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Pizza made with Sourdough Starter Discard

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

Pizza made with Sourdough Starter Discard

Pizza made with Sourdough Starter Discard

February 14, 2014

 

I ended up this week with even more sourdough starter discard than usual and a craving for pizza and no activated starter and it's Valentine's Day and my wife loves pizza and so I made pizza with the sourdough starter discard.

 

 

Wt (g)

Sourdough starter from fridge (firm)

241

Water 85 dF

153

AP flour

298

Instant yeast

2

Salt

6

Total

700

The starter discard was approximately 50% hydration, so this dough was 65% hydration.

Procedure

  1. Put the water and the starter in the bowl of a stand mixer and mix at low speed to disperse the starter.

  2. Add the yeast to this mixture, then the flour and the salt.

  3. Mix at low speed with the dough hook until the dough forms a ball on the hook. Add a small amount of water or flour to achieve a medium-consistency dough.

  4. Mix at Speed 2 until you get an early window pane (about 7 or 8 minutes).

  5. Transfer the dough to an oiled bowl. Cover it tightly.

  6. Ferment at room temperature until the dough volume has about doubled (2-4 hours).

  7. Divide the dough into two equal pieces. Shape as balls and place in Ziploc bags with 1 Tablespoon of olive oil.

  8. Refrigerate for at least two hours or up to 3 days.

  9. Before using, take the dough out of the refrigerator and warm at room temperature for an hour.

  10. Preheat the oven at its hottest setting with a baking stone in place.

  11. Shape for pizzas and allow to proof for 30-60 minutes before topping and baking.

  12. Bake to taste (in my oven, 10 minutes).

I preheated my oven at 500 dF for an hour before baking the pizzas.

My toppings were (in the order put on the dough):

  1. EVOO brushed all over.

  2. Finely chopped fresh rosemary sprinkled over dough (1 tsp/pizza).

  3. Thinly sliced fresh garlic (2 cloves/pizza).

  4. Hot red pepper flakes sprinkled to taste.

  5. Oil-cured olives, pitted and sliced.
  6. Fresh broccoli cut into small florettes (about 3/4 cup/pizza).
  7. Fresh mushrooms, sliced (about 1.5 cups/pizza).
  8. Yellow onion, sautéed in EVOO until golden, then moistened with one Tablespoon of balsamic vinegar (2-3T/pizza).

 

The pizza was pretty good. It wasn't as good as the ones I made with the Ken Forkish formula. But it was crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside. It was thin, yet firm enough to support itself. It was nice tasting with no hint of sourdough tang, interestingly enough.

 I'm happy to know I can make very good pizza dough in a few hours and that I have a really good way of using starter discard besides pancakes.

 David

Comments

CAphyl's picture
CAphyl

Looks fantastic.  I have made lots of pizza dough with sourdough, but I like your crust.  I will give it a try some day.  I am sure this pizza was yummy!  Phyllis

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

This was good. The "Pizza Bliss" dough from FWSY remains my gold standard.

David

FlourChild's picture
FlourChild

Beautiful open crumb!  What a nice way to use up sd discard, as a hybrid pizza dough.  Much more appealing than pancakes, IMHO :)

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

Pizza's also a way better way to use mushrooms and broccoli than pancakes too.

David

MostlySD's picture
MostlySD

I find the most problematic part of pizza-making is the shaping. I noted that you did not say to prick the shaped dough with a fork as some people say they do before baking. I baked two pizza doughs this week and both developed huge bubbles that I had to bread and almost fold before laying on the toppings. I had not done the fork pricking thing. Did you?

MostlySD's picture
MostlySD

before being rudely interrupted by the Internet ;-)

your pizza looks delicious. I find the most problematic part of pizza-making to be the shaping. I noted that you did not say to prick the dough with a fork before baking, as some pizza bakers say they do. This week I baked two pizza doughs that developed huge bubbles. I had to cut those with scissors and lay the dough flat before laying on the toppings. Not very elegant to say the least! I had not done the fork pricking thing. Did you?

