Sourdough Pizza

So I seem to never write in this blog and when I do it seems never to be about sourdough. So here's proving both points wrong, at least for today.

I made sourdough pizzas on Monday which werethe best I'd ever made. Due to living in a community house with 7 adults, 3 children, 1 unborn child, 1 cat, and 1 dog, I decided to make four pizzas. Two usually sufficed in our last house for us and another family, but this is a different scale. And leftovers are never unwelcome, least of all pizza leftovers.

Since I tutor from 4-5:30, I needed to get going really early on the pizza, and would prefer to be cooking earlier anyway, as I'm better then and the kitchen and downstairs are less zany. So I got some sourdough out and made a sponge (1 cu. sourdough starter + 3 cups water + 3 cups flour) on Sunday night.

On Monday morning I made the dough (equal parts sponge and flour with a little salt and olive oil). I forgot to add whole wheat flour at the point, darn! And I didn't seem to have enough for four pizzas. So I asked my wife to get another frozen pizza crust (unbaked) when she was out, which she willingly did, along with toppings.

So the dough rested for the morning of Monday and I made them into pizza shaped shells after lunch. They then sat until after tutoring at 5:30pm. This allowed the dough to actually rise, which was great. The dough was less dense, more airly than usual. I was happy that my dough did better than the store-bought one, even though it was on the pizza stone (we only have one, and don't know where it came from).

The stone isn't seasoned and this is most of the problem. The pizza stone has a wooden circular sheet with a handle that is excellent for lifting the pizza off the pan/stone and cutting, then returning for serving (since I needed it more). Nothing cuts pizza so well as an ulu knife.

I had a problem coming up with ingredients. I finally arrived at 1/2 sausage (for the meat eaters in our house)- 1/2 cheese (for the children who don't eat anything unlike my son); tomato and mushroom (the standby, I love that); tuna and olives (thanks Mom, her idea); and pesto and sundried tomato (my wife's idea on the sundried tomatoes, and also her potent pesto).

It was a hit, and everyone had plenty, plus plenty the next day.

Sourdough success!