I need some help on my dough to figure out what I'm doing wrong? I've been following a sourdough pizza dough recipe. This one... https://goodthingsbaking.com/sourdough-pizza-crust/#tasty-recipes-3671-jump-target

However, the dough is very hard to work with. It's very "wet" and not a lot of strength to it. I'll dust it like crazy on top and bottom but by the time I roll it out it's stuck to the floured surface! Then I try to scrape it off and either end up tearing it or pushing it back together to the point I have to start all over. I'm thinking maybe I'm over-proofing it?! I've been letting it cold ferment in the fridge for several days before using it. The only way I can get it to work for pizza is par baking it first before putting toppings on it. Is it the over-proofing or do I just need to back off on the moisture content???

SpiderDude said:

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I need some help on my dough to figure out what I'm doing wrong? I've been following a sourdough pizza dough recipe. This one... https://goodthingsbaking.com/sourdough-pizza-crust/#tasty-recipes-3671-jump-target

However, the dough is very hard to work with. It's very "wet" and not a lot of strength to it. I'll dust it like crazy on top and bottom but by the time I roll it out it's stuck to the floured surface! Then I try to scrape it off and either end up tearing it or pushing it back together to the point I have to start all over. I'm thinking maybe I'm over-proofing it?! I've been letting it cold ferment in the fridge for several days before using it. The only way I can get it to work for pizza is par baking it first before putting toppings on it. Is it the over-proofing or do I just need to back off on the moisture content???

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After looking at that recipe, .5 cup of sourdough starter is 113 grams, 1.5 cups of flour is 187 grams, .5 cup of water is roughly 120 grams. Since sourdough starter contains water, you're basically over 100% hydration, so yeah, your dough is going to be too wet.

I don't agree with all of this video (his final product looks terrible because he burns tf out of the basil), but this video has some solid principles on making sourdough pizza.



He's obviously using a lot more flour and water than you because he's making dough for four pizzas instead of one. I don't like her directions in that recipe because what she's recommending is closer to a recipe for using instant yeast instead of sourdough. They're different, and you need to treat them different. You want the starter to be broken down in the water, almost more of a liquid you're adding to the flour rather than a solid.

If you're going to only use 1.5 cups of flour, I'd mix in the starter, and slowly introduce water, a literal tablespoon at a time, to the mixture while kneading it. You need to get it to a certain level of hydration, but adding half a cup of water is too much, imo.

I don't think you're overproofing it by leaving it in the fridge for several days, but I also don't see the point of a multi-day ferment. This is sourdough, it just needs to do its bulk rise and you're ready to go. You do a multi-day cold ferment for yeast dough so it develops taste and texture. After the bulk ferment, sourdough has its taste and texture.

Thank you!!!

SpiderDude said:

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I need some help on my dough to figure out what I'm doing wrong? I've been following a sourdough pizza dough recipe. This one... https://goodthingsbaking.com/sourdough-pizza-crust/#tasty-recipes-3671-jump-target

However, the dough is very hard to work with. It's very "wet" and not a lot of strength to it. I'll dust it like crazy on top and bottom but by the time I roll it out it's stuck to the floured surface! Then I try to scrape it off and either end up tearing it or pushing it back together to the point I have to start all over. I'm thinking maybe I'm over-proofing it?! I've been letting it cold ferment in the fridge for several days before using it. The only way I can get it to work for pizza is par baking it first before putting toppings on it. Is it the over-proofing or do I just need to back off on the moisture content???

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Assuming your sourdough starter is at a 50/50 water to flour ratio, the hydration level for that recipe comes in at about 83%, I believe. That is a pretty high hydration dough, especially if you aren't used to working with it. Most doughs seem to be in the 70-75% range for hydration. If you want to make a sourdough crust, you may want to try this recipe https://amybakesbread.com/sourdough-pizza-oven-pizza/#recipe. I haven't made this one exactly, but I have made many items off this website with great success. I have not been disappointed with any of her recipes, so I feel confident it is a good one. If you try it out, let us know how it goes. I may give it a whirl later this week as well.

Good luck!

Any recs for store bought pizza dough? Just recently got an Ooni 12" and not quite ready to start trying to make my own dough yet. I'd like a few test runs with store bought ingredients before I try my hand at my own dough and sauce.

Trader Joe's

jc1402 said:

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Any recs for store bought pizza dough? Just recently got an Ooni 12" and not quite ready to start trying to make my own dough yet. I'd like a few test runs with store bought ingredients before I try my hand at my own dough and sauce.

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Did you find a dough you like?

mneisch said:

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4 days was too long of a cold ferment for me. I think my sweet spot might be 2 days using the Serious Eats recipe (https://www.seriouseats.com/basic-neapolitan-pizza-dough-recipe). Getting better at the cook though. Having a proper turning peel makes a huge difference.

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Kenji's recipe is basically 4 cups of flour risen split into four dough balls. I'd make the recipe, let it rise, punch down, roll it into four balls, separate them into four containers (or bags) in the fridge, then bake one at 24 hours, one at 48, one at 72, and one at 96. Baked without sauce, you're just trying to crust. Whichever one tastes the best to you, that is the timeline you use for your fermentation.

