I opted to use our 100% hydrated pizza dough as the framework for a sourdough square pie. I have been using the feeding model for sourdough that is outlined in Ken Forkish’s brilliant book, The Elements of Pizza. I doubled our pizza recipe, mostly, cutting the water by 100 grams. I added 500 grams of sourdough base to the dough. I hand-mixed the dough and let it rise throughout the day, folding occasionally. I shaped the dough 4 hours before cooking and let it rise to fill the pans. I baked the dough on a baking steel for 10 minutes and raised it off the steel for 5 minutes. I topped the par-baked pizzas and finished them under the broiler for 5 minutes. My Achilles’ heel is too many toppings. I was overly generous on these pizzas. They did not deflate. The dough, with its delicate network of bubbles, supported my toppings. The pizzas were delicious, messy, and over the top. The sourdough added character to the dough and enhanced the pizza experience. Now I need to show some restraint as we tinker through the variations in search of dough nirvana.
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