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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.
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Hi! My dough remained incredibly sticky. Any thoughts where I went wrong? I used discard and yeast. First timer!
What if all I have is a regular gas oven and a pizza pan? Will it still come out okay?
Yes you can still cook it like this, you will just need to play around with temperatures to find what works for your oven 🙂
I just made this dough and used starter + yeast. My dough is super sticky, but I resisted the temptation to add any more flour, (perhaps I should have?),].The dough never got “silky and elastic” even after 10 minutes of hand kneading. What did I do wrong?
There are many different reasons for sticky dough. This post on Why is my Sourdough Wet & Sticky goes through a bunch of troubleshooting that should help.
OMG. So easy and delicious!! I actually used my cast iron to cook the pizza and was a hit for my family!!
I’ve made this twice, I found the dough to be very sticky and never formed into a soft silky texture. I followed the directions exactly as written. The first time I tried kneading by hand the second time I used my kitchenaid. It came out the same both times.
Hi Betty, There are many different reasons for sticky dough. This post on Why is my Sourdough Wet & Sticky goes through a bunch of troubleshooting that should help.
I just made this dough for the first time (actually twice because I thought I measured incorrectly) because my dough was so sticky!! Any thoughts of why it would be so sticky? I used 200 grams of starter that was in my fridge for a week. And measured everything separately before adding!
Hi Jaela, There are many different reasons for sticky dough. This post on Why is my Sourdough Wet & Sticky goes through a bunch of troubleshooting that should help.
Same and the stock response to read about “sticky sourdough” is not helpful. I did add more flour but haven’t baked yet. Stay tuned….
Jennifer Farley can you kindly provide other guidance here?
What am I doing wrong? I used an active starter that was just fed. I did all the instructions as listed in the recipe and need the dough for about 10 minutes, but it was extremely sticky. I decided to put it in my bread machine on stir to help need it there for another 15 mins. Took it out and it was still very sticky. I understand that it may have high hydration, but everything else worked well so I now have it in the bowl seeing if it will rise.
“Best pizza dough recipe i’ve tried”
Best pizza I have made!
What if when I go to knead my doe it IS very sticky?:(
The stickiness of your dough can be affected by the hydration level of your sourdough starter and the type of flour you’re using. If the dough feels too sticky, try adding a bit more flour or slightly reducing the water. Using semolina flour when shaping can also make the process easier.
Hi! Just wanted to clarify the recipe, this recipe yields five 200g pizza crusts?
Hi Kandis. That’s correct. 🙂
Hey there! wondering if bread flour can be replaced with spelt flour?
It should work. We’ve had readers say they used spelt flour with success. 🙂
I’m not the best baker in town, so I’m not sure what happened to mine. Make sure to have a backup meal plan in case this fails, though.
My dough was sticky and difficult to work with, so I added flour, but it didn’t do much to help.
I really have been loving this recipe. My family has made great memories making and baking the pizzas. Thank you for your instructions and pics and variations like how to freeze dough/bases. Love love love!!
Making it now and I did it in the thermomix and the dough has come out silky smooth… soft fluffy and bubbly. Thank you another winner!
Just made this pizza today. Delicious! Couldn’t get the base as thin as some people would like, but I’m fine with it.
Can the cooked pizza be frozen?
Yes absolutely! You can see how I do it in this guide to freezing sourdough pizza dough.
OMG! This pizza crust recipe is sooo good! I’ve made it twice and absolutely love it. The pizza crust is so light and airy, just the right amount of “pockets”.. sooo good! I use yeast with mine, it usually doubles within 6 hours. I love the bonus that I can make 6/8 balls, freeze them, then thaw out later for use. Love this recipe!!!
This is a great recipe. I tweaked it a little. I used durum flour instead of bread flour, and it turned out great. I also heated my water to 80 degrees when I started. After mixing, I placed it in my proofer at 80 degrees. After the 30-minute rest and then kneading, I left it in the proofing box until it doubled. It’s one of the best pizza dough recipes I’ve used. The durum flour makes the pizza crispy, but make sure you use a pizza stone when baking for best results. Also, I used a ripe starter instead of discard. I baked for about 15 minutes at 500 in my bread oven on the stone, and it turned out perfect.
Thank you!
My family loves this pizza dough. It makes a delicious crust and any time it is pizza night, I have to make this recipe!
This recipe is foolproof— I love it! I came back today to make a new batch of dough to freeze and found that my food scale wasn’t working. I was worried that not measuring my ingredients would mess something up, but a few rough conversions later, I still ended up with a deliciously perfect crust! Topped with homemade sauce, fresh mozzarella, pepperoni, italian sausage, onions, peppers, and some gorgeous heirloom tomatoes—AMAZING!
We LOVE to hear that! Thanks so much for your comment.
Can I use spelt flour for this?
Thanks
That should work, Vera!
This recipe was amazing! I’ve been reading some of the comments about the dough being sticky, and wanted to share a tip. I’m new to the sourdough adventure, so I researched the process. I’ve had some ups and downs trying to get used to it, but I do know that the recipe for this pizza dough is bang on. Here is what I did, and it produced a very workable, lovely dough. It does take a bit of time, but it’s well worth it. Once the ingredients are mixed in a bowl, and the shaggy dough is produced, let it sit for the 30 minutes, as per the recipe. Then I did 4 “stretch and folds”, 30 minutes apart. Take a bit of dough, stretch it upward, and then fold it down into the center of the bowl. Repeat going around the bowl until you come back to where you started. You can Google the process for a more helpful/visual aid. Cover each time with a towel. When the 4th stretch and fold is complete, just pop the dough in a warm bowl (as per recipe) in the oven with the oven light on for 4 hours or so. The dough doubled with no problem. And then just follow the rest of the instructions in this recipe.
Great tips! Thank you so much for taking the time to report back to us, Shannon. 🙂
I love this easy recipe! I’m wondering if the addition of herbs or garlic powder would interfere with the rising of this dough?
That shouldn’t cause any interference. It sounds delicious! 🙂
So good! I made pizza from a ‘fallen’ loaf (my bread tends to fall when the weather changes) of regular sourdough last week and found this recipe so I tried it today. Last week’s pizza was good, mind you, but this one tonight was outstanding! I have 3 more in semolina coated zip lock bags in the freezer, can’t wait to use them! The semolina flour is the secret to being able to work with the dough after it’s doubled. Love all your recipes!
Can I use this recipe for a peach pie crust?
Hi Amanda, I’d recommend this recipe for your peach pie crust. 🙂
Sometimes it can be hard to plan around making the dough. But on days when I wake up in the middle of the night and can’t get back to sleep, I love making this pizza dough because it makes for an easy dinner.
Sourdough discard pizza dough.
Fantastic recipe. Found it a bit sticky to shape. Used some oil on my bench and hands. Came together well. Made a double batch. One batch in freezer for next week.
Made 4 large pizzas
This dough is amazing and has become a weekly staple at my house. I add about a healthy shake of dried oregano and garlic powder to punch up the flavor. I use a convection oven set at 450 and bake two large pizzas instead of the 5.
LOVE this pizza dough, so delicious and comes out perfectly, especially when I go to my friends for pizza night and she has one of those Ninja outdoor pizza ovens. Best pizza ever!
I forgot my frozen dough in the fridge all week. Can I still make a crust with it?
Laura
I would give it a try, but it might not be as bubbly as it would when the dough was fresh 🙂