I ran an experiment over the memorial day weekend to see if I could make some really easy, fake sourdough pizza crust.  I think I might have hit on a winner.  I know the instructions look complicated but this recipe is really simple and only gets 1 bowl dirty!  That’s way better than all other recipes I’ve ever made.

On the plane ride back home from my week of work at the HQ I was listening to an interview with Jim Lahey on Cooking Issues and it got me wondering about this no-knead technique.

That same weekend I tried my hand at making the soy-sauce to which I added some of the sauerkraut liquid to add lactic bacteria to the ferment.  I figured, if I joined this no-knead technique + some really nice and tart lactic acid bacteria I might be able to make a quick sourdough pizza crust.  And I think I was right.

Recipe:

Put all the dry ingredients, including the yeast, in a bowl and mix well.  Put the water and honey in a microwave on "warm" and heat up for a couple of minutes to body temperature.  Make sure the honey is dissolved well.  Add the water+honey mixture, along with the sauerkraut liquid and olive oil, to the dry ingredients.

Mix by hand, or with a wooden spoon, until the ingredients come together.  Cover with plastic wrap and a rubber-band and let sit for 4 hours.  The dough will be more wet than you’re probably used to, and that’s ok.

After 4 hours come back, punch the dough down and give it a turn or 2.  Put the plastic back on and put in refrigerator.

After 4 more hours, or before you go to bed, punch the dough down once more, give it a turn or 2, and put it back into the refrigerator.

The next day, take the dough out of the refrigerator 4 hours before you’re going to cook it so it can come back up to room temperature.  Once again, push it down and give it a turn or 2, placing the cover back on.

1 hour before cooking the pizza turn your oven, with a pizza stone in it, to 500 degrees and let it warm up.

15 minutes before the oven is ready, punch down the dough one last time and make a ball by moving the dough between your hands in a circular motion and pressing the middle of the dough inwards.  Explaining this procedure is hard but there’s plenty of videos online on how to do it.  When you’re doing that make sure to cover the inside of the bowl with plenty of flour so the dough doesn’t stick.  Then add some more flour over the ball.  This is the point where we need to the dough to not be as sticky as it has been.

When the over is ready, spread out the dough in a pizza paddle or cutting board getting it roughly to the share you’re interested in.  Take out the pizza stone from the oven, put the dough on the stone and prepare your pizza.

Set a timer for 4.5 minutes and the turn the pizza for another 4.5.  If it’s not done enough let it sit for a but longer.