Sourdough Pizza

Little M likes pizza. Well, we all like pizza in our family, but Little M really, really likes pizza! So I make homemade pizza using sourdough crust, fresh veggies for toppings, and a pizza stone to make it crispy.

If you haven't read any info about sourdough, I will give you a short explanation:

The big deal about sourdough is that the "starter" is a colony of wild yeast and lactobacilli (good bacteria, as found in yogurt) and when you mix the starter with your flour and allow it to ferment, the bacteria eats (breaks down) the gluten, making the flour easier on the digestive system.

So, sourdough pizza is nice and easy on the belly. That's a good thing for kids, and for grown ups too.
Plus, freshly made pizza is yummy! We make 3 at a time, each of us customizing our toppings. And then we all have leftovers for lunches.

Okay, here's the recipe...

Pizza Dough

Ingredients

1 1/2 C sourdough starter
1 1/2 C whole wheat or unbleached white flour
3/4 tsp sea salt
2 tbs melted coconut oil

Method

1) Mix ingredients in a bowl and when a ball begins to form, pick it up and kneed it for 5 mins.

2) Rub a bit of coconut oil in the bowl and on the dough ball to keep it from drying out and/or sticking to the bowl.

3) With the dough ball inside the bowl, cover with clean dish towel and leave in a warm place (in the oven with the oven light on for example) for 3-4 hours.

Note: Traditionally olive oil is used in pizza dough. I chose to use coconut oil because olive oil denatures at the high temperature needed to cook pizza while coconut oil remains stable.

Here is my dough ready to be divided in 3 equal pieces to make 3 pizzas.

Making Pizza

1) Preheat oven (and pizza stone if you have one) at 500 F.

Warning: Never put a cold pizza stone into a hot oven, it may crack.

2) Chop desired toppings, grate cheese, make or open a can of pizza sauce. 

3) Place dough ball on floured surface and using a large knife, cut into 3 equal pieces.

We find it fun that we each get to make our own pizza!

4) Taking one piece at a time, roll into a round ball, then lay on floured surface and using a rolling pin roll out to desired thickness. (I like a thin crust.)

Mr. J doesn't use a rolling pin. He likes to throw it in the air and catch it on his finger tips. He ends up ripping holes in it and it looks pretty bad when he's done... but I don't say anything since I don't have to eat it (lol).

5) Because I use a pizza stone, I use a peel (large paddle) to slide the pizza into the oven. I sprinkle corn meal on the peel to prevent sticking and then lay the rolled-out dough on it.

6) Top the dough with pizza sauce, toppings of choice, and cheese if using.

I like to use basil leaves, spinach, peppers, mushrooms, onions, and almost any other veggie I have on hand. I also like pineapple on top.

I usually only use a small amount of cheese. I prefer cheddar because it's more flavourful, I find a little goes a long way. It looks like a lot in the photo, but that is mostly yellow and orange peppers you are seeing on top!

(Little M and Mr. J like meat like hamburg and bacon with their veggie toppings.)

7) Slide the pizza off the peel and onto the hot stone. Bake for 8 mins. Then put the next pizza in until everyone's is cooked.

Yum! Dinner time....

This one is mine, hot out of the oven.

Sourdough Starter

I'm super excited to start my own sourdough starter! I have read a ton of articles and watched a few videos to get a technique and finally settled on the pineapple juice method.

Why that one? I don't have ideal conditions. It would be better if it were a warm summer day and I could put my starter by an open window. Instead, it's the middle of winter and we keep the house on the cool side. I figure if I'm going to try to lure some wild yest to my starter I better give it something it can't resist - sticky sweet pineapple juice!

It seams everyone has their own unique way of getting their starter going and its a bit confusing to sort out the "best" method. I've decided to jump in and try this one. If it fails, I'll just try another!

Day 1
I have taken a can of pineapples with no sugar or preservatives and mixed it up in my Vitamix.

(Yes!! I got a Vitamix for Christmas and I am having so much fun with it!!!  More Vitamix posts to come.)

I have washed out my non-metal tools in hot soapy water and rinsed in filtered water (no chlorine). I'm not sure if that step matters but I didn't want chlorine in my bowl killing my good wild yeast!!

I've put 1/2 cup of organic whole wheat flour into my ceramic bowl. I've added about 1 cup of pineapple juice to get the right consistency.

