Sourdough Pizza Dough Using Thermomix or Stand Mixer
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Sourdough pizza dough is the most amazing pizza you will eat. There is something truly delicious about the complex flavors and crispy yet soft base. This recipe uses a stand mixer or Thermomix to mix the dough. It needs a lot of kneading and this makes the process much easier and quicker, without compromising on flavor or texture.
To make this dough, you'll need an active, bubbly sourdough starter. You could also try this quick sourdough discard pizza dough.
What If You Need Sourdough Pizza In A Hurry?
While this is a sourdough pizza base, if you need it in a bit of a hurry, add just a pinch of commerical yeast. This can be handy if you need to have them ready in a few hours. Generally, if I mix the dough at lunch time and leave it somewhere warm, it's ready by 5pm without using yeast, however if you need them faster (because kids lol) then a little pinch of yeast is not going to ruin them - you'll still get the flavor of sourdough. The option of adding extra yeast just makes this recipe super versatile!
Don't Use A Rolling Pin!
One of the best tips I can give you for making sourdough pizza is not to use a rolling pin when you are shaping your bases. Now you might think this sounds crazy, but hear me out.
When you tip the dough out of the bowl, make sure it lands with the smooth side of the dough down on the counter (just like when you make bread).
Use a dough scraper to divide the dough into pieces (around 290g each is a good size) or you can just eyeball it. Roll it into a ball and then use your fingers to push the dough out. It will be quite stretchy and elastic and shouldn't be sticky because you developed the gluten with your Thermomix or stand mixer.
You can pick the dough up and run your fingers around the edges, using the dough's own weight to stretch it out.
It will make a big difference to the texture of your cooked pizza dough and you'll have beautiful soft bubbles wrapped up in a crispy base that doesn't collapse under the toppings.
Cooking Your Sourdough Pizza
You can cook these bases in a regular oven - they work just fine! I find the best way to cook them is either in a cast iron skillet (you'll be able to do more deep pan pizzas this way). Or you can place the dough on pizza trays. This is what we do most of the time - the perforated trays work the best.
You could of course also bake these delicious sourdough pizzas in a wood fired pizza oven or even on a pizza stone in your own oven.
Whatever you decide to bake them in, make sure you oven is super hot to begin with to get that base nice and crispy on the outside. You can then turn the oven down a little to ensure that the toppings don't burn, but the base is cooked all the way through.
Can You Freeze Sourdough Pizza Dough?
Yes! This dough is amazing to freeze. To make life easy, I like to make a big batch of pizza dough (like double or even triple this recipe). I shape the bases and then freeze them between baking paper sheets. I put them all on a tray to start with, layering them up with paper, and then once frozen, I remove the tray from the bottom and wrap the whole lot in alfoil. When I need fast pizza I can grab a few bases out, top them and bake. You don't even have to let them defrost! Brings a whole new meaning to frozen pizza, right?
Equipment for Sourdough Pizza Dough
You don't need a lot of specialised equipment for pizza dough, however there are a few things which can make it easier for you - and give you better tasting pizza!
Glass Mixing Bowl - allows you to see what's happening as your sourdough pizza dough is proving.
Silicone Dough Scraper/Metal Dough Scraper - these make getting the dough out of the bowl much easier and dividing the dough a breeze!Perforated Pizza Trays - perforated pizza trays allow air to crisp up the base of your pizza and give you a great result in a regular oven. They are cheap enough that you can buy a few and have all your pizzas prepared and ready to bake.
Cast Iron Skillets - these can be an easy way to make deep dish pizzas and work fantastically well for sourdough pizza.
Pizza Cutter - makes slicing through molten mozzarella and crispy sourdough a breeze!
Further Reading
If you love this sourdough pizza dough recipe you might enjoy these articles:
- Best Flour for Sourdough Pizza Dough?
- Looking for the best sourdough recipes to make in your Thermomix, just like this pizza dough? You'll find 12 of the best sourdough recipes for the Thermomix here.
