Sourdough Pizza Crust makes everyone’s favorite food even better. It takes several hours to make the dough, but the vast majority of the time is hands-off.

A closeup shot of a pizza made with sourdough crust. The pizza is on a cutting board.

If you still need to make your sourdough starter, go ahead and use this recipe for Easy Pizza Dough in the meantime.

You can learn How to Make a Sourdough Starter for next time. Then I can show you how to Feed and Maintain Sourdough Starter or How to Keep a Small Sourdough Starter.

Now, for those of you who are ready to make the best pizza of your life, lets see how to do it.

Scroll through the step by step photos to see how to make the best Sourdough Pizza Crust:

three side-by-side images showing the starter and sponge for making sourdough pizza crust. — Start with an active starter. Mix the sponge and allow it to rest for 30-60 minutes before mixing the dough.

a closeup photo showing the texture of sourdough pizza dough — The dough will be quite sticky right after it’s mixed. The texture will change during fermentation.

4 images showing the stages of fermentation for sourdough pizza — Over 3-4 hours of fermentation the dough will become lighter and more elastic.

Once the dough is ready, visit this post to see exactly how to shape pizza dough by hand.

You can bake the pizza in a very hot oven, or you can grill your pizza over charcoal for the best pizza in the world. The lightly charred crust is a thing of beauty!

A timeline for making Sourdough Pizza from scratch:

Feed your starter the day before or early in the morning of the day you want to make the dough. You want to make the dough with an active starter.
Make the dough in the late morning or early afternoon. The entire process can take up to 5 hours so allow enough time if you plan to use the dough the same day it is made.
The dough will ferment for about 3-5 hours over the course of the afternoon. The more active your starter is and the warmer the ambient temperature, the faster the dough will ferment. In cold months allow closer to 5 hours for fermentation.
30 minutes before you’re ready to bake (or grill!) the pizza, begin the process of shaping the dough.
If you want to work ahead, you can make the dough, allow it to ferment and then refrigerate for up 2 days. Take the dough out of the refrigerator and go right ahead and shape the pies.

an unbaked pizza crust on a wooden peel dusted with cornmeal — Place the dough onto a wooden pizza peel or the back of a sheet pan heavily dusted with cornmeal. The cornmeal will act as ball-bearings so you can slide the pizza. You’re now ready to top and bake (or grill) your pizza.

I know you hate to throw away that sourdough discard. Check out these recipes that use sourdough discard.

Since you’ve got your starter fed, peruse the entire list of My Best Sourdough Recipes. Have fun!

a closeup shot of the crumb on a slice of sourdough pizza

Hey, since the grill (or oven) is still hot, why not try this light & luscious Dessert Pizza with fresh berries and Greek yogurt drizzle.

You can also use this dough to make Philly Cheesesteak Calzones or Breakfast Calzones with chorizo & eggs.

If you love this recipe as much as I do, I’d really appreciate a 5-star review.

Sourdough Pizza Crust

Name: Sourdough Pizza Crust
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 4 h 45 min
Yield: 12
Cuisine: general
Ingredients: 1 cup (8 oz, 224g) active sourdough starter (100% hydration); 1 cup (8 oz, 240ml) warm water; 3 cups (15oz, 420g) bread flour; 1 1/2 teaspoons table salt; 2 tablespoons olive oil; cornmeal for dusting

Yield: Two 12" pizzas

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Rising Time: 4 hours

Bake Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 4 hours 45 minutes

Sourdough Pizza Crust makes everyone's favorite food even better. It takes several hours to make the dough, but the vast majority of the time is hands-off.

Ingredients

1 cup (8 oz, 224g) active sourdough starter (100% hydration)
1 cup (8 oz, 240ml) warm water
3 cups (15oz, 420g) bread flour
1 1/2 teaspoons table salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
cornmeal for dusting

Instructions

Combine the starter, water and 2 cups of the flour. Mix on low speed with the paddle until the flour is incorporated. Cover the bowl and set aside for 30 -60 minutes.
If using a stand mixer, change to the dough hook. With the mixer running on low, add the salt, olive oil and the remaining the flour. Mix on medium speed until the dough begins to clear the sides of the bowl and gathers on the hook. Increase the speed to medium-high and knead for 5 minutes. If mixing by hand add as much of the flour as you can using a spoon or spatula, then turn the dough out onto a floured surface to finish kneading in the rest of the flour.
Dump the dough onto a floured surface and knead into a smooth ball. Place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl and turn it over to coat the surface. Cover the bowl and set aside at room temperature.
After 30 minutes uncover the bowl, lift one side of the dough and fold it into the middle of the dough. Repeat with the other three sides of the dough then flip the dough over. You're basically turning the dough inside-out to redistribute the yeast and stretch the gluten. Cover the bowl and after 30 minutes repeat the procedure. Cover the bowl and after 60 minutes repeat the procedure again.
Cover the bowl and set aside for another 60 minutes. By the end of 3 hours the dough should be lively, elastic and airy. If the dough is still sluggish give it another hour at room temperature. At this point you can refrigerate the dough for up to 2 days or you can go ahead and make the pizzas.
Dump the dough onto a floured surface, do not knead. Using a bench scraper or sharp knife, cut the dough into 2 equal pieces. Form each piece into a tight ball by cupping the dough in the palms your hands and moving the dough in a circular motion. This is a soft dough so this step will help make forming and moving the pizza easier. Cover the dough and allow it to rest for 20 minutes. If the ball flattens right away and the dough still seems very soft, form the ball again and give it another 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, if you're baking the pizza in the oven preheat to 500F. If you have a pizza stone preheat that too. If you're grilling the pizza, light the grill.
Using the tips of your fingers, gently flatten and press the dough into a disc. Use your fingers to stretch the dough into a 12-14” "round. You can also try to drape the dough over your two fists and pull from the edges to slowly enlarge it to a 12" round. Avoid using a rolling pin because you don't want to deflate all the air bubbles in the dough. Visit this page to see step by step photos of how to shape pizza dough by hand.
Place each crust onto a wooden peel or pizza pan sprinkled heavily with corn meal. Proceed to top and bake/grill or as you like.

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Denise Severson

Saturday 19th of June 2021

pizza perfection; highly recommend!

Susan Goulding

Sunday 13th of June 2021

I have to say I’ve fallen in love with sourdough using your recipes! Thanks so much :)

Eileen Gray

You are welcome!

Hannah

Sunday 16th of May 2021

Having tried the burger buns with success, it was time for pizza dough! This is the best recipe for sourdough pizza I have tried so far. I think I rolled the dough too thinly and so it didnt puff as much as we like but the result was still excellent!

Cheryl

Tuesday 20th of April 2021

Thank you, yes I do the dip/ sweep too ( I just never weighed/ or measured). Thats great. Ok so much of your wonderful works, we are eating bread daily.

Hello, Your sourdough recipes are amazing! I have a question on this one, bread flour calls for 3 cups, but says 15 oz. please advise. Thank you again

The weight of a cup of flour is not an absolute since how you fill the cup can significantly change the actual amount of flour in the cup. I use the “dip and sweep” method for filling a measuring cup. That is, I “dip” the cup into the bin of flour and over fill it. Then I “sweep” away the excess flour for a level cup. Using that method I always get 5 oz (140g) of flour per cup and that is the conversion I use for my recipes. If you fluff the flour and then spoon it into the cup you can get as little as 4-4.5 oz per cup. Again, this is why weighing ingredients is always preferable for baking. Have fun!