Same Day Sourdough Pizza

I'm one of those people who thinks they're on top of their stuff, but really I'm not. I am constantly juuuust a bit behind, scrambling to pick my kids up from school and then making them stop at the grocery store for that one item I forgot to buy that morning. We had friends over for pizza night a few nights ago and while I did think about making the pizza dough the day before, I realized the next day (pizza night day!) that I did not make even close to enough dough. So, I decided to put together a fast version that I knew I could get ready by that afternoon.

So, what was my thought process when trying to speed up a sourdough recipe? There are 3 key ways to speed up fermentation:

1. Inoculation Percentage. That is two big words, but all that really means is how much starter you're using compared to how much flour you're using. A standard sourdough recipe tends to use 20% (so if a recipe has 500g flour, it'll usually have 100g starter). Using less will slow down fermentation, and using more will speed it up, kind of like feeding ratios for your starter! I hope that makes sense.

2. Temperature. The warmer your starter or dough is, the faster it will ferment. The same goes for the opposite, and I know most people don't have a proofer. But just using very warm water when mixing your dough will make quite a significant difference in the speed of fermentation, especially because yeast is active sooner than bacteria when dough is first mixed.

3. Flour type. I have talked about this a lot, but essentially, the endosperm is the white part of the wheat berry that is used for white flours (bread and all-purpose), and when you sift off the bran and the germ (the rest of the berry) you're also taking out nutrients AND enzymes. The enzymes break down the complex starches in the flour into digestible "food" for the yeast, which speeds up fermentation. I didn't use any whole grains in this recipe, but I did use the other two methods to speed up fermentation.

Method

OK! Let's get into the recipe. You can watch the video I made for visual cues here.

At 11am I mixed up the dough. Combine all the ingredients, pour the dough onto the counter, and mix for 2-3 minutes. Then let it rest for 30 minutes.

Next, give it some nice pulls and stretching, fold it into itself, and basically just slap it around until it starts to fight you and becomes a tighter mass. Leave it to rest and then do another 3 folds over the next couple of hours (total of 4 folds). The point of this recipe is to be relaxed, so don't stress about the timing. If you know you want to make this but won't be home for folds, give it longer mixing initially, even consider mixing it in a stand mixer and developing the dough until it reaches windowpane. Your choice.

At 3pm I dumped the dough out of the bowl onto reusable parchment paper. This is where you can choose how to proceed depending on what tools and equipment you have at home:

• If you don't have reusable parchment paper, I would advise you to wait to dump out the dough until right before you want to bake. Letting it ferment on regular paper for a longer period of time and then trying to push it out (like I show in the video) will probably cause the dough to stick, and that is the WORST.
• Instead, liberally oil a half sheet pan with parchment on it (or without, if you prefer), and make sure there is a good layer of oil between the dough and the pan/paper.
• You can also choose to use semolina generously to create a barrier layer. If you do this, don't use any oil.
• Silpat also works but make sure the bottom crust gets brown enough. Silpat can sometimes prevent that since it's so thick.

I baked my pizza in a free-form shape that was about 16-18 inches around, but a half sheet pan would work for a thicker pizza, or you could halve the recipe and spread it thinner.

Bake

I was using my Simply Bread Co. oven, which needs a long preheat, but regardless of your oven, preheat about 30 minutes before you plan on baking (using a pizza stone or steel would be best!). I baked my pizza at 6pm, but I think this dough would have been ready at 5 and also been fine to wait until 7. As long as your kitchen isn't super warm, it'll have a wide range of use. My dough temp started nice and warm at close to 80F and dropped as it fermented in my 68-70F kitchen. If it's warmer where you live, the dough won't need as long.

I preheated my oven to 525F and baked it for 23 minutes, but you'll have to figure out what works for your oven! The most important factor, IMO, is that the bottom of the pizza gets brown enough, otherwise you'll be eating floppy, tasteless pizza, and who wants that?

Toppings

I'm not including a recipe for the toppings, I just used pizza sauce from Trader Joe's, pre-shredded mozzarella, and various toppings we like (artichokes, onions, pepperoni, bell peppers, pepperoncini, and mushrooms).

You could even shape this dough into a boule or batard at 4pm, preheat a Dutch oven, and bake it off as a normal sourdough loaf at 6pm, that would totally work!

Leave me any comments or questions and I'll do my best to respond! Happy baking!