Sourdough Pizza Dough

Recipe from Roberta's

Adapted by Sam Sifton

Published March 22, 2016

  • Melina Hammer for The New York Times
Media 1 of 1
Total Time
30 minutes, plus 8 to 24 hours' rise
Rating
4(1,407)
Comments
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This is a varsity-level take on the classic pizza dough recipe from Roberta’s in Brooklyn, using sourdough starter to help the dough rise — and give it great taste. If you feed your starter regularly, you can use it in this recipe right out of the crock in which you store it. But if not, give the starter a feed of flour and water a few hours before you mix up the dough. (If you need to start a starter, add a week or so to the process.) “It’s a little more complicated” than a regular dough, said Anthony Falco, who runs the pizza operations at Roberta’s, “but, oh boy, the end result is worth it.” —Sam Sifton

Featured in: Sourdough Starter, America’s Rising Pet

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Ingredients

Yield:3 pizzas

  • 5 cups/500 grams 00 flour

  • 2 ½ teaspoons/15 grams kosher salt

  • 2 ½ teaspoons/7.5 grams instant dry yeast

  • 1 tablespoon/15 grams extra-virgin olive oil

  • ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons/90 grams sourdough starter, “fed”

Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving

145 grams carbs; 749 calories; 4 grams monosaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 1 gram saturated fat; 8 grams fat; 6 grams fiber; 482 milligrams sodium; 22 grams protein; 2 grams sugar

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour and salt.

  2. Step 2

    In a small mixing bowl, stir together 300 grams (about 1 ¼ cups) lukewarm tap water, the instant dry yeast and the olive oil, then stir the sourdough starter into it and pour it into the bowl with the flour mixture. Knead with your hands until well combined, about 4 minutes, then let mixture rest for 15 minutes.

  3. Step 3

    Knead rested dough for 3 to 4 minutes. Cut into 3 equal pieces and shape each into a ball. Place on a heavily floured surface, cover with a dampened cloth and let rest and rise for 8 to 24 hours in the refrigerator. (Remove from refrigerator 30 to 45 minutes before you begin to shape it for pizza.)

  4. Step 4

    To make pizza, place each dough ball on a heavily floured surface and use your fingers to stretch it, then your hands to shape it into rounds or squares. Top and bake.

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Ratings

4 out of 5
1,407 user ratings
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Comments

Pedro Pan

Adding instant yeast is a typical "no fail" solution that is oddly often added to sourdough recipes. By definition, your final product is no longer a "sourdough" or wild yeast creation if you add cultivated yeast. In the above recipe, increase starter to 1 cup, omit the instant yeast, use room temp water, let the dough sit out in a deep bowl, covered with plastic film. The next day do a double fold to increase the structure of the dough. proceed with step 3 - no kneading.

Chef Jeff

I agree with Pedro Pan; add the extra starter and skip the yeast. You get a true superior sourdough product, with a rise-time of 10-14 hrs, and no refrigeration required. Win-win, and more space in the fridge!

DNcgo

Using Chad Robertson's "Tartine" starter,I followed Pedro Pan's suggestion for increasing the starter and eliminating commercial yeast. Under refrigeration (the method I prefer), the dough balls can rest for up to three days. Leftover dough balls (misted with olive oil) can easily be frozen for future use. To use, thaw dough (still wrapped) overnight in refrigerator. Take out of refrigerator 60-90 minutes prior to baking, transfer to small floured bowl and let rise slightly.

Seafood Guy

To optimize a 48oz bag of King A 00 flour, here is the recipe as I re-wrote it for myself - doing it all in grams - makes 8 dinner plate sized yummy pizzas: Flour 1360 Water 815 g Salt 40 g Yeast 20 g Oil 40 g Starter 245 g —- or skip yeast and up the starter amount to 650 g Baking is science fiction to me, so dialing it all in by the gram scale makes the task fool proof. I do it like on the cooking shows, all the ingredients in separate cups and glasses — ready to assemble. Fewer “oh ah, what did I just do …” moments. Remember to tare!!!

Oya

The amount of water wasn’t listed in the ingredients and the baking temperature or technique wasn’t explained anywhere in the recipe. My dough never rose properly. I used only sourdough starter as instructed. Overall, I found the recipe quite unclear, lacking detail, and unfortunately unsuccessful.

Seafood Guy

I too was looking at the same thing, the feeling of disappointment and dread with another baking failure - usually associated with dead dry yeast packets. I realized that my kitchen (60F) was too cool to get the assembled dough active enough to rise, so I warmed up the oven to 250F and put the big lazy lump of dough in there, using a cuisinart metal mixing bowl, ( I hand mixed this dough ) used a very wet cloth cover to not let it dry out. In about 15 minutes the sourdough party woke up and got to rocking. The most delicious pizza dough I have ever made. Soft chewy crust, small air pockets on the bottom. I translated the recipe into all gram weights. 1360 grams (48oz package) of flour made 8 dinner plate sized pizzas.

David T

Interesting that this uses even more yeast and oil than the "standard" roberta's dough recipe, even with the sour dough it uses about twice the yeast in baker's percentage.

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Credits

Adapted from Roberta's, Brooklyn

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