For a pillowy soft, delicious pizza crust that your family will beg for, start with sourdough discard pizza dough! It’s easy to make and bakes up with the perfect chewy consistency. This sourdough pizza crust recipe is the best way to make an authentic Italian pie without yeast!
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Why We Love This Recipe
- Naturally fermented. This homemade pizza recipe uses the natural yeast from an easy sourdough starter recipe. This makes it a true sourdough pizza dough recipe.
- Easy overnight recipe. This recipe requires a double rise: the first takes several hours because the dough must ferment. To save time, we prefer to let it work its magic overnight.
Need a faster recipe? You’ll love our sourdough discard flatbread recipe with its short one hour rise that’s perfect for making flatbread pizza. - Great for meal prep. Sourdough pizza dough stays in the fridge for up to a week, making it the perfect dinner solution for busy nights.
No Starter?
Make one of our yeast-based crust recipes like our easy pizza dough recipe or pizza dough bread recipe instead. Or try grilling a pizza!
Ingredient Notes and Substitutions
- Active Sourdough starter – fed 12-24 hours before starting the recipe.
When we say active, we mean a mature starter that is at least a week old and always doubles in size within 4-6 hours of feeding. It doesn’t mean you need to use it at the peak activity after a feeding. - All-Purpose Flour – We believe that the best flour for pizza sourdough discard recipe is either all-purpose or a higher protein variety, like bread flour. High protein flour gives the crust a chewier consistency.
- Olive Oil – Using high-quality, extra virgin olive oil goes the extra mile, but any brand or variety will help you achieve a golden, crispy crust.
How to Make Sourdough Pizza Crust
Mix the Dough
- Use a recently fed starter.
Be sure to feed it 12 hours prior to starting this recipe so you have enough active discard.
Having problems with your starter? Be sure to check our sourdough starter troubleshooting post, with a little patience and perseverance, you can identify and resolve the most common issues. - Combine the ingredients until you have a shaggy-looking mixture.
If you’re a beginning baker, you may not be familiar with the term, “shaggy”. Look at the photo below for a visual reference.
The ingredients are combined, but just barely. Overmixing sourdough dough (or really, any batters or doughs) leads to dry and tough baking.
Let the Dough Ferment and Rise
- Let the sourdough discard pizza dough rise for at least 8 hours.
If you want to serve pizza for dinner the same day you make the dough, you’ll want to start pretty early in the morning. You need a slow fermentation rise to create a pillowy, soft, and chewy pizza crust.
The other option is to prepare the dough the night before you want to assemble and bake the sourdough pizza. It needs to rise at room temperature to ferment. - Wait until the sourdough is double its original size before punching it down.
If you need a visual guide, mark the starting level with masking tape or an erasable marker.
- Portion properly for perfect pizzas!
Our sourdough pizza crust recipe yields two large or four to six personal pizzas. You can either weigh each portion or eyeball it; either way, be sure to use a bench scraper or sharp knife to make your cuts. Otherwise, you’ll have a tough time pulling off each portion.
How to Shape Sourdough Pizzas
- Use your palms and fingertips to help shape the sourdough pizza dough.
It isn’t necessary to use a rolling pin, and actually, it’s easier to shape a pizza crust without one!
- Leave a border around the edge of the crust.
For large pizzas, shape the dough to about 14 inches across. Smaller pies should have crusts that are between 10 and 12 inches in size.
Topping and Baking
Like any other homemade version, you can top your sourdough pizza crust with whatever pizza sauce and toppings you like. If you’re a fan of chicken alfredo pizza, use our bechamel cheese sauce or a traditional Italian tomato sauce works perfectly, too!
For a true Italian-style pizza, try this pizza Calabrese recipe! Top your pizza with fresh mozzarella cheese, fresh basil, drizzle some hot sauce, or other pizza flavors.
🎯 TFN Pro Food Safety Tip
To prevent food poisoning from undercooked foods, be sure to pre-cook any meat toppings before adding them to your pie.
🎯 TFN Pro Tip
Baking on a pizza stone or cast iron griddle promotes a better rise and crispier sourdough pizza crust.
