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This sourdough discard pizza dough is so easy that you can make with your eyes closed! It gives you a deliciously crispy crust and chewy interior and can be make with your favorite pizza toppings. I’ve also included options to make it fit your schedule, no matter how much time you have!
Table of Contents
- Why You’ll Love This Recipe!
- Ingredients
- Using Sourdough Discard In Pizza Dough
- Real Life Examples
- How To Make Sourdough Discard Pizza Dough
- Kneading Tips
- Go Easy On The Toppings
- How To Serve Sourdough Discard Pizza
- Baker’s Timeline for Sourdough Pizza
- Tips for Cooking Sourdough Discard Pizza
- Let’s Freeze Sourdough Discard Pizza Dough
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Sourdough Discard Pizza Dough Recipe
Why You’ll Love This Recipe!
Quick and Easy – This recipe is described as quick because you literally have to throw the ingredients into the bowl of a stand mixer and let it knead the dough. There’s very minimal hands on time. Of course you will need to shape the sourdough discard pizza dough, however this dough is such a pleasure to work with, you’re going to enjoy every minute!
Your Favorite Crust – I’ve been making this recipe for years and have tailored it to suit many pizza preferences, from thin and crispy to a thick-crust pizza that’s out of this world!
Freezes Well – No matter how you choose to make this sourdough discard pizza dough recipe, it’s so easy to freeze! You’ll never have to order pizza again!
We love this quick sourdough discard pizza served with this delicious sourdough garlic bread or as sourdough pizza bianca! And don’t forget to make this delicious homemade pizza sauce to take your sourdough pizza to the next level! Or for something different, try this white pizza sauce made with sourdough starter.
Ingredients
- Sourdough Discard – I’ve made this recipe with sourdough discard, however you can use an active starter if you prefer. If you’re wanting a quick sourdough discard pizza, you can add commercial yeast.
- Instant Yeast – This is completely optional. You can just use discard, if you have a mature starter. If you don’t have a lot of time, you can of course make it super fast by adding a little commercial yeast, but it’s definitely not essential.
- Water – This recipe is not super high hydration, however, if you aren’t used to working with pizza dough, I would recommend holding back just a little of the water. It’s better to have to add than trying to fix wet dough.
- Honey – I’ve always used honey in my sourdough discard pizza dough recipe. It adds flavor and color to the crust and it speeds up the doubling of the dough for a quicker dough rise. If you don’t want to use honey, you can substitute with a little sugar or leave it out entirely. Adding diastatic malt powder to your dough can also enhance the flavor and color of the pizza crust.
- Olive Oil
- Bread Flour
- Salt
- Semolina Flour – I highly recommend using semolina flour when you are shaping sourdough discard pizza bases.I use semolina on all of my pizza peels to ensure that the pizza bases are easy to slide into the pizza oven. You can read more about the best flour for sourdough pizza dough.
Using Sourdough Discard In Pizza Dough
This recipe has been made using sourdough discard but I do want to explain why and how you should use discard in this recipe so you have the most success possible! Basically, the success of this discard pizza dough will depend on the age and strength of your sourdough starter, so here’s a quick chart so you know what to use and when.
| Sourdough Starter Age | How To Use It In Pizza Dough |
|---|---|
| Sourdough Discard [no yeast] | If your sourdough starter is mature and doubling regularly, you can use your unfed discard with no yeast. It will just take a bit longer to double than if it was active. |
| Sourdough Discard + 4g yeast | If your sourdough starter is only young and not doubling consistently, add 4g of yeast to help it along. If you want super fast pizza dough, add 7g of yeast. |
| Active Fed Sourdough Starter | If you have a mature sourdough starter, this recipe works perfectly with an active, bubbly starter. It will take less time to double than discard will. |
Real Life Examples
Here are a few real life examples of how you could use your discard in this sourdough discard pizza dough:
- Your starter is mature and has been around for a few years. Use 200 grams of fed, active starter to make this delicious sourdough pizza dough.
- Your starter is two weeks old. You have 200 grams of discard in a jar in the fridge from the last week of feeding your sourdough starter. You use 200 grams of sourdough discard from the fridge with an additional 4 g of instant yeast in your dough.
- Your starter is 6 months old. You haven’t fed the starter in the fridge for a week but you want to make pizza. Take 200 g of starter from your jar and use that for your bake (no yeast needed). Then feed your sourdough starter before you put it back into the fridge.
