Sourdough Starter Pizza Dough Recipe – More Momma! (2025)

FAQs

How much sourdough starter to use for pizza dough? ›

The amount of sourdough starter you need to make pizza dough can vary based on the flour used and the fermentation schedule. Typically, I like to have between 10 to 20% sourdough starter in my pizza dough.

Using high-protein white flour (13-14% protein) in your sourdough pizza dough can lead to a chewier pizza. If you'd like to reduce the chewiness, try using a lower protein flour for the pizza dough (like all-purpose flour or Type 00 with lower protein).

What Happens If You Feed a Sourdough Starter Too Much Flour? If you add more flour than water into your sourdough starter jar, it will be a very stiff starter. This is not always a bad thing, and sometimes extra flour is necessary to rectify a runny starter or make the starter peak at a later time.

Over the past decade-plus of baking, I've tested all manner of flour from whole grain wheat to spelt to einkorn, and while they all do work, my preferred flour to use when creating a sourdough starter is whole grain rye flour and white flour (this can be all-purpose or high-protein bread flour).

You might see some people use a 1:2:2 or a 1:3:3 or even a 1:4:4 or 1:5:5. Again, these ratios represent the amount of food you give the amount of starter that you keep. I typically use a 1:3:3 ratio meaning that however much starter I keep I feed it 3xs the amount of flour and water.

Grano tenero flours are generally used in Italy to make both bread and pastries.

If you are using an active sourdough starter, then no, your sourdough pizza crust does not need yeast. There are many sourdough pizza crust recipes that use yeast to speed up the process and skip the long-fermentation, but my sourdough discard recipe is a true no-yeast sourdough pizza crust.

The best flour blend for creating a new sourdough starter is 50% whole-meal flour (whole wheat or whole rye) and 50% bread flour or all-purpose flour. I recommend a 50/50 mix of whole wheat flour and bread flour.

Pink streaks, slight pink tinge, or orange streaks in the top of your starter: Serratia marcescens: This is a common, potentially infectious bacteria that takes advantage of underfed starters. A starter that is underfed or experiencing severe neglect runs the risk of the bad bacteria overcoming the good bacteria.

How to tell if sourdough starter is bad? ›

Typical signs of food spoilage and mold include pink, orange, or green colors, white fuzzy spots, or sometimes areas that are darker with white areas on top. If you see any of these signs, I would recommend throwing your starter away and creating a new one.

This liquid is called hooch and generally forms on the surface of your starter. It can sometimes form in the middle of your starter or even underneath. It looks like the flour and water have separated, however this liquid (hooch) is quite normal.

*If making sourdough is new for you, do not be discouraged if you starter takes longer to get active than mine – stick with it, it will happen! *Tap water is usually fine, if you are not sure, use boiled and cooled water, you can use it at room temperature or cool; do not use distilled water.

Yes you can mix the flours in your sourdough starter. This can be an economical way to add some whole grains or rye. So you might want to feed 25% rye and 75% all purpose for example. There's really no hard and fast rules for what ratio of flour you use.

Distilled water is a bad choice because the minerals that the bacteria need to do their thing have been removed. Just stick to filtered spring or purified water for your starter and bread baking.

So, a sourdough feeding ratio is the relative amount (referring to weight) of old sourdough compared to fresh flour and water. Typical feeding ratios are 1:2:2 or 1:3:3 (old sourdough: fresh flour: water). However, even extreme ratios like 1:50:50 would still work.

Because we all have different quantities of sourdough starter, bakers feed their starters by ratio. The most common feeding ratio is 1:1:1 (sourdough starter: flour: water).

Generally, you can substitute a packet of yeast for 100g of sourdough starter. If your recipe uses less than a packet of yeast, you can use less sourdough starter, however it won't make too much difference because of the way wild yeast works.

In the video I use just 15 grams of dried starter to get a new starter active and bubbling in less than 48 hours. Here's the feeding schedule I used. Step 1: Add 15 grams of dried starter, 15 grams of flour, and 30 grams of water to a jar. Give the mixture a stir and pop the lid on loosely.