Since he recommends 00 flour, a minimum 24 hour ferment is required. 00 is bland af if your use it the day of, even if you let it ferment at room temp for 6 hours.

Went to a friend's house Friday night to teach her how to make a pizza from scratch. She can't eat pork due to liver issues, so no pepperoni or sausage allowed.

So I made a peperoni pizza for her, and it turned out well.



Also made a batch of dough on her counter which we'll make into another pizza in a day or so after it has cold fermented enough.

Pepperoni e peperoni



Look at that botched shaping.



Cornicione is good, though.

Made a personal pan pizza 00 flour on a pizza stone

Plain pepperoni on a pizza stone using 00 flour.

large pepperoni on 00 flour

Loving the Gozney!

Did you settle on a fermentation schedule?

Yes, my preference is 3 days cold ferment. Anything between 2-4 is pretty good.

mneisch said:

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Yes, my preference is 3 days cold ferment. Anything between 2-4 is pretty good.

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I read your July post and wondered if you'd found your preferred timeline.

Are you still using Kenji's recipe?

Which model did you go with?

Yes, no other tweaks to it.

Been making my own sauce using canned San Marzano tomatoes from Costco. Crush by hand and add a little bit of basil, garlic olive oil, and salt.

Arc XL

Appreciate the feedback, and looks great!

First with Ooni:



This is literally just a piece of dough baked as a crust. This was to test out the Ooni and see if I liked the flavor of the dough.



Happy with the leoparding and the rise



Other side.



Sliced it into quarters.



Crumb shot.

Plain cheese pizza on Ooni







Happy with the bubble.

Happy with how the cheese pizza turned out, need to ramp up the temp a little more. Think the first bake was with the stone over 740, this one was at 650-700.

First pepperoni on Ooni







Tasted perfectly fine, but I didn't get the leoparding on the dough I want.

The trick is getting the stone above 750 and having it remain there. I'm still working on that aspect of temp control.

I have two pizza ovens, both Christmas presents. The first one is an Ooni knock-off, apparently it says Ooni everywhere on the site except the order page. After I put it together, I noticed nothing on the manual or oven itself said Ooni. The fire box for it is too small, so I'll use it as a backup gas-powered pizza oven.

The Ooni is the one I've been using the last few days.

As long as you understand the structure of the oven (and have enough room for the firebox if you're like me and want a wood-fired pizza), I think you can make just about any of these ovens work, knock-off or the real deal.

The bonus of this experience is I watched a lot of videos online of different methods with wood-burning ovens, and now know how to make a simple backyard pizza oven for under $100, so there is that.....which is nice.

Pizza #3 on the Ooni

Tasted terrific, still not getting the temp control or leoparding I want.

I'm tempted to go buy a chimney starter and do a charcoal pizza instead of using wood, just to see if I can stabilize the temperature.

Backyard Gator said:

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I have two pizza ovens, both Christmas presents. The first one is an Ooni knock-off, apparently it says Ooni everywhere on the site except the order page. After I put it together, I noticed nothing on the manual or oven itself said Ooni. The fire box for it is too small, so I'll use it as a backup gas-powered pizza oven.

The Ooni is the one I've been using the last few days.

As long as you understand the structure of the oven (and have enough room for the firebox if you're like me and want a wood-fired pizza), I think you can make just about any of these ovens work, knock-off or the real deal.

The bonus of this experience is I watched a lot of videos online of different methods with wood-burning ovens, and now know how to make a simple backyard pizza oven for under $100, so there is that.....which is nice.

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Please post a how-to video (or link the best one you have seen).

Backyard Gator said:

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HtownAg92 said:

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Backyard Gator said:

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I have two pizza ovens, both Christmas presents. The first one is an Ooni knock-off, apparently it says Ooni everywhere on the site except the order page. After I put it together, I noticed nothing on the manual or oven itself said Ooni. The fire box for it is too small, so I'll use it as a backup gas-powered pizza oven.

The Ooni is the one I've been using the last few days.

As long as you understand the structure of the oven (and have enough room for the firebox if you're like me and want a wood-fired pizza), I think you can make just about any of these ovens work, knock-off or the real deal.

The bonus of this experience is I watched a lot of videos online of different methods with wood-burning ovens, and now know how to make a simple backyard pizza oven for under $100, so there is that.....which is nice.

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Please post a how-to video (or link the best one you have seen).

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Here is a pretty good example of the basic concept.

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A key part of this is getting the right type of bricks. I would think non-fire bricks would degrade pretty quickly.

Planned to make a simple pepperoni pizza to use up the last of my 00 dough, realized too late that I don't have enough mozzarella. I use some provolone I have, and the rendering of the fat in the provolone is why you see the orange streaks in the cheese.





This was using a ~500 g dough ball, what would be created using roughly two cups of flour.



The end result is a bang-on perfect rendition of a NY-style pizza.