Julie Clark
Updated:
Sourdough Discard Pizza Dough
May contain affiliate links. Terms of Use Policy.
The ultimate in pizza dough! Sourdough Discard Pizza Dough has amazing flavor without a long waiting time. It’s one of our most popular recipes. Bake at a high temperature for a perfectly golden brown crust on your homemade pizza.
This sourdough discard pizza dough gives you big sourdough flavor without an active sourdough starter. Mix, let the dough rise, bake, and enjoy a golden, bubbly crust all in the same day. It’s the perfect way to put extra discard to good use.
You can have sourdough pizza dough quicker than you think.
After falling in love with our sourdough pancakes, one recipe that sourdough lovers want next is a sourdough discard pizza dough. Some have used our sourdough discard bread recipe, but I wanted to take our best pizza crust that we know and love and give it a sourdough flair.
I spent all winter perfecting it and have made everything from pulled pork pizza to chili dog pizza with this recipe the past few Friday nights.
Once you start making an active starter, you either have to bake with it every few days or discard part of the starter to keep it manageable. Discard recipes, like this sourdough discard pizza crust, use other leavening agents (baking powder, baking soda or yeast) to get an oven rise and are a great way to prevent waste. Try our cinnamon rolls with discard. They’re amazing!
Top this sourdough pizza crust with favorite pizza toppings like pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese and pepperoni. Then try unique toppings like goat cheese, pesto, cherry tomatoes, zucchini or fresh mozzarella.
See on Substack how Maddie often makes this into a thick-crust pizza!
Enjoy! -Julie
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 hand kneading. I use my bread machine on the dough setting most often to make dough. 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. This dough is easy to knead.
- Use 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. If your starter is a different hydration, adjust the water and flour in this recipe as needed.
- Set your oven to 550ºF. This pizza bakes at a high temperature for a crispy crust. 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. I learned this tip in a Chicago pizza making class.
- 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I make this pizza dough in advance?
This recipe was developed as a quick sourdough recipe, but many have asked if they can make the dough in advance and put it in the refrigerator overnight.
Yes, you can do this! When the dough is ready to rise, place the dough ball in a bowl and cover. Then place in the fridge overnight. This will slow down the rise.
On pizza night, pull out the dough and let it rest at room temperature for about 20 minutes to warm up slightly. Then stretch the dough, top and bake.
Can I freeze pizza dough?
Yes! After the first rise, punch down the dough and put it in a freezer bag. Place in the freezer for up to 6 weeks.
The night before you plan to use it, put it in the fridge overnight to thaw. Then 30 minutes before you want to bake, remove it from the fridge to let it sit at room temperature.
Then stretch, top and bake.
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
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Rise Time 30 minutes
Total Time 1 hour
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup warm water (115º Fahrenheit)
- 0.25 ounces Red Star Platinum Instant Yeast (1 package)
- 1 cup sourdough discard
- 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons cornmeal
- 2 3/4 cups bread flour or all-purpose flour
- more cornmeal for dusting the pan
Instructions
- Put warm water the bowl of a stand mixer (or large mixing bowl). Sprinkle the yeast over the top. ¾ cup warm water (115º Fahrenheit), 0.25 ounces Red Star Platinum Instant Yeast
- Add in the sourdough discard, sugar, salt, olive oil, cornmeal and flour. 1 cup sourdough discard, 2 teaspoons granulated sugar, 1 teaspoon salt, 2 tablespoons olive oil, 2 tablespoons cornmeal, 2 ¾ cups bread 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 rest and 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 additional cornmeal on the parchment paper. more cornmeal for dusting the pan
- 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
- 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.
- Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge. Then reheat slices in the air fryer to crisp the crust.
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
See some of our favorite ways to use sourdough discard here:
How do you recommend storing for longer days? Cook the dough and then freeze? Or freeze the dough before kneeding? Thank u!
Made this recipe a few times now and it is very very good!
I use the unfed discard, plus add a little more oil and water as I like it a little softer. Also I add garlic and onion powder and Italian seasonings to it to give some flavor.
I’ve made calzones with marinara meatballs inside out of this and kids LOVE them!
Chewy pizza dough is awesome!
Best crust! My new go-to recipe. Great to use up sourdough discard. The key is to pat the crust, as opposed to rolling. Great tip.
The texture and flavor are PERFECT!
This was delicious! I have made this recipe twice in the last week. I used einkorn flour and the crust turned out amazing.
This is the BEST crust we’ve ever eaten. Baked pizza on a stone, long preheat at 500. Did not prebake crust. Topped with sauce, a bit of cheese, sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms, onions, black olives, and more cheese. Slid parchment out when almost done to give crust some time on bare stone. Entire crust was nicely done, evenly browned, no soggy spots, chewy but tender. Brushed edge crust with olive oil while hot – yum! My starter was unfed for a week or two in fridge. No hooch but ripe. I feared the crust would taste bad from it, but the… Read more »
Looking forward to making this today! So far, so good. Question though, what would you recommend for making ahead of time? Can I refrigerate the dough for a few days after it rises?
This has been my go-to pizza recipe for the past year! My oven only goes to 500° and it still works perfectly. I adjust my cooking time based on how it’s looking (I peek in often to make sure it’s not burning). My 3 picky kids approve!
Can you make this is the morning and after the rise, store the dough in the refrigerator to use later in the day?
Why add cornmeal to the dough? I’m not sure what that adds. Thanks for any insight. 🙂
Everything was good until 550 for 30 min. I did a large pizza pepperoni only. My oven only goes up to 500 and it was burned by minute 20. What a waste of effort. How is everyone getting good results with such an extreme?
I have made this recipe more times then I can count and I love it! I usually only use active starter, since I don’t tend to save a lot of starter, and it comes out just as well as using unfed starter. I also don’t cook the crust at as high of temp as recommended. I cook the crust, without toppings, for about ten minutes at 425 degrees. I find that par baking the crust helps it not to be soggy when I put on all my wet veggie toppings. Great flavor, would highly recommend.
This crust is wonderful. I’m done looking for best crust. This is it.
This was amazing!! I followed all instructions to the T. I’m vary familiar with making pizza dough and I know the amount of flour will depend on the humidity in the area. I didn’t use all the flour called for and it was a very soft easy to work with dough. It was nice and airy. I was able to get 4 medium pizzas out of this. It did make a super thin dough which is how we like it!
Great recipe! My go to recipe for pizza crust!
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.