Recipe FAQs
You can freeze unbaked crusts after they have been shaped, or unbaked, fully assembled pizzas! Either way, they’ll keep for up to 3 months.
For instructions and helpful tips, read our post on how long can you keep pizza dough in the fridge.
For a golden and slightly crispy crust, we recommend baking your sourdough pizza at a high temperature. When we use our Ooni pizza oven, it bakes at over 700°F! Most home ovens won’t get that hot, so we recommend baking at 450°F.
Individual pizzas usually take 10-15 minutes to bake, and the larger ones need a few minutes longer.
When we say active, we mean a mature starter that is at least a week old and always doubles in size within 4-6 hours of feeding. It doesn’t mean you need to use it at the peak activity after a feeding.
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Sourdough Discard Pizza Dough
Equipment
- mixing bowl
- dough whisk
- bench cutter
- pizza stone
Ingredients
- 1 cup (250 grams) sourdough starter discard or fed 12-24 hours prior *see notes below
- 6 cups (750 grams) all purpose flour
- ¼ cup (60 grams) olive oil
- 1½ tablespoon (12 grams) salt
- 1 tablespoon (10 grams) granulated sugar
- 1 ½ cups (365 grams) warm filtered water 95º to 100ºF.
Instructions
- Add all ingredients to a large mixing bowl. Combine well, using a heavy duty spoon or dough whisk. The dough should look rough and shaggy, and feel soft and sticky. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured countertop. Knead the dough for about 3 minutes, until smooth and tacky (but not sticky).
- Return the dough to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let it rise at room temperature until doubled in size. **This takes about 8 hours – we make ours at night and then set the bowl of dough on the counter to riseovernight.
- When the dough has doubled in size, punch it down in the bowl and flip it over. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap again and refrigerate. About 1 hour before you want to bake your pizzas, remove the dough from the fridge.
To Shape the Sourdough Pizza Crust
- Lightly flour your work surface. Using a bench scraper or sharp knife, cut the chilled dough into 2 equal pieces for large pizzas, or 4-6 pieces for individual pizzas. Let dough rest at room temperature for one hour. Meanwhile, prepare your pizza toppings and preheat your oven to 475º.
- Shape your pizza crusts by hand, flattening the dough with your palm, then pressing with your fingers to stretch it out, leaving a 1" thick border at the edge. For large pizzas, shape crusts to 14 inches in diameter; shape individual sourdough crusts to 10-12 inches in diameter. Add sauce and toppings, then bake as desired.
Video
Notes
- Baking Instructions
- To freeze unbaked crusts or unbaked assembled pizzas, read our post on freezing pizza dough.
- Nutrition shown is for 1 slice of crust for a 14-inch pizza, and does not include toppings.
Nutrition
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Previous
Jennifer says
I haven’t made this yet, because I’m confused about the starter… it says sourdough discard in the title, but it calls for active, fed starter.
Gianne - TFN Team Member says
Great question! The recipe uses sourdough discard, but it’s important that the discard is active and fed before making the dough. Here’s why:
Sourdough discard simply refers to the portion of the starter that is removed before feeding. If it’s recently fed and bubbly, it has the strength to help the dough rise and develop great flavor.
If your discard has been sitting in the fridge unfed for a while, it won’t have enough strength to properly ferment the dough. To get the best results, we recommend feeding your starter before using it in this recipe.
Want to learn more about sourdough discard and how to use it? Check out this helpful guide: https://thefeatherednester.com/what-is-sourdough-discard/
Hope this helps! Let us know if you have any other questions before you get started. Happy baking!
Nic says
Tried this and loved it! My husband gave it a 4.5/5 which fit him was great! I was wondering if you had to put it in the fridge after proofing if you are just going to put it in the freezer. Can you proof over night, pinch down then part out and shape? Or if you can’t how long does it have to be in the fridge for?
Thank you
Danielle - TFN Team Member says
I’m sorry, we haven’t tested this recipe with freezing, try it out and let us know! Thanks!