Sourdough Pizza Crust (Same Day Recipe)

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Same-day sourdough pizza crust has the chewy middle and crisp, golden edges of a sourdough pizza, without the overnight wait. Mix the dough after lunch, and you’ll have homemade sourdough pizza on the table for dinner.

Most sourdough pizza recipes start a day or two ahead. That long, slow rise builds flavor, but it doesn’t help much when you decide at breakfast that tonight is pizza night.

This dough rises in a single afternoon. You still get the chew and the light tang of sourdough. Stretch it thin for a crisp crust, or keep it a little thicker for a softer, breadier slice.

I adapted this recipe from The Sourdough Whisperer by Elaine Boddy. Elaine teaches home bakers all over the world through foodbod Sourdough, and her whole approach is to keep sourdough simple enough to fit into a busy day.

She also wrote Whole Grain Sourdough at Home, and my sourdough Pullman loaf comes from another of her books.

If you don’t have a starter yet, my whole wheat sourdough starter gets one going from scratch. Once it’s bubbling along, there are more than 100 sourdough recipes to put it to work, including sandwich loaves, cakes and cookies. Closer to home, try my soft sourdough bread or sourdough bread with roasted garlic and rosemary.

How Same-Day Sourdough Pizza Dough Works

A traditional sourdough pizza dough rises long and cool, often overnight in the fridge. The wild yeast takes its time, and the bacteria in the starter build up sour flavor as it goes.

This dough speeds that up in two ways. It uses a generous amount of starter, so there’s plenty of yeast working from the start. It also rises somewhere warm, around 75 to 80°F, and warm water gets it there quickly.

Instead of kneading, you give the dough three quick sets of pulls and folds in the first 90 minutes. That builds enough strength to hold the gas, so the crust bakes up open and chewy. Then the dough rises on its own until it doubles.

The tradeoff is flavor. A quick sourdough pizza dough like this one is milder than one that rested overnight, and plenty of people like it better that way.

Ingredients for Same-Day Sourdough Pizza Crust

Here’s what to know about the flour and the starter. Bread flour gives a chewier crust, but all-purpose flour works too, and any healthy starter will do, white or whole grain.

The dough itself is just four ingredients.

• Active sourdough starter: Use your starter at its peak, when it’s bubbly and has risen well after a feeding. It’s the only thing raising this dough, so it needs to be lively. A white flour starter, a whole wheat starter or a rye sourdough starter all work.
• Bread flour: The extra protein in bread flour makes a stronger dough that stretches thin without tearing and bakes up chewy. All-purpose flour makes a softer, more tender crust, and the dough feels a little slacker.
• Warm water: Water around 100°F warms the dough, so it rises in an afternoon. Plain tap water is fine.
• Salt: Fine sea salt or table salt seasons the crust and tightens the dough. If you measure by volume, use a fine salt, since a spoonful of coarse kosher salt weighs less, and Diamond Crystal weighs about half as much.

You’ll also need something for the pan and something for the top.

• Rice flour or semolina: A dusting on the pan keeps the dough from sticking. Rice flour doesn’t soak into the dough the way wheat flour does, and semolina adds a little crunch to the bottom of the crust.
• Toppings: A thin layer of sauce, cheese and whatever else you like. Go easy on wet toppings, which can keep the middle of the crust soft.

Getting Your Starter Ready

When this dough won’t rise, the starter is usually why. It needs to be active and at its peak when you mix the dough, not sluggish from the fridge.

Feed your starter 4 to 12 hours before you plan to mix, depending on how warm your kitchen is. It’s ready when it has risen well, has a domed top full of bubbles, and smells pleasantly sour and yeasty.

If your starter has been in the fridge for a while, give it a feeding or two at room temperature first, until it’s rising reliably again.

How to Make Same-Day Sourdough Pizza Crust

Plan on about 5 hours from mixing to eating, nearly all of it hands-off. The work is a quick mix, three short sets of folds, and then stretching and topping the crusts.

Keep the dough somewhere warm the whole time, around 75 to 80°F. An oven with just the light on works in a cool house, and so does the top of the fridge. In a cooler kitchen, every stage takes longer, so watch the dough more than the clock.

Mix the Dough

In a large mixing bowl, stir the starter into the warm water until it’s mostly dissolved. Add the flour and salt, and mix until there’s no dry flour left. A Danish dough whisk makes quick work of it, or just use your hand.

It’ll be a rough, shaggy, sticky dough at this point, and that’s how it should look. Cover the bowl with a damp towel, set it in your warm spot, and let it rest for 30 minutes.

Do Three Sets of Pulls and Folds

After 30 minutes, wet your hand and grab the edge of the dough. Pull it up until it stretches, then fold it over the middle. Turn the bowl a little and repeat, working your way around until the dough tightens into a ball.

