Pizza (with sourdough starter or poolish)
-Makes 4 medium pizzas
Don’t have a pizza oven? No worries! You can still achieve that dreamy, crispy crust with your home oven. The secret? Sear the crust first and spritz a bit of water on top to keep it from drying out. Just 5 minutes in the oven and voilà - pizza perfection!

Ingredients for Pizza (with  sourdough starter or poolish)

For Poolish:
100g white bread flour
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
100g water, at room temp.
OR
Use 200g active sourdough starter

To mix the dough:
200g poolish or sourdough starter
290ml water, room temperature
1/4 teaspoon active yeast
1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon sugar or honey
450g white bread or Tipo 00 pizza flour
50g whole wheat flour (or white bread flour)
2 teaspoons fine sea salt

Recipe
  1. For poolish, mix white bread flour, instant yeast and water, the evening before and let sit at room temperature overnight. (Or use 200g active bubbly sourdough starter).
  2. To make dough: place poolish (or sourdough starter) with water, yeast, olive oil and sugar. Add flours and bring it all together into a shaggy dough. Cover and set aside for 10-15 minutes.
  3. Add salt and incorporate it into the dough with a teaspoon of water if necessary. Hand-knead the dough for 15 minutes until smooth (rest the dough for 1-2 minutes regularly during the kneading process. This allows the proteins to relax before further kneading). Or simply machine-mix until smooth. Cover and rest for 30 minutes.
  4. Bulk Fermentation: Stretch and fold the dough in 3 sets at 30-minute intervals. (Skip step 5 to continue baking on the same day).
  5. Cold Bulk Fermentation: Remove the dough from the container and tighten it on the counter into a taut ball. Meanwhile, oil the bowl lightly with olive oil. Place the taut ball seam side down, back in the oiled bowl. Cover and refrigerate overnight or for up to 36 hours at 4C.
  6. Ball the Dough: Divide the chiller dough into four 250g pieces. Shape the dough into tight balls with no seam at the bottom. Transfer to a lightly oiled tray. Cover and proof at room temperature for a few hours until puffy and bubbly (usually takes about 2–3 hours at 26C or 5-6 hours at 23C). The dough balls will have relaxed outward, and be soft to the touch.
  7. At this point you can bake the pizza as below or place the dough balls back in the fridge for 30 minutes if too soft to handle at this point and then proceed to baking them.
  8. Bake: Pre-heat your oven to its highest setting (250-280ºC for domestic ovens) for at least 30 minutes with an inverted baking tray in the center (or a pizza stone).
  9. On a handful of semolina flour, flatten each dough ball into a large circle, stretching it gently with your finger tips, aiming for a fat rim and paper thin circle. Place the pizza base onto a peel lined with baking paper.
  10. Spread tomato sauce, bits of fresh mozzarella, some grated parmesan, a few basil leaves and a light drizzle of olive oil. Slide the sheet onto the heated pizza stone or inverted baking tray.
  11. Using a spray bottle, spritz the inside of the oven a few times with water (this will prevent the crust from drying out as the baking time in a domestic oven is way longer than a hot hot traditional pizza oven). Bake for about 7 minutes (rotating it using the peel half way through) until the base is crispy and the edges golden brown. Serve hot!
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​Save for later: You can also put the balls back into the fridge (gently covered with plastic wrap and then with a tight lid) until the next day. The next day, leave the dough balls out to relax for 1 hour at room temperature in a pile of semolina, before baking.

For a super crispy base: Shape the pizza then place in a hot oiled non-stick frying pan on medium flame. Spread sauce and toppings and transfer into the oven, quick spritz of water and bake further for 5 minutes until the toppings are cooked (about 5 minutes).

Prep ahead and save for later: After finishing your initial stretch and folds in step 3, you can ball your dough, place the balls in 4 oiled containers, cover and let them rise for a few hours until puffy. Cover the containers with oiled lids and refrigerate for the next few days until ready to use. Leave the dough balls out to relax for 1 hour at room temperature in a pile of semolina, before baking.
For more delicious recipes, check out our upcoming hands-on cooking classes in Downtown Singapore.
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