(I would have needed only 1/2 cup if it was thin strained juice and not blended up pineapple bits to thicken the juice.)

I mixed it with a wooden spoon, put a clean dish towel on top and left it alone for 12 hours. This was approximately 10 am.

Here it is sitting on top of this room heater (It's not hot on top).

So, at 10 pm I gave my mixture a stir and FED it with more flour and juice (about 1/4 cup of each this time).

This feeding must continue twice a day about 12 hours apart.

Day 2
Nothing interesting happening yet. I completed another morning and evening feed.

Day 3
It's 7 am and I am peering into my started dish looking for signs of life. I don't really see bubbles but I do think the mixture has grown in volume - could that be a sign? I smell the mixture repeatedly and decide that yes, the smell has changed. I don't know what sourdough is suppose to smell like but considering the thing is full of sweet pineapple juice, it certainly doesn't smell pineapple-y or sweet. It smells kind of neutral and light, maybe a bit floury. So, I'm convinced something is happening. I give it a big stir, send out a little prayer and tuck it back in under its dish towel.
                                
                                                                            * * *
I just completed the morning feeding. This time I had to take out 1/4 cup before doing anything as the starter was filling up most of my bowl. I put in my usual 1/4 cup of flour and a bit more than 1/4 cup of pineapple juice.

I was suppose to continue the pineapple juice in my feedings for the first 3 days, then switch to water and flour after that. However, I just used up the last of my juice (since I spilled some yesterday! oops!@&^!!) So for this evening, I will scoop 1/4 cup out again and compost it and put in a new 1/4 cup of flour and 1/4 cup of water.

Day 4

Well, I was feeling unhappy about my starter.

I thought I could see bubbles, but the dish I was using didn't allow me a good look. I did a bit more reading online and decided to switch to a glass mason jar. I also put a coffee filter on top rather than the thick towel.

I think these improvements will help as I can see what's going on much better and the filter lets more air pass into the starter.

Day 5

I got fancy and gave my starter a touch of molasses with this evenings feed. There are definitely bubbles and signs of life.

Oh, and by the way, now that the starter is ALIVE, it has become very intriguing for my 8-year-old so he now helps me feed the starter and has given him a name - Michealangelo!

Plus, he drew a cute little face on the jar :)

Michealangelo

Day 6 

SUCCESS!!!!!!!!

I am SO excited! This morning when I got up the mixture looked quite different. It was FULL of bubbles. They were actively rising and popping. The colour had darkened slightly, some water separated out a bit on top and it had a more intense smell (sort of like beer). This is sourdough starter!

I am convinced that the molasses made the difference. The yeast seams to love it!

Word of caution though... I have un-sulfured molasses. If you buy the kind that does contain sulfur it will KILL YOUR YEAST. Check and double check!!

So, not only had that worked out, but my wheat berries had also sprouted in their little jar. So without further ado, I blended my sprouted wheat in the vitamix with water, and put the resulting blend plus starter, flour, sea salt, and molasses, into a big bowl and mixed up my first batch of bread.

I put the mixture in a bread pan and left it in the oven with the oven light on to keep it warm so it would rise while I went about my day. Now I have good news and bad news....

The good news: 
This starter is powerful stuff! After 6 hours the mixture was light and fluffy and full of air bubbles and had risen very, very well!

The bad news:
My bread tin wasn't big enough to handle all that rising and it overflowed all over the bottom of my oven :(.

So I transfered the dough to 2 smaller pans (loosing some fluffyness and height in the process) and baked those pans of bread for 45 mins.

When they came out, they were lovely! The crust was crispy but the inside was soft with a pretty lattice of air holes. The only down side is they were both "short".

It would have been great if the loaf was baked in one nice, tall bread pan. Now I have 2 loaves of bread that are about half the height a loaf of bread should be. Not great for sandwiches or toast.

It was, however, wonderful with dinner... sliced up fresh and still warm with pats of butter melting on the slices of bread at the sides of our plates.

Many lessons learned today...
And for tomorrow -- Pancakes!

update: Things are running smoothly with the sourdough starter. I've been making bread, pancakes and pizza with it! I still keep it on my counter since it's still "young". After a while I will start keeping it in the fridge when I'm not using it.