Best Sourdough Pizza Crust
This sourdough pizza crust is perfect for rolling out or hand tossing if you are brave enough. Par baking before adding the toppings allows the crust to form enormous bubbly pockets of air and guarantee that the crust will be done before the toppings dry out and burn. It's perfectly chewy and flavorful from it's ferment overnight in the refridgerator
The day before you make the pizzas, it only takes about 15 minutes to start the dough. After the dough is started let it sit out in a warm place for 60 to 90 minutes to give the starter some time for a first rise and then punch it down, roll it back into a ball and pop it into the fridge for the night.
The next day, remove it from the refrigerator to warm up for about 4 hours before you want to make your pizzas. When it's time to start preheating the oven or grill, be sure to have a pizza stone inside so that it slowly heats up with the oven to the hottest temperature possible. If you add a pizza stone directly into a hot oven it's likely to break from the temperature changing too rapidly.
If you are planning to bake the pizza crust directly on a pizza pan, do not warm the pan first. Roll out the crust and lay it on the room temperature pizza pan then place it into the hot oven to bake. You cannot bake the crust on a pan on the grill. You will need to use a stone as shown below.
About 1 hour before cooking time, on a floured bread board, separate the dough into as many dough balls as you would like to make pizzas, place them on a sheet pan that has been sprayed with oil and let them rise covered lightly with oil sprayed plastic wrap.
When you're ready to grill, Place 2 bricks on the grill and a pizza stone on top of them. Start heating your grill or oven to its highest temperature possible. Let it heat for at least 30 minutes.
Once the oven or grill is heating up you can begin rolling out the pizza crusts. I'm crazy about the way this 2 day dough handles. It rolls out very well and I'm sure if I had the confidence I could toss it.
Place some cornmeal on a pizza peel then on a floured surface, roll out your pizza crust using plenty of flour. The pizza dough will be much less sticky now than it was the day before but you will still need plenty of flour.
Carefully pick up the pizza crust or roll it over the rolling pin like a pie crust and place it on the pizza peel.
Quickly open the BBQ grill or Oven and slide the plain pizza crust onto the hot pizza stone and close the oven. Check the crust in 3-5 minutes. It should be about 1/2 cooked with large pockets of air forming inside the crust. These bubbles will partially deflate after removing the crust from the hot oven or grill.
Remove the crust from the grill or oven using tongs and the peel, top the pizza as desired then return it to the grill or oven to finish baking. This should take 3-12 minutes depending on your toppings and the temperature of your oven or grill.