Last year John and I sent Carrie to spend a weekend with her aunt and uncle, and we headed out to the “Historic Triangle” (Williamsburg, Yorktown, Jamestown). At some point while we were down there, we were eating something that included sourdough and I remarked to John how much I had always wanted to make sourdough bread products myself. He said “well, why haven’t you?” And then, it was ON when we got home. After reading everything I possibly could, I created my own starter. This past Memorial Day, my starter turned one year old, and it has given us a lot of wonderful things in that year: pancakes, waffles, pizza, and bread. I transferred that starter to a new container this weekend (so I could clean the old one), and I decided to take some extra and make pizza crusts for the freezer. And — wow — that means I need to share the recipe since I haven’t posted it before. 
NOTE: Tonight I decided to get a little crazy, so I added crushed basil and rosemary to the crust.
- 1 1/2 cups mature sourdough starter (feed at least 8 hours in advance)
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tsp seasoning of your choice (optional!)
- 1 tsp salt
- Preheat oven to 450F.
- Mix ingredients, working in the flour until you have a soft dough. If the dough gets too dry, add some more starter. If you've used all the starter, add a bit of water.
- Once you've kneaded the dough, cover it and let rest for 1/2 hour. This lets the dough relax, so forming the pizza is easier. This recipe does not require the rising capabilities of sourdough, it just uses the taste of the starter.
- Once the dough has rested, roll out into a flat round pie-like shape. I prefer to roll the dough on baker's parchment, turning the dough 1/8 turn between rolls and only rolling the dough away from me. Note: If you get much past a 12 inch diameter, you'll have trouble finding freezer bags large enough to hold the pre-baked shells. Poke the crust multiple times with a fork to keep air bubbles from forming.
- Once you have a nice round pie shell, you may pre-bake it or top it and bake it. To pre-bake it, slide the parchment and crust onto a baker's peel or baking stone, and then into the oven. Bake about 5 minutes. It doesn't take long, so watch carefully.
- Once the shell is pre-baked, you may cool it and then freeze it, or top it and finish baking it.
- When you're ready to top the pizza, rub a bit of olive oil on the surface, as this helps keep the crust from getting soggy. Then top with your ingredients.
- Bake the topped pizza from 15 to 25 minutes, depending on the density of the toppings.