Sourdough discard pizza dough turns Friday-night dinner into a 90-minute slow event the whole house wants to be part of. 250 g strong white bread flour, 200 g discard, 100 g water, 7 g salt, 1 tablespoon olive oil — mix, rest, stretch, top, bake. The discard's tang carries through to the crust, and the family doesn't notice we're using up leftovers. Cook it on a hot tray, a cast-iron pan, a pizza stone, a steel, or an Ooni — every UK kitchen has a route in.
Pizza was the bake that made us realise discard isn't a leftover problem — it's a head-start. The kitchen smells of toasting tomato and bubbling mozzarella by 7 pm, the dough is doing all the flavour-work that yeast can't do alone, and nobody at the table is thinking about the maths. They're eating. This is the recipe we make most Friday nights in the Hub kitchen — the one Clara taught her two when they were small enough to climb on chairs.
The recipe (the whole thing on one screen)
Sourdough Discard Pizza Dough
Prep15 min