How To Make Sourdough Discard Pizza Dough
This sourdough discard pizza dough is described as quick because it is really easy to pull together – you can literally throw it in a bowl and you’re half way there. You can of course make it super fast by adding a little commercial yeast, but it’s definitely not essential.
Here’s how to make sourdough discard pizza dough:
Measure out the sourdough starter, water and honey (and yeast if you want to add it). Stir together until the sourdough starter and honey are dissolved into the water.
Now, add the oil, flour and salt into the bowl and gently stir together with a dough whisk or knife. Cover with plastic wrap and allow the dough to sit for around 30 minutes.
Now, tip the dough out onto the counter and knead it really well using your hands. This is a lovely dough to work with and with the right kneading, it will become soft and silky.
Kate’s Pro Tips
Kneading Tips
This dough can kneaded by hand or using a stand mixer or spiral mixer.
Kneading by hand – Knead for around 10 minutes, or until the dough becomes soft and supple. It will be quite elastic and stretchy. You shouldn’t need any flour on your counter top, however, you can add a little if the dough just isn’t coming together. A metal dough scraper can be handy in this situation as well.
Stand or Spiral Mixer – I prefer to knead this dough using a machine. If I’m doing a single batch, my Thermomix or KitchenAid handle the dough well. For double or even triple batches, I alway use my Ooni Halo Spiral Pro Mixer at speed 30 for around 5 minutes.
Once the dough is silky and elastic, pop it into a warm bowl (I warm a bowl with water and then dry it – this speeds up the rising). Cover with a plastic cover and leave to rise until it has doubled.
Once the dough has doubled, separate the dough into smaller balls so they are ready to be rolled out. I use 200 -260 g per pizza (this fits my pizza oven perfectly) but anywhere from 200 g to 300 g is good for a pizza. Leave the balls on your counter top, covered with a tea towel, for around 30 minutes to allow the gluten to relax.
Once you’re ready to make your bases, use your fingers to press your dough into a pizza round. If you need to stretch the dough, pick it up and move your hands around the edges, allowing the dough’s own weight to stretch it out into a round. Avoid using a rolling pin if you can to maintain your dough’s character and give it good structure when baked.
Place your pizza dough onto pizza peels ready to top with your favorite sourdough pizza toppings.
Kate’s Pro Tip
Go Easy On The Toppings
To ensure the base cooks evenly and all the way through, don’t pile on the toppings. Use half as much sauce as you think you need and try to use a low moisture mozzarella cheese. If you place toppings sparingly, it avoids the dough underneath the cheese from boiling and being dough and soft when you take it out of the oven. No one wants a floppy pizza, right?
When you are ready to bake, pre heat your oven to 230ºC/450ºF and make sure it’s HOT!! Place your pizzas into the hot oven for around 15 minutes or until toppings are cooked and bases are crispy on the bottom. These bases are especially good baked in a wood fired pizza oven.
How To Serve Sourdough Discard Pizza
I love serving these sourdough discard pizzas alongside these sourdough discard garlic knots and a dish of homemade pizza sauce to dip them all into! It also goes really well alongside some sourdough pasta and sourdough garlic bread!
My sons’ favorite way of eating these pizza crusts is with a dish of bread dipping oil alongside them. They use this to dip their pizza crusts in at the end of the meal. In Italian, this is called “cornicione”. My boys call this “pizza bones”.
Baker’s Timeline for Sourdough Pizza
One of the questions I get asked the most is around creating sourdough timelines. Here’s the timeline I use when making this sourdough discard pizza dough with no commercial yeast – sourdough discard only. If you are going to add instant yeast, the timeline will be much shorter because the dough will double quickly.
| TIME | PROCESS |
|---|---|
| 7 am | Mix pizza dough with sourdough discard. |
| 8 am | Place kneaded dough into a warm bowl, cover with plastic cover. Pop the bowl into the microwave with the door ajar. |
| 5 pm | Turn the risen pizza dough out onto the counter and divide into balls. Allow them to rest for 30 minutes. |
| 5:30 pm | Shape pizza bases and place onto the pizza peels. Allow to rest while pizza oven heats up. |
| 6 pm | Top pizzas and take to pizza oven to bake. |
Tips for Cooking Sourdough Discard Pizza
I have cooked a lot of sourdough discard pizza crusts. We have pizza every single Friday night (and sometimes we have it during the week and on a Saturday too!). And that adds up to a LOT of sourdough pizza! Here’s what I’ve found helps to get the best results from each style of cooking.
