Want amazingly delicious pizza? Try this traditional sourdough pizza crust! It only has 3 simple ingredients: flour, water and salt. Best of all, the dough is made ahead of time, for a relatively easy weeknight meal.
Make-ahead sourdough pizza crust
Brad and I are pretty busy people. We both work full-time, juggle taking kids to baseball practice and piano lessons, and volunteer in a few different organizations. Unless it’s a lazy Sunday afternoon, we really don’t have time to spend more than 30 minutes making dinner.
That’s why we LOVE making sourdough pizza. The crust is made ahead of time, so dinner is as simple as chopping up some toppings and baking a pizza for 20 minutes. This is even easier if you get your kids to help! (See the section below for more about teaching your kids to cook).
Here are a few ways to make your sourdough pizza crust ahead of time:
- 3-Day Dough: By definition, sourdough bread, pizza, etc. needs to be made ahead of time. This dough can be made up to 3 days in advance of baking. Stashing it in the fridge for a few days will slow the yeast, giving the bacteria time to give the dough a delicious sourdough flavor.
- Overnight Pizza Dough: Make the dough the night before your pizza party. Let it rise on the counter overnight, then put it in the fridge in the morning.
- Morning Dough: Usually Brad makes pizza dough in the morning before heading off to work. It only takes about 5 minutes to put together, then he leaves it to rise all day.
- Freezer Dough: This recipe makes 4 to 5 pizza crusts, so feel free to freeze the extra dough. Just allow it to defrost in the fridge for at least 24 hours before baking.
Creating Future Pizza Chefs
I am a huge believer in the importance of getting kids into the kitchen. Food Literacy (an understanding of how your food choices impact your health, the environment and the economy) is one of my key interests. I feel that teaching kids basic cooking skills is the BEST way to give our children healthy eating habits.
And since pizza is so popular, it plays a huge role in getting my kids interested in cooking. If they want pizza for dinner, they have to help make it!
There are so many ways that kids can help make pizza:
- Mix & knead the dough
- Shop for ingredients
- Chop up the vegetables
- Grate the cheese
- And of course, they decorate their own pizza!
Sourdough Pizza Crust
Do you know the secret to amazing pizza? It all starts with a sourdough pizza crust! This crust follows a simple recipe that only requires 4 ingredients. It is vegan-friendly and delicious!
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 4–5 crusts 1x
- Category: Bread
- Method: Sourdough
- Cuisine: Italian
- Diet: Vegan
Ingredients
- 6 3/4 cups flour (32 oz)
- 2 3/4 cups chlorine-free water (22 oz)
- 3/4 cup active sourdough starter (6 oz)
- 4 tsp salt
Instructions
- Warm the water to about 30C (86F), then mix with the flour. Using warm water helps to kick start the hydration, the exact temperature doesn’t matter, just avoid it being too hot or cold.
- Let the flour hydrate for 15-30 minutes, then mix with the sourdough starter and the salt. Kneed as required to bring all of the ingredients together.
- Allow the dough to rise in a warm location for 12-16 hours. You want it to double in size, but feel free to choose a time that suits your schedule.
- Place the dough on a well-floured surface and cut into 4 equal pieces.
- Gently shape the dough into balls, using flour as required, but avoid kneading.
- Store the balls of dough in lightly oiled containers or zip-top bags. They can be used right away, but for the best flavor development, store the dough in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours, and up to 3 days. (See the section above for other options).
- Shape the dough right from the refrigerator just before baking. Each ball will make a 10 to 12-inch crust, depending on how flat you make the pizza crust.
- Add your favorite toppings and bake as hot as possible until the crust is browning. At 500 F the pizza will be ready in 15 minutes. At 450 F the pizza will be ready in 20 minutes.
Notes
- Baking on a pizza stone
is traditional. You can also bake pizza in a cast-iron skillet
for a deep-crust pizza or on a cookie sheet
.
- This recipe can be made with white flour, whole wheat, spelt, or a mix of flours. It does not work for GF flour, so use my GF sourdough crust instead.
- See the section above for information on how to freeze the dough for future pizza parties.
is traditional. You can also bake pizza in a 
for a deep-crust pizza or on a cookie sheet
.Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/2 white flour crust
- Calories: 384
- Sugar: 0.3g
- Sodium: 1165mg
- Fat: 1g
- Saturated Fat: 0.2g
- Carbohydrates: 80.5g
- Fiber: 2.9g
- Protein: 10.9g
- Cholesterol: 0mg
Keywords: dairy-free, egg-free, oil free, sugar free, vegan, dinner, lunch, 4 ingredients
This is awesome… I’m pretty sure that we are completely replacing our regular use of “traditional” pizza dough with a sourdough crust. Thanks!
Another successful recipe! The family was very thrilled that it was such a big batch, so we’ll have lots of leftovers for tomorrow. Usually we have to fight over the leftovers. It was interesting that it didn’t have a strong sourdough flavour – I guess all of the pizza toppings overpowered the sourdough taste. We baked at 500 as suggested, and it didn’t need the full 15 minutes.
★★★★★
Good to know. Glad you liked it!