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

I stretch the dough on a floured board, then rotate it over my fists. I get it very, very thin, except for the edge. I'm guessing that the bubble problem occurs with thicker crust mostly. 

I don't prick my crust, and I don't par-bake it before toppings. I've read one piece of advice for when bubbles pop up while pre-baking pizza shells: Take them out of the oven and mash them down mid-way through the pre-bake. I've no experience with this, personally.

David

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

I'm thinking about going back to my old white starter maintenance with waste just so i can have some discard  to make this.  We love pizza and it is perfect for Valentines Day.  Now Lucy is saying it should be shaped like a heart, which for her especially and us in general ... no problem since we can't seem make them very round as hard as we try!   Love the toppings on this white pizza  too.  Well done and happy baking David,

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

I didn't post a photo of the other pizza. I thought it was kinda heart-shaped.

Like most skills, getting a round pizza comes with practice. I described, above, how I'm shaping it these days. But, anyway, does the shape matter that much?

David

SylviaH's picture
SylviaH

I love the toppings and I think a good choice not to use a tomato base with the toppings for a nice crisp crust, personally I tend to always go a little heavy on the tomato sauce, even though less is more..cause that's one of my favorite things.  I even notice a difference in the upper, under fillings of the crust when I don't spread EVOO, but drizzle it after the pizza is baked..seems to make the crust a little less gooey..but then that's JMHO.  Now I'm just rambling about pizza.  Your pizza just makes me crave pizza : )

Sylvia

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

I thought brushing with oil was supposed to sort of seal the dough and protect against liquid toppings. These toppings were all pretty dry. No gooiness this time! I particularly liked the flavor combination of the onion confit, mushrooms and olives. 

I love pizza with tomato sauce, too, but we had decided on a combination of toppings I thought would be better without sauce. 

Oooooo .... I'm gonna go have some leftover pizza right now!

David

SylviaH's picture
SylviaH

Seal the dough and protect against liquid toppings.  I thought so too!  Especially since I see pizza's being made all the time and a drizzle of EVOO being drizzle right on the dough before the topping either with or without tomato sauce.  Done very lightly I think it's great. My preference is not to do it.  I have seen the oil seal my dough from baking under it, though the bottom of pizza bakes up great.  The liquid's in the tomato sauce dehydrate's away and bake the toppings crust nice and dry with the melted cheeses.

If the pizza is going to sit for a while why assembling it, using less and thicker sauce can help more than the oil...I think. 

My experience with the sauce is how amazingly it dries up and becomes a very nice thickness on the crust. 

The high heat zaps up the water from the tomato sauce, leaving it almost a paste consistency just depending on how wet a  sauce is used and how hot of an oven.  I've used some pretty wet sauces.  It's something to observe it especially in the high heat of wfo.  This is why I tend to use more tomato sauce, because I know it will bake up less and I like as much tomato as I can get away without having a soggy limpish crust. Also, one of the reason's the sauce is best not cooked for using on pizza.  The hot oven takes care of that.

I can't explain it as well as I would like to.  I just have better pizza's not putting oil on the dough, only on the top after the pizza is finished for added flavor. If I put it on the dough the dough stays moist under it.

There are all different thicknesses of tomato toppings used by everyone and I always seem to notice how thick a sauce they are using..just part of the fun of watching that sauce go on.  I love those Italian pear shaped tomatoes with the thick pulp.

Sylvia

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

I have used the uncooked sauce Floyd has in his Pizza Primer. I think it comes from Peter Reinhart. It's a classic American-style pizza sauce. However, in the late Summer, we can get vine ripened, organic San Marzanos from a local farmer. Par-boiled, peeled and seeded - or just sliced into quarters and seeded - those are better than any sauce, I think.

Thanks for not rubbing in the WFO ... too much. ;-)

David

SylviaH's picture
SylviaH

are very delicious, even the canned.  Floyd's Pizza Primer sauce ala P.R. is just delicious.  I've tweaked it over time and use only oregano...I'm a big fan of the Calabria Tutto brand dried oregano from Italy..I get it either at Forno Bravo or FG's Pizza and Italian.

I did try not to mention that word that goes with pizza ; ) 

Sylvia