I’ve been making sourdough bread for the past 2 years and got very good at it. About 9 months ago, I started working out a sourdough pizza dough recipe and began learning how to make my own homemade pizzas.
After much trial and error, and a lot of experimentation, my pizzas started getting much better. Here’s my latest.
Details: 100% sourdough pizza dough - 70% hydration. Custom cheese blend: 60% mozzarella, 15% cheddar, 15% sharp provolone, 10% parmesan. Sauce base: made from scratch using canned whole san marzano tomatoes & some seasonings/spices. Toppings: mushroom, green bell pepper, red onion, and hard salami.
The most awesome part is that we no longer order pizza delivery - my pizzas are coming out better than anything we used to get delivered (and it saves a ton of money)!
Read the title, looked at the thumbnail and was impressed by the graphics of your pizza game! Opening the post I thought it was too realistic… and then saw your added details. Pizza game Hahahha!
It looks great! What’s your pizza oven set up like? I have a stone I use in my grill. It’s no pizza oven but it does a pretty good job.
Oh yeah, maybe I should start working on an actual ‘pizza game’ also, lol.
Setup is just a regular electric kitchen oven, capable of getting up to 550f (287c) - and that’s the temp I cook pizza at. I have a very thick stone I bake on - about middle of the oven. I let it get preheated for at least 30 min so that it’s super hot when the pizza goes in. As much as I’d love a dedicated pizza oven, I just don’t have the room or the money for it, and I’m getting pretty great results without it, so this is my setup for now.
That’s an impressive result in a standard oven.
This looks amazing. Well done. Also sourdough bread is 🔥
The graphics look amazing
That looks killer, great job
Thanks!
Hey, as long as those pepperonis are nice and crispy, I’ll give that pie a 2 thumbs up!
Do you deliver? 😋
Awesome
What type of oven, heat, etc?
It’s just a regular home oven (electric) and I’m cooking on the biggest thickest pizza stone I could get (placed on the middle rack and preheated for at least 30 minutes). My oven maxes out at 550f, so that’s what I cook at. If it went hotter, I’d cook hotter. Takes about 6 or 7 minutes at 550.
I should also point out that because I’m using 70% hydration dough (which is a little wetter than traditional pizza dough) I send just the dough into the oven for 2 minutes to dry it out a little then pull it, dock the crust, dress it with toppings, then send it back in for the final bake. Not sure how common this technique is, but it’s something I discovered that works great for my setup.
Not sure if this translates to American (I assume American given the freedom units), but if you turn off the oven function just after you put it in, and turn on the grill (broiler?) it does a great job of charing the top, whilst the stone cooks the base.
I will give this a try. How far away is the pizza from the broiler element when you do this?
Around 10-15cm (4-6"). It’s the top shelf of the oven anyway. I saw the tip on a cooking show and it does help to give a more authentic pizza oven style bake. You might have to vary when you time the switch over depending on how powerful your grill is. Hope it works for you.
Great job! Add a wood fired pizza oven (I have a converted pellet grill with Green Mountain pizza insert) and it will change your pizza life.
Looks awesome! Keep building those skills but looks like you got it down already haha
Looks great! I’m also making sourdough bread and pizza at home for the last 3 years now, and as you’ve said, it’s better than any ordered ones. I’ve also dabbled with “traditional” pizza shapes, like you’ve showed here, but they were way too messy and would also kind of stain and ruin the pizza/bread stone. So the solution for us was to have a lower hidration dough, with a combination of white flour, all grain and rye, just a pinch of normal yeast, olive oil etc. And put it in an oven tray, and let it rise. The fluff is real 😅
Thanks!
I would be embarrassed for anyone to see my pizza stone (and that’s also what I cook bread on). Much like how traditional martial artists belts started white but darken over time with use and wear - my pizza stone is on its way to being a black-belt. I keep it clean, it’s just really stained. It looks like it’s been through hell. The sign of heavy use, lol.
Nice! I’ve been making sourdough pizzas for a while too. Out of curiosity, what kind of flour do you use? And what’s your dough recipe, if you’re willing to share?
I am always happy to share my recipes.
My flour is a blend: 70% King Arthur bread flour, 27% all purpose flour (any brand), and 3% rye flour.
And then the following in baker’s %:
Hydration: 70%
Coarse Sea Salt: 2%
Starter: 20%
Fat: 2.5% (olive oil is traditional, but I like melted butter more - richer flavor)
