The Perfect Thick crust pizza- Sourdough

I have found the perfect thick crust pizza- I prefer thick crust.  The crust gets a good crispy outside, but has a fluffy inside and doesn’t get mushy where the toppings collide.  Even though it is sourdough it isn’t overly sour and pairs well with pizza toppings.  I found the original recipe on Food.com and have altered it just a little

Sourdough Pizza crust- Thick crust pizza

Ingredients:

2 Cups sourdough starter

1 t salt

2 T olive oil

3 cups bread flour

1 t yeast to help things along if your starter isn’t really active

1/2 to 1 cup warm filtered water if needed.

Extra olive oil for bowl

Butter for pan

Mix all ingredients in either a bread machine or with a mixer through the knead cycle or until a baker’s window will form.  While mixing, add warm, filtered water until a ball will form.  My homemade starter was too thick, it too dry in the house, and I needed quite a bit of water to make the consistency right.  Once the kneading is done turn out dough into a large bowl, turn over with olive oil to coat, and cover.  Let rise most of the day.  Making this in the morning for Dinner would be good.  You can also make the night before, let rise over night, and then refrigerate for most of the day, but remove with enough time to warm to room temp. before pressing into the pan.  1 hour (or a little more, I get the dough into my pans before picking my kid up from school since we eat early) before baking punch down, leave in the bowl.  30 min before baking divide the dough into your pies. I can make 1 10 inch, 1 12 inch and 1 7 inch pie so we each have our own.  Grease your cast iron skillets or griddle with butter, the more the better.  This helps form a great crust on the bottom of the pizza pie.  Press your dough into the pans.  Brush the crust edge with olive oil.  Cover with plastic if it is going to be a while before baking otherwise skip that part.  Let the dough rise again as you pre-heat your oven to 425, about 30 min.   After the dough has risen again, top with a spare amount of sauce (my first problem with homemade pizza is I went too crazy with the sauce), and the rest of the toppings. You want to make sure you sprinkle cheese on the crust edge.  This is an important feature to the crust.  Bake for 20 to 25 min. until the crust is crunchy and golden.  Turn out of the skillets and let sit 3 to 5 min.  This is important to keep your toppings on top of the pizza, then cut and serve.

I have used roasted red pepper pesto like sauce and regular spaghetti sauce as the pizza sauce and that seems to work the best.

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