Cover it again and let it rest for another 30 minutes, then do a second set. Thirty minutes after that, do a third. With each set, the dough gets smoother, stronger and less sticky.

Keep your hand wet instead of adding flour. If the dough is still soupy after the last set and won’t hold any shape, work in a spoonful or two of flour. That usually means there wasn’t quite enough flour.

Let the Dough Rise

After the last set of folds, cover the bowl and leave the dough in its warm spot until it doubles in size, about 2 1/2 to 3 hours.

It’s ready when it’s domed, has bubbles on top and around the sides of the bowl, and jiggles when you shake the bowl. In a cooler kitchen, this can take a few hours longer, so go by how the dough looks.

Divide and Shape the Crusts

Start heating the oven to 450°F (230°C), or 425°F (220°C) for convection, so it’s hot when the crusts are ready. Dust two rimmed baking sheets with rice flour or semolina. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured counter, and use a bench scraper to cut it in half.

Shape each half into a loose ball and let them rest for 10 minutes. The short rest relaxes the dough, so it stretches without springing back.

Set a ball on each pan and press it out with your fingertips, working from the middle out. Stretch it to about 10 inches across, or a little wider for a thinner crust, and stop sooner for a thicker one. If the dough keeps shrinking back, let it rest for 5 to 10 minutes and stretch it again.

Top and Bake

Spread a thin layer of sauce over each crust, then add the cheese and toppings.

Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until the edges are deep golden, the bottom is browned and crisp, and the cheese is bubbling. If you bake both pans at once, swap them between racks halfway through, so they brown evenly.

You can also skip the preheat and start the pizzas in a cold oven. Slide them in, turn the oven on, and bake for about 15 to 18 minutes. Elaine starts a lot of her sourdough baking in a cold oven, and it saves waiting for the oven to heat.

Either way, check the bottom of the crust before you pull it out. If it’s still pale, give it a few more minutes.

Making Sourdough Pizza Dough Ahead

You don’t have to bake this dough the day you make it. After the rise, divide it, shape it into balls, and rub each one with a little olive oil. Put them in covered containers and refrigerate them for up to 2 days.

The cold slows everything down, and the dough picks up more sourdough tang the longer it sits. I don’t keep sourdough waiting longer than 2 days, though, since the gluten starts to break down as it gets more acidic.

Take the dough out of the fridge 1 to 2 hours before you plan to bake. Cold dough tears and shrinks back when you stretch it, so let it warm up and relax first.

How to Freeze Sourdough Pizza Crust

To freeze the crusts, parbake them first. Bake the plain crusts until the dough is set but not browned, about 5 to 10 minutes in a hot oven, or 10 to 15 minutes from a cold start, depending on how thick they are.

Let them cool completely, wrap them well, and freeze them for up to about a month. When you’re ready, top them straight from the freezer and bake as usual, adding a few extra minutes.

You can freeze the raw dough too. Freeze the oiled dough balls after the rise, in a freezer bag, for up to about a month. Thaw them overnight in the fridge, then let them sit on the counter for 2 to 3 hours before stretching.

Sourdough can be slow to wake up after a trip to the freezer, so I’d parbake if you can. The parbaked crusts come out of the freezer ready to top, with no waiting on the dough.

Serving Sourdough Pizza

A simple tomato sauce and mozzarella are all this crust needs. For the sauce, try a jar of roasted marinara sauce or roasted cherry tomato sauce. For the cheese, homemade cultured mozzarella melts beautifully.

Pesto makes a nice change from tomato sauce. Spread on garlic scape pesto, wild ramp pesto or wood sorrel pesto, then top it with cheese.

In summer, top it with sliced cherry tomatoes and fresh basil, and look for more ideas in my list of cherry tomato recipes.

A crisp green salad on the side makes it a meal.

Leftover pizza keeps in the fridge for 3 to 4 days. Reheat the slices in a hot skillet or in the oven instead of the microwave, so the crust crisps back up.

Same-Day Sourdough Pizza Crust FAQs

Freezing is the question readers ask most, so that answer is here, along with what to do when the dough won’t rise.

More Sourdough Recipes

More sourdough recipes for everyday baking.

Whole Wheat Sourdough Starter (& Other Whole Grain Starters)

Beginner Sourdough Loaf Bread

Soft Sourdough Bread

Homemade Pesto Recipes

Spread one on the crust in place of tomato sauce.

Garlic Scape Pesto

Wild Ramp Pesto

Wood Sorrel Pesto

Adapted with permission from The Sourdough Whisperer by Elaine Boddy. Page Street Publishing Co. 2022. Photos from the book, used with permission.