Julie Clark
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Sourdough Discard Pizza Dough
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The ultimate in pizza dough! Sourdough Discard Pizza Dough has amazing flavor without a long waiting time. Read our tips for a perfectly golden brown crust.
One recipe that sourdough lovers have been asking for is a sourdough discard pizza dough. Some have used our sourdough discard bread recipe, but I wanted to take the pizza crust that we know and love and give it a sourdough flair.
I spent all winter perfecting it and have made delicious pizzas with this recipe for about the past 6 Friday nights. I’m so excited to share it with you today!
Why you’ll love this recipe:
- Perfect for when you have sourdough discard to use up.
- When you want sourdough flavor but don’t have time for a long fermentation.
- Same day mixing and baking. No overnight rest.
- Tips for the best perfectly golden brown crust (with bubbles!).
What is sourdough discard?
Sourdough bread has been a comforting classic for years, but this year it has become even more popular than ever. If yeast is scarce you can learn how to make bread with sourdough which has a naturally occuring yeast.
You can read our complete sourdough guide, but once you start making sourdough, you either have to bake with it or discard part of the start or it will keep growing. In order to not be wasteful, you can make recipes with the sourdough discard. These discard recipes use other leavening agents (baking powder, baking soda or yeast) to get a rise in the baked good. See below the recipe for some of our favorites.
Tips for Making Sourdough Discard Pizza Dough
- You’ll need one of these three things to make this pizza dough: a stand mixer, a bread maker (that has a dough setting), or raw arm muscle power. I use my bread machine on the dough setting most often to make dough. It’s easy to set it and have it be ready for me to use in about 2 hours. The second easiest is the stand mixer. But if you don’t have either, use your hands to knead the dough the old fashioned way. It works!
- I highly recommend using a kitchen scale to weigh the ingredients. If you choose not to, add the flour slowly so that the dough doesn’t end up too dry. You want the dough to be slightly tacky to the touch.
- My sourdough starter is 100% hydration. That means I feed it with equal weights of water and flour.
- This pizza bakes at a high temperature. Set your oven to as high as it will go. I set mine to 550º Fahrenheit. It takes about 30 minutes to heat to this temperature.
- Don’t roll the dough with a rolling pin! This will pop all of the little air bubbles in the dough giving you a chewier, denser crust. If you want light and crispy, just press the dough with your hands.
- Don’t allow the toppings to sit on the pizza too long before baking. The sauce may make the dough soggy. Bake as soon as you get the pizza assembled.
- Looking for more pizza tips and our favorite toppings? Read our complete guide to making homemade pizza.
Sourdough Discard Pizza Dough
The ultimate in pizza dough! Sourdough Discard Pizza Dough has amazing flavor without a long waiting time. Read our tips for a perfectly golden brown crust.
Servings 8
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup warm water (115º Fahrenheit) 172 grams
- 0.25 ounces Red Star Platinum Instant Yeast (1 package)
- 1 cup sourdough discard 240 grams
- 2 teaspoons granulated sugar 12 grams
- 1 teaspoon salt 6 grams
- 2 tablespoons olive oil 30 grams
- 2 tablespoons cornmeal 24 grams
- 2 3/4 cups bread flour 358 grams
Instructions
- Put warm water the bowl of a stand mixer. Sprinkle the yeast over the top.
- Add in the sourdough discard, sugar, salt, olive oil, cornmeal and flour.
- In your stand mixer, mix them with the paddle attachment just until combined. Then put on the dough hook and knead for about 10 minutes.
- Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for 30 minutes or until almost doubled.
- Preheat the oven to 550º Fahrenheit. (This takes about 30 minutes for our oven to heat to this high temperature, so plan accordingly.) If you have two baking stones, place one on each of two racks in the oven. The pizza will sit on the bottom one and there will be a stone on top also to cook the top of the pizza.
- Place a large piece of parchment paper on a baking sheet (preferably one without sides). Sprinkle cornmeal on the parchment paper.
- Note: This recipe is for one extra large pizza. You can split the dough into two and make two medium pizzas as well. If you do they won't take as long to cook.
- Stretch the pizza dough out and press it lightly with your fingertips until it is the size and thickness you'd like it. Don’t roll the dough with a rolling pin! This will pop all of the little air bubbles in the dough giving you a chewier, denser crust. If you want light and crispy, just press the dough with the pads on your fingertips.
- Top with desired pizza toppings.
- Slide the parchment paper with pizza off the pan and directly onto the lower pizza stone. Bake for about 14 minutes until golden brown and bubbly. This time will vary based on how thick the crust is and how large the pizza is so watch it closely.
- Remove the pizza from the oven, slice and serve. Be careful….it will be VERY hot!
Notes
The calories shown are based on the the dough being divided into 8 pieces, with 1 serving being ⅛ of the dough (no toppings). Since different brands of ingredients have different nutritional information, the calories shown are just an estimate. **We are not dietitians and recommend you seek a nutritionist for exact nutritional information. The information in the nutrition box are calculated through a program and there is room for error. If you need an accurate count, I recommend running the ingredients through your favorite nutrition calculator.**
Nutrition
Calories: 228kcal | Carbohydrates: 40g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 4g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 292mg | Potassium: 51mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 1IU | Calcium: 7mg | Iron: 1mg
Sourdough Discard Recipes
These discard recipes use other leavening agents (baking powder, baking soda or yeast) to get a rise in the baked good. See some of our favorite recipes using sourdough discard here:
I followed the recipe exactly except for molasses in place of sugar. It rose beautifully and cooked so nicely. Made the perfect amount for two very hungry adults. I deducted stars because the flavor was so bland and the texture was like cake — no chewiness like you expect in a pizza crust.
Hi Julie,
What replacement should I use if I don’t have cornmeal? Could I use almond flour? Or just AP flour? Thanks
I’m about to try this recipe. I will be kneading by hand. You have an asterisk (*) at the end of step 3 which describes the kneading but I don’t see a note related to that *. Is there something extra I need to know about the hand kneading?
This was great! I skipped the cornmeal in the dough and used semolina flour on the pizza peel. Great use of discard!
Has anyone ever used a different flour, such as spelt or rye. We have a gluten intolerance.
Phenomenal… fairly quick and super easy to work with. The taste and texture were fantastic!
Parchment paper goes in too? 😬 it doesn’t burn?
When you use your bread machine on the dough setting do you set it for 1 lb. or 1 1/2 lbs???
Since this is calling for yeast in addition to the sourdough starter, is the discard supposed to be fed or hungry?
Can you make the dough ahead of time?
Oh boy! The oven temperature must be 100 degrees too high. My pizza was done in 6 minutes and the parchment was burned and was smoking up the house. I have not eaten it yet. I am thinking it might not be cooked enough in the center. Will give another comment when I eat it.
Was the cornmeal intended to be included in the dough or on the parchment or both?
I LOVE this recipe!!!! However I’ve had a bunch of people ask me to prep the dough for them for use. Is there a way to freeze it and at what stage would I freeze it?
Made this for supper for 3 grandkids and it was not just good, it was really, really good. Not expecting company, the toppings wound up being onions, mushrooms and smoked sausage sliced thin instead of typical kid requests. I set the timer for 14 minutes and that was way to long. No problem, we just easily removed the very bottom burned crust and gobbled every morsel. Thank you for another tasty way to use more sourdough!
at what point do you add the discard in?
Light as air! This recipe is wonderful! I’ve tried many others. I think part of the key is the super high temperature. In my oven I only needed about 6 minutes though. Thanks Julie!