- This sourdough flat bread recipe is super versatile - you can even use it for mini sourdough pizzas!
- Love sourdough naan? Try this recipe!
Sourdough Pizza Dough (in a Stand Mixer)
Equipment
- Stand Mixer
- Digital Scales
- Mixing Bowl
- Pizza Trays
Ingredients
- 500 g Bread Flour
- 20 g Salt
- 30 g Olive Oil
- 20 g Honey
- 280 g Water
- 200 g Sourdough Starter active and fed
Instructions
- Measure out all your ingredients into the bowl of your Thermomix or stand mixer. You don't have to pre mix, you can just add them all in on top of one another. This dough is extremely forgiving.
- Using the knead function on your Thermomix or stand mixer, combine all the ingredients and knead for around 4-5 minutes.Thermomix - Dough function for 4 minutes.Check the texture of your dough. It should be smooth and silky and coming away from the sides of the bowl. If your dough is still sticky, sprinkle a little extra flour and knead for a further minute or two until it becomes silky smooth.
- Turn the dough out into a warm, lightly oiled bowl (I warm a bowl with water while the dough is kneading, then dry it). Cover with cling wrap or a damp tea towel and leave to rise until it has doubled. This may take several hours, depending on the temperature of your kitchen. Watch the dough and it will show you when it's ready, rather than going by a set amount of time. Using 200g of sourdough starter means the process will happen faster than if you used less.
- Once the dough has doubled, separate the dough into smaller balls so they are ready to be rolled out. 290g per ball will give you a nice size pizza when it's rolled out. 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.
- Place your pizza dough onto pizza trays ready to top with your favorite toppings! When you are ready to bake, pre heat your oven to 230C/450F 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.
Is there a point in this recipe that you can refrigerate the dough to use later?
Definitely, once you've shaped into balls, pop them into the fridge instead of leaving on the counter 🙂
How long is it good in the fridge before you should freeze it? Thanks!
Can this dough be refrigerated for multiple days? (I am making this on Sunday and plan to bake them on Thursday.)
I would freeze them in that case. When you're ready to bake, you can bake them without needing to defrost them first.
since i don't have a stand mixer, what about doing stretch and folds? should i do it per 15 min or 30 min?
I know it will vary, but can you provide a ballpark rising time range?
Why do you not suggest using the dough cycle of the bread machine for this dough?
What is the approximate diameter of the crust you’re making with a 290g ball? I’d like to prep crusts for personal pizzas rather than one meant to be shared. Thank you!
Hello! So I once read somewhere that using yeast in sourdough reduces it’s benefits. Can you share any insight on this topic? I can’t get my sourdough strong enough to make a really soft sandwich bread. I often think about about adding some yeast but didn’t want to reduce its benefit or even offset it completely. Any advice is appreciated.
Another winning recipe. I did 3 pizza doughs from the recipe. Made one and froze the other two. Thanks for this one.
yay! So glad you love it xo
Can this be made with whole wheat flour?
Help for getting that crispy bottom crust: A simple addition of diastatic malt: I have found that adding a teaspoon to a 500 g flour batch of dough is marvelous in helping a pizza dough crisp up and brown beautifully in an oven, even after multiple days in the refrigerator. That simple addition helps the wild yeast have access to the sugars in the flour, and helps the dough not to degrade too much. I like to bake at 500 degrees on my pizza steel, that has been preheated for at least 30 minutes. 12 minutes to perfection! BBQ baking mats also make it easier to transfer topped pizzas into the oven with the use of a sheet pan turned upside down (for use as the pizza steel) or with a long handled pizza steel. Just a couple of pizza meals at home and you've saved enough money for buying some items to make pizza dinners easier! I store the DM in the freezer between uses.
