Sourdough Pizza Crust

Today Sourdough Pizza Crust was on my menu for dinner.  I was kind of wary about trying a different pizza recipe on my family, because we have a tried and true version from my mother that I grew up on... but I decided to throw caution to the winds, and give this recipe a whirl.  I was incredibly amazed at how FAST this came together... and how AWESOME it tasted, and how EASY it was to make.  Makes me wonder why I waited so long to get on the sourdough pizza bandwagon?!

First you start with an active sourdough feeder.  I had just "fed" my sourdough a couple of hours earlier, and had it in my oven with the oven light on to keep it warm.  It was bubbly, and ready!

After adding only oil, flour and salt (find recipe here), in just a minute or two, the dough looked and felt like pizza dough.  The recipe said it should sit for 30 minutes to relax.  But - I wasn't relaxed, kids were hungry, and the oven was hot at 500 degrees, and so after letting the dough sit for about 10 minutes... it was time to move on to the next step - forming the dough on the pizza pan.

After placing a bit of olive oil on my pizza stoneware, the dough rolled out like a dream.

The recipe called for baking the pizza crust first for 7 minutes to cook the crust before adding the toppings.  Then you take out the pizza, brush the top of the crust with olive oil, and add your toppings.

Then it goes back in the oven for another 5 minutes or so, just until the cheese has melted, is bubbly and lightly browned.

This is the second pizza I made - my kids only like pepperoni, and I like to add extras to mine. Tonight I added pineapple, green onion, basil, and green pepper.  Sometimes I like to add olives as well.

And the finished pizzas.  All told - from the time I started making the dough, until we ate the pizzas - 45 minutes!  No kidding!  I've never made homemade pizzas that went that quickly!

One last look at the sourdough pizza before it was devoured... and it was really so good!

Two things that impressed me about this pizza:

1) The crust was not at all doughy.  Many times when making homemade pizza, it is hard to get the crust to be crisp and done without any "doughy" parts, especially when adding lots of toppings.  This crust was not like that at all.  It was perfectly done!

2) Making the sourdough pizza went so fast that I couldn't believe they were ready to eat in 45 minutes!  When your sourdough starter is bubbly and ready to go, sourdough pizza can happen in a hurry, which is a huge benefit!

Overall - a huge thumbs up for sourdough pizza... if you haven't jumped into the sourdough world yet - you really need to!  I'm always willing to share sourdough starter if you live handy to me, or you can purchase your own through the Cultures For Health website (which is where I purchased mine)... and it comes with very handy instructions, and tons of recipes available on their site.

I used the Cultures For Health sourdough pizza recipe, and you can find it here.  I doubled the recipe, as the recipe only called for one pizza crust.  One pizza crust just won't work in this house. If I'm going to put forth the effort to make pizza, I like to make lots, because pizza makes tasty leftovers!  (I'm already looking forward to lunch tomorrow!)

My kids - who are quite honest, and share exactly what they think about new recipes -  gave the sourdough pizza a thumbs-up, and I agreed.  It makes me happy to know just how quickly the sourdough pizza comes together, and beyond that - how good it is for you, with amazing flavor as well.  It will be on our dinner menu again - very soon!