Gas Pizza Oven – Our gas pizza oven is small and easy to fire up. The stone inside does take quite a while to heat up, but it’s definitely worth waiting until it’s fully heated through so that it cooks the base from underneath, not just the toppings. For the best results, I find you need to wait around 10 minutes between each pizza to ensure the oven comes back up to temperature. You also need to turn the pizza constantly to stop it burning on one side.
Electric Pizza Oven – I’ve also just started using the Ooni Volt 2 Electric Pizza Oven and I’m so excited by how well these sourdough discard pizza bases cook in there! I use this oven at 430ºC (800ºF) for 2 to 3 minutes. You do need to try not to use as much semolina when using this oven as it tends to create a lot of smoke.
Home Oven – The best way to cook these pizzas in a home oven is to use a pizza stone. Just like the gas pizza oven, the trick is to make sure the pizza stone is super hot before you put the pizza in. You want the crust to cook almost instantly on the searing hot stone! I set our home oven to 230ºC/450ºF and this gives us a fairly good result, although definitely not as good as our wood fired pizza oven! You can also use a perforated pizza tray in your home oven to make these pizzas and this gives a fairly good result, although definitely not as good as the stone.
Wood Fired Pizza Oven – This is my favorite way to cook sourdough discard pizza bases, although it is only something we do if we have a quiet weekend because it is a lot of work to light the oven and get it to the right temperature.
Let’s Freeze Sourdough Discard Pizza Dough
Yes! Sourdough pizza dough is so simple to freeze and it can free up so much time! I’ve got two options for freezing your pizza dough, depending on what you’d prefer:
Freeze Sourdough Pizza Dough Balls
If you want to have some pizza dough in the freezer at all time, you can divide the pizza dough into balls after it’s doubled. Place each ball into a zip loc bag and then place into the freezer.
When you want to make a pizza, a bag of dough out of the freezer and allow it to defrost at room temperature. Once the dough is at room temp, shape it into a pizza base as you normally would.
Freeze Sourdough Pizza Bases
For an even faster frozen sourdough pizza, shape your dough into pizza bases. Place each pizza base onto a piece of parchment paper and then onto a pizza peel. Snap freeze the base by allow the base to freeze uncovered in the freezer for around an hour. Once all the bases are frozen, stack them (ensuring you leave the parchment paper between them) and then wrap the stack in aluminium foil or place into a large zip loc bag.
When you want to use one, take out a base and top it with whatever you like – you don’t even have to let it defrost, it will defrost as you add the topping! You’ll never have to order pizza in again!
You can also check out my ultimate guide to freezing sourdough pizza dough which details my method for par-baking bases for freezing too!
Frequently Asked Questions
No, you do not have to use honey in this recipe but it definitely adds flavor and color to the crust and it speeds up the doubling of the dough for a quicker pizza. If you don’t want to use honey, you can substitute with a little sugar or leave it out entirely.
Sourdough pizza crust can become tough if you use too much flour. The dough should be silky and elastic (no wet and sticky) but never be tempted to add extra flour as you will risk a tough crust. Knead the dough until the gluten develops and stops it from being wet and sticky.
Absolutely! You can use sourdough starter fed or unfed. The wild yeast contained in sourdough starter is perfect for a pizza crust. It will give you an amazing bubbly pizza dough perfect for oven or wood fire baking.
As with most things, you don’t have to use a pizza peel, however it does make it much easier to transfer the pizza from the counter to the oven and out again. I have two types of pizza peels I use. The wooden peels are great when coated in semolina. They let you lay out your pizza dough and add the toppings. They’re also wonderful for serving your pizzas. Metal pizza peels are great for transferring pizza into hot ovens and out again.
I often have portions of sourdough discard pizza dough leftover, so I’ve created a few recipes to make sure we don’t have any food waste! You can use leftover dough in Easy Sourdough Pizza Rolls, Fried Sourdough Pizza Dough, Sourdough Pizza Pockets and Sourdough Zucchini Pizza.
