Cooking: Sourdough Pizzas Part 1

Last July I gave my good friend Clint some of my sourdough starter. Easter was the first time I've seen Clint since then and it was great to spend some quality geeky sourdough time to together. 

We've picked up different tips and tricks in our baking journey. Clint has done a lot more playing with different types of flour than I have. While I was able to show Clint some of my kneading techniques. We're both hacks, but it was fun to mess around together with some flour.

 

My last trip to Brisbane saw the epic burger project which created a truly magnificent burger.

This time it was all about the pizza and I was happy to sit back and soak up Clint's knowledge from all the experimentation he's done. My previous attempts at homemade pizza have been pretty disappointing. A lot certainly comes down to the cooking, but without that tasty dough you're not off to a good start.

Clint started his pizza journey with this epic recipe. He sent me the link previously and I found it very intimidating.  I'm pleased he was able to distill the knowledge to me much more simply.

Ingredients:
Makes three pizzas

130g starter
370g flour
220g water
15g salt

Method:
1. Mix together the starter, water, salt and 50 - 75% of the flour.

2. Rest the dough for 25mins to autolyse.

3. Knead the dough for 7 - 10mins. Spend most of the time kneading with the remaining flour held back. Slowly add the remaining flour in the last 3 - 4 mins.

4. Turn the dough out onto the bench and give it a quick knead by hand.

5. Divide the dough into three equal size pieces and then shape into rounds.

6. Flour the dough and sit the rounds on baking paper, cover and place in the fridge. We did 24hrs in the fridge, but you can leave it for up to a week (apparently).

7. Take the dough out of the fridge 2 - 3hrs before you need to bake to bring it up to temperature.