour

Equipment

Stand mixer or mixing bowl
Baking sheet and a Silpat type non-stick baking mat OR baking stone
Rolling Pin
Plastic Wrap

 

Method:

Mix the ingredients together, working in flour until you have a soft dough.  If it gets too dry add more starter or water.

Once kneaded for about 5 minutes, cover and let rest for 30-60 minutes.

After resting, roll out the dough on your Silpat or baking stone.  I then transfer the Silpat with the dough onto the baking sheet.  Cover with plastic wrap to prevent it from drying out and leave at room temperature for at least seven hours.  The crust will rise some as it soaks. (You can also bake right away without the extra “soak” time.)

(I make this recipe into one oblong pizza crust that fits on my Silpat in a jelly roll baking pan.  Divide the dough as you desire to suit the baking equipment you have on hand.) And Katie is in love with her baking stone, always, for pizza!

Seven or more hours later, heat the oven to 450 degrees F.  Bake the crust for 5 minutes.  Then add sauce and desired toppings to pizza.  Put pizza back in oven for about 10 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly and starting to brown. And check out Sarah’s baking instructions for the way Katie likes her pizza nowadays.

Note: Save your plastic wrap and reuse it every time you make pizza dough.  I’ve been using the same piece of plastic wrap for months!

You can also freeze the pizza crusts after they have been par-baked and save them for future use.

(Katie back; thanks, Sarah!) Remember that you can always put your sourdough starter in the refrigerator if you’re not baking often; just feed it once a week.  That way you won’t end up with a ton of starter taking over your house. On the other hand, if you are encouraged to make this awesome pizza because you have too much starter, maybe it’s better to let it take over a bit!

I found a few other tempting pizza dough recipes in my forays through the blogosphere lately.  I have no idea which one to try first!

• King Arthur Flour never seems to fail me with great products and recipes.  Here is their sourdough pizza recipe.
• Pam at Adventures in Homemaking wrote recently of trying my friend Sarah’s sourdough pizza: “This was by far one of the best pizzas I’ve ever put in my mouth.  Remember the scene from “What About Bob?” when he was eating dinner with his therapist’s family?  That’s kind of what we felt like eating this pizza.” It’s fun to hear others acknowledge Sarah’s mastery of sourdough!
• No one seems to remember to take a photo of their pizzas, though – they must be so tasty they just get eaten!

Sarah Wood has one more “discarded starter” guest post recipe for you tomorrow – muffins – and then (drum roll, please!) it’s bread time on Friday!  Be sure to enter to win my favorite bread pans at the giveaway this week!

Did you see Nina Planck here yesterday?

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