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I’ve had pizza on my list of things I wanted to make for awhile but I always seem to get stuck on the planning ahead bit to make the crust. I came across the idea to use sourdough discard poured directly into a pre-heated cast iron pan and I am obsessed! It’s the easiest thing in the world and it turned out so delicious. I’ve been enjoying experimenting (and having easy meals haha) and have made pizzas 3 times this week already!

The basic ingredients required are sourdough starter, baking soda and salt. You can do as little or as much as you want as far as add ins, I used my go to favourite Club House Italian seasoning (https://amzn.to/4aoMvlT) that I like to mix into the starter. To make it even easier, I used basic pasta sauce for the pizza. It only takes about a cup to cover 2 medium pizzas and 1 small pizza.

If you don’t have plans for the rest of the sauce, the rest can be frozen in 1 cup portions for quick use later and saves the other half of the jar going bad in the fridge. 1 cup thaws quickly and is a nice add in to a soup or stew when needed. I really like the small 1 cup Pyrex Snapware rounds for freezing small portions: https://amzn.to/4750Cd9. I have mentioned them in other posts that I use them as glass weights in fermenting also: They have a great seal, don’t spill, lids and containers stack nicely and are very versatile. The larger 2 cup containers I use to meal prep for lunches and the bigger rectangles are great for a family sized dinner of chili /soup etc. I also have a couple of Snapware sets with plastic containers: https://amzn.to/41rVKO6 The lids are all interchangeable, the glass and plastic containers stack nicely, and I haven’t had any problems with staining or retaining smells. Anyways, I digress, back to pizza!

To start, put your 10-12″ cast iron pan into the oven and preheat to 450ºF. While the oven heats up prep your toppings. Once preheated, pour some oil into the pan and spread around (I use avocado because it has a high smoke point) mix seasonings and salt into 2 cups of sourdough starter. Mix half a teaspoon of baking soda into starter mix. It puffs up quickly so be ready to pour it into the pan! Dump the starter mix into the pan and rotate to spread then return the pan to the oven to bake for 10 min.

After 10 minutes remove the pan from the oven, add sauce, cheese and toppings of choice then return to oven for another 10-15 minutes depending on desired crispiness of cheese.

My son loved decorating his own personal pizza, credit to him for making the beautiful pepperoni pizza in the cover shot! For safety, I removed the crust from the cast iron for assembly then popped it back in the pan for baking. I love how it turned out and how you can get cheese and toppings all the way to the edge. The oil underneath crisps up the bottom nicely and it reheats beautifully in the toaster oven. I have made the pizzas in the regular oven 3 at a time and also in my Cosori toaster oven, all have turned out great and are done from start to finish in under 30 min.

I made pizzas again recently and decided to experiment with thinning out the sourdough discard with some water, the results are a thinner crust pizza with I topped with pesto. It was quite delicious also and a way to get another pizza if there is only a bit of discard left after making a couple of pizzas already

Sourdough discard pizza crust

Ingredients:

1 cup sourdough starter
10″ cast iron pan
Oil of choice (I use avocado because of high smoke point)
Seasoning: salt, Italian seasoning, dried garlic
Baking soda

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450f with 10″ cast iron skillet inside
Pour avacado oil to coat heated pan
While pan and oven heating, add seasonings to discard
Just before spreading the discard in the pan add half a teaspoon of baking soda to the mix, stir then pour into heated pan
Put back in oven for 10 minutes and then take out and add pizza toppings.
Bake for another 10-15 minutes until desired cheese crispiness then enjoy!

Notes:

For a thin crust version, add some water to the starter mix
Starter can be active or not. Active starter makes a lighter crust
Reheats nicely in the toaster oven

Thanks for checking out my post! If you liked my recipe or have suggestions for other modifications let me know in the comments!