After ferment my dough was VERY sticky. I was barely able to shape into rounds using spatulas, and they stuck to the parchment paper. Did I do anything wrong?
can I use pizza flour, such as caputo in place of bread flour? thank you
Yes you can x
Ok, I was in a hurry. Add ingredients and the salt after 20 min. It did not mix in good, every once in a while you would bite salt. I stretched 3 x, once every 30 min. let rise on counter 2 hrs. just put directly into very hot cast iron skillet. At 450, bottom really cooked, but inside was not cooked. Pizza was 3 inches high. I didn't read directions, so my fault. I put all the dough in one large cast iron. Any ideas why salty? I did mix by hand with a wet hand when I added the salt. Good recipe, I just need to figure out the salt and divide dough by 3.
I'm planning on making this recipe this weekend, I know you wrote that this will make four pizza bases. About how large are the pizza bases? I'm wanting to make the equivalent of two medium pizzas.
Once you put the pizza in the oven at 450… what temp do you turn it down to so it doesn’t burn? Making this for dinner tonight. Thanks! 🙂
Hi
Thank you for sharing your knowledge so generously.
I needed 10 pizza bases so I went ahead and made a dough with 1.5 x of the everything.
If I was to make 290g balls, I end up with only 5 bases + some leftover . ... is that a mistake ?
To get 10 bases I have to ho with about 155-160g of dough.
Thanks again
Do you use the dough hook or cake mixing attachment when using a stand mixer
Why are some doughs kneaded & others just stretched & folded? You are such a resource! I LOVE your blog!
What size of pizza bases four this make?
Made this for Christmas Eve! It came out amazing! I like the amount this recipe made. I froze the rest of the dough balls. Would I take them out and place in the fridge the morning I wanted to use them or would I defrost on the counter?
Made this for Christmas Eve! It came out amazing! I like the amount this recipe made. I froze the rest of the dough balls. Would I take them out and place in the fridge the morning I wanted to use them or would I defrost on the counter?
Can I substitute the honey with white sugar, and, at what quantity ?
Yes you can substitute honey with sugar - just add the same amount of sugar 🙂
Looks like a recipe I need to try. IF I wanted to use less starter, say 100g , what other changes to the recipe would be required?
What do I do if my dough is sticky?
Can the honey be left out of the recipe altogether?
Yes you can leave the honey out of the sourdough discard pizza recipe if you prefer.
Best homemade pizza dough yet! Made it exactly as written.
Thank you!
If you freeze the balls how do you thaw and handle the dough prior to stretching out to bake? Do they need to bend rest or be reshapped?
Just allow them to thaw and then shape. You'll want them at room temp for easy shaping. Sometimes it's easier to roll into bases and freeze like that 🙂 Much quicker when you want a pizza 🙂
Our absolute favorite pizza recipe to make. Thank you, PM!
Made this recipe and was crusts were delicious. I reduced salt to 10 grams. I don’t use 20 grams in my favorite
bread recipe using 1000 grams of flour.
Hello! Can I put the dough in the fridge overnight after kneading with the stand mixer? Thanks!
How big of a pizza will one ball make?
Hi,
Just starting out with making pizza dough with starters, so please forgive me if my question is silly.
with regards to the starter, do you grab 200g from the starter after it has been fed or do you wait a while?
thanks
Never a silly question! You need to feed your starter and then wait until it doubles before you take the starter out 🙂
Hi! Love your recipes. My dough was sticky after it proofed. I did use AP flour however. Could that be my reason?
Thank you 🙂 Yes AP flour absorbs water differently so definitely could affect it.
Hi! Would recipe be okay if we use unbleached AP instead of bread flour?
could you lower the hydration on this and use AP flour? would that work or idk, i have a lot of AP to use lol ty
Have you subbed out a little while wheat? Maybe 30%?
This recipe states 4 pizza bases. How big are the bases? Are they more of a mini pizza or personal size or like a Doninos medium? Thank you!!! Sounds like a delicious crust.
How should I feed my starter for this recipe ? Is 1:3:3 ok?
Hi there! If using a cast iron skillet do you need to pre-cook the dough before adding the ingredients? Do you use the same amount of dough as for the pizza trays?