The great thing about sourdough discard pizza dough is that it’s really forgiving. If you want to make sourdough pizza dough in advance and store it in the fridge until you’re ready to shape, place the dough in the fridge once its doubled. It will last for up to 24 hours like this. If you’ve used commercial yeast with your discard, you can leave it in the fridge for up to 3 days after doubling.
Sourdough Discard Pizza Dough
Equipment
- Digital Scales
- Mixing Bowl
- Pizza Trays
Ingredients
- 200 g Sourdough Discard
- 7 g Instant Yeast, optional
- 280 g Water
- 20 g Honey
- 30 g Olive Oil
- 500 g Bread Flour
- 20 g Salt
Instructions
- Measure out the sourdough discard, water and honey (and yeast if you want to add it). Stir together until the sourdough starter and honey are dissolved into the water.
- Now, add the oil, flour and salt into the bowl and gently stir together with a dough whisk or knife. Cover with plastic wrap and allow the dough to sit for around 30 minutes.
- Now, tip the dough out onto the counter and knead it really well using your hands. This is a lovely dough to work with and with the right kneading, it will become soft and silky. I find it takes around 10 minutes to come together when kneading by hand.
- Once the dough is silky and elastic, pop it into a warm bowl (I warm a bowl with water and then dry it – this speeds up the rising).Cover with cling wrap or a damp dish towel and leave to rise until it has doubled.
- Once the dough has doubled, separate the dough into smaller balls so they are ready to be rolled out. I use 200 – 260 g per pizza (this fits my pizza oven perfectly) but anywhere from 200 g to 300 g is good for a pizza.Leave the balls on your counter top, covered with a tea towel, for around 30 minutes to allow the gluten to relax.
- Once you're ready to make your bases, use your fingers to press your dough into a pizza round. If you need to stretch the dough, pick it up and move your hands around the edges, allowing the dough's own weight to stretch it out into a round. Avoid using a rolling pin if you can to maintain your dough's sourdough character and give it good structure when baked.
- Place your pizza dough onto pizza peels ready to top with your favorite toppings (see my notes in the article above for my best tips on using pizza peels).When you are ready to bake, pre heat your oven to 230ºC/450ºF and make sure it's HOT!! Place your pizzas into the hot oven for around 15 minutes or until toppings are cooked and bases are crispy on the bottom.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like this? Rate and comment below!
Can I use All-purpose Einkorn flour instead of bread flour in your Quick Sourdough Discard Pizza Dough recipe?
How thin should a get this. I halved the recipe will it be too much to make a 12 inch pizza.
Do I need to prebake so the top doesn’t get soggy? I am going to bake it in the oven in a round solid bottom pizza pan.
Do I need to put olive oil on top before adding toppings?
Thank you
Hello, I’ve tried this twice now and followed the directions exact and my dough is very very sticky, and for a long time. what did I do? And what could I do differently?
Can you freeze them and what would the process be? Freeze right after splitting into 5? Would you then take them out and let them rise on the counter? I would love to double or triple this recipe to keep in the freezer.
Can you skip the oil? I’m trying to follow WFPBNO diet (whole food, plant-based, no oil) and I’m new to sourdough stuff – just got my first starter from a friend and looking to use up discard 🙂
I have made this recipe 2 times so far and both times the dough was very sticky. The taste of it was wonderful. My kids ate it right down and my husband and I both really enjoyed it. However, I don’t know what I’m doing wrong as I’m following the steps exactly as they are listed and it was extremely sticky. The 1st time I used a stand mixer to knead the dough and ended up needing to use some olive oil to get it so I could manipulate it. I just made it a 2nd time and decided to hand knead it. I had a very hard time with it. I did sprinkle a little flour on it every now and then when it was getting unmanageable due to the sticking. Any suggestions?
Do you have a rough idea of how long it should take to rise? Is it like an hour or 5 hours? I’m just having a hard time gauging. I made it once and had it come out fluffy and the other times it hasn’t been as fluffy so I’m thinking it didn’t rise long enough. The dough is sooooo good and we love this recipe! Just want to nail down the rise time. Thanks for the recipe!
We love this recipe.
Can you make ahead & bake the crust, then freeze?
Yes you can 🙂 Enjoy xo
Hi!
If I have frozen mature discard, and then leave it to defrost before using the discard, could I do without commercial yeast? And just allow it ferment at room temperature till it doubles in volume?
