My son who lives in San Francisco was telling me the other day that a trend with pizza in the city – at least with the places he and his fiancé frequent – is crust made from sourdough. I took it as a tacit challenge. Plus, I hadn’t used my starter in months, so it gave me an excuse to wake it up. And now that I’ve done it, I’m going to go Mandalorian and say, “This is the way!”

I got an absolutely incredible oven spring from this dough. And the trick to that was building up a super-active levain, one that doubled in less than two hours. With the pie above, though I laid my toppings almost to the edge, it popped up so much that it pushed everything in! The result for both pies was crispy skin and chewy crumbs.

Baker’s Formula

Bread Flour	100.00%
Water	67.00%
Salt	2.00%
Total %	169.00%

Final Dough

Bread Flour	457g
Water (~100°F – 105°F)	280g
Salt	11g
Levain	161g
Total Yield	909g 2 X 450g 16″ dough balls

Make the levain. As I mentioned above, I built up lots of activity in my starter to where it peaked in less than two hours. This was a basic 1:1:1 levain using AP flour. Since I had to wake up my starter, it took me three days and a few feedings to get to this point. Technically, you don’t have to do this, but your levain should pass the float test, and not just pass it. It should float on the water like it’s Styrofoam.

Mix. When the levain is ready, dissolve it in the warm water until fully broken down. Add the flour and mix to a shaggy mass, making sure no dry bits or large lumps are left.

Fermento-lyse. Allow the mixture to rest for at least 30 minutes to hydrate the flour. Once that’s done, add the salt, and work it into the dough until you don’t feel any salt crystals.

Knead. You can knead by hand, but I just knead in my KitchenAid at speed 2 for 5-7 minutes to really develop the gluten.

Scale and Cold Ferment. Once you’re done kneading, scale out two 450g dough balls, then form them into tight balls. I shape them like I’m shaping mini boules. Place the balls in a well-oiled container. Then pop them in the fridge for at least 48 hours.

Final Fermentation. On baking day, remove the balls. They will probably have collapsed in the container. That’s fine. Reshape them into tight balls, then place them covered in a warm place to come to room temperature. This may take 2-3 hours depending on your ambient temperature.

Make pizza. There are so many different techniques out there, so I’ll leave it to you to find out how to shape and top your pies.

NOTE: If those dough balls are too large, you can easily half the recipe ingredients and make 225g balls that will make 10-12″ pizzas.