Are you using 100% hydration sourdough starter? The dough is really wet.
Hi. If I shape the bases ..how do you store then in the fridge? What type of tube? Also if storing in freezer what do you use? Can you also put sauce and toppings on from frozen and bakeM
Can you leave out the olive oil? I don't like heating olive oil above 180 degrees celcius or could I bake at 180 degrees celcius fan assisted oven. Also I don't like covering with aluminium in freezer is there anything else
Hi Bri, You can try avocado oil, which has a higher smoke point than olive oil. You can freeze the dough balls in ziploc bags. 🙂
I love this recipe. I'm new
with sourdough. I am experimenting with my starter. I got it from a friend and it is a few years old. I have had luck feeding 1-2-2 and putting it right into the fridge. I take it out when I want to use it and let it double on the counter. Is there a downside to doing it this way?
Not sure if I’m just overthinking this but in the recipe instructions when making the dough it says to pre-bake the dough and then top. But if baking from frozen to put on the toppings and bake. Which one should I do, also do I still bake the frozen pizza at 450?
Help!!!!
If I plan to use this pizza dough the day after making it, would I need to freeze it after shaping and take it out the next morning or could I leave it in the fridge overnight?
Hi! I’ve been trying a bunch of your recipes and they are delicious. I can’t quite get this dough to stop being sticky. Any tips are appreciated!
I’m very new at sourdough…I’m lucky because I was gifted a mature starter and I’ve also had success with starting my own.
Like many, bulk fermentation is my nightmare.
I think it’s mostly because since the beginning of Covid, I’ve been baking my own bread and I’ve always made my pizza dough from scratch.
This being said, sourdough looks nothing like all the other bread/pizza doughs I’ve ever made which makes it challenging in itself. 🤦🏻♀️
I hope this is not a stupid question but I’ve tried to make your pizza dough twice (the one with active starter)…both times…well it didn’t go well 😂
The last one had not yet risen half way, after 71/2 hours, and I was exhausted so I rolled the dough in balls and shoved them in the freezer.
The pizza dough taste good but I feel I am doing something terribly wrong.
My kitchen is around 21 Celsius (70F)…
Send help 😂
Going to make this tomorrow with two of our grandkiddos. Do you have a basic timeline that works for you ie, make your dough at such a time to be eating by such a time? Thinking cooking pizza's by 5 in an outdoor pizza oven. Thanks in advance for the help!! Vicki
Can I still use quick yeast if my starter was fed over 12 hrs ago? If so how much?
I’ve made this several times and it is always super amazing!
It’s actually rising as we speak!
I love this recipe! Turns out perfect every time!
Once the dough has finished rising, can you put in the fridge for a day or so?
You can! Once you have them shaped into balls, you can add them to the fridge for baking later.
So easy and delicious. I made several batches and froze to add to Grandson’s goody basket along with a great variety pack of pizza sauces.
Great pizza dough. We had pizza two nights in a row! But, even better were the quesadilla style pastries we had the following day. We had some lamb mince to use up, we cooked it off with Moroccan style seasoning and filled our very thinly rolled out pizza bases with a bit of cooled lamb and some crumbled feta. Folded up the little parcels of goodness and cooked them in our sandwich press! Winner, winner chicken (lamb) dinner!
That sounds delicious! So glad you enjoyed this one. 🙂
Hi Kate, thanks for the lovely recipe! I'm now an avid pizza maker. What started out as a way to use some leftover starter, turned into a hot seller. I sell it as prebaked, frozen bases. I try to keep extra stock, but the bases take up a lot of space in my freezer. You mentioned that the dough balls can be frozen in ziplock bags. I guess you do that after shaping the rolls. I've never frozen unbaked sourdough, so I'm unsure how to go about reactivating it when you need to bake it. Do you just leave it out, covered, and wait for it to thaw and rise a bit?
Thanks!
Greetings from South Africa
Hi Betsie - I've written this guide to freezing sourdough bread which should answer all of your questions on this topic 🙂 x