No yeast…after 10 minutes of kneading…in oven for doubling? Is there an estimated time?
I froze 2 balls and kept one in the fridge over night . I found it a little difficult to shape by hand and ended up using a rolling pin. It was good but didn’t have the DS holes. When I take balls out of the freezer how long approximately before it is ready to shape ?
After following your instructions, the pizza dough is wet and sticky, and not enjoyable to knead. Any idea why it’s not easy to work with?
Dough was wet and hard to work with. Not my favorite but thanks for the recipe!
Can this recipe be made with all purpose flour? I don’t have any pizza or bread flour on hand.
hi! wondering if this is still possible to make with all purpose flour? and if so, what the differences would be?
Used this recipe and my whole family loved it. Used half of the dough for a large thin crust pizza, and the other half for thicker cheesy breadsticks. Definitely will use it again
Can I use all purpose instead of bread flour? I ran out and didn’t realize it! I’m hoping yes.
Hi there
Do I need to add the honey? Could I use sugar instead? Currently don’t have any honey on hand.
Thanks
Thank you so much for the great recipe and your website! I am learning a lot! Both times I’ve made this, the dough is very sticky- even after I knead it and also after it doubles during the day. The pizza is only rising the tiniest bit in the oven- not like your picture. Should I knead it longer? Thanks for your help!
This dough was do incredibly sticky I almost had to throw in the towel. I ended up oiling my hands to shape into parchment paper. The flavor was great. I live in Florida. What would you recommend I do to get it silky as you described? I want to love it, but it was a slight disaster.
I used this dough recipe to make a cherry cheesecake strudel. It was AMAZING! Just rolled the dough out into a rectangular shape, used a cookie cutter to slice each side into little braid able edges. Left the center solid. Spread on some no bake cheesecake in the middle, then top that with your choice of pie filling. Take your sliced edges and pull across to opposite side creating a braid affect. Tuck the edges a bit. Bake. Enjoy!
i followed the instructions and video to the letter, however, my dough did not double in size…..It was silky smooth, I put in a warm bowl and it was in a warm spot for 7 hours….still no rising. It’s still stretchy so I’m going to try it anyway..wish me luck!
Can I substitute AP flour for the bread flour? And if so what amount should I use?
It’s best to use bread flour for this recipe. Some readers have reported it not working correctly with AP flour. 🙂
I made this dough today, for the first time. Fabulous! Thank you! I used a bread machine for mixing and kneading. Divided dough into four balls. (Approx. 12” pizza)
Hi! Can I freeze the dough balls? If so how do I defrost it? I love how detailed all your instructions are, thank you! I made your sourdough pretzels, and sourdough sandwich bread AMAZING! Thank you for all the delicious recipes!
I’m new to all of this and I’m wanting to use this recipe to make individual pizzas for my daughter’s birthday. Basically personal pizzas, how many personal pizzas would this recipe make?
You would get around 5 – 6 smaller pizzas 🙂
My dough has been sitting covered for 8 hours and hasn’t changed in size at all. I used discard of a very active starter. Where could I have gone wrong 😕
I love all your recipes. I made this today and hand kneaded the dough for my first time hand kneading. The dough was very sticky to work with and stuck to my work surface and my hands. What did I do wrong? I followed the recipe exactly. Last time I made this with a mixer and it wasn’t sticky at all. Thanks!
I only have a normal pizza pan to go in my oven. Do I still need semolina flour or should I just spray cooking oil or something on it or nothing if I’m shaping it directly on the pizza pan? First time ever making pizza crust 😬 Thanks in advance!
Bake it anyways!
My dough was a sticky mess from the start (but I used AP flour, so likely not the recipes fault). I also totally forgot about it and overproofed. It was a soupy mess. I skipped the second counter proofing, laminated with veggie pizza sauce, pepperoni, spinach, and mozzarella. Scooped the soupy mess of goodness into muffin tins and baked. DELICIOUS pizza muffins. I thoroughly messed up the dough and it was still delicious.
Why was my dough so sticky? I’m new to this so trying to figure out what I did wrong! I microwaved my butter out of the fridge. It wasn’t completely melted, just soft. Would that have been the issue?
I’ve been making Pizza Dough several years. I believe I have a 1/2 gallon of excellent Discard. Was wanting to try using King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour Organic. Any recommendations on changing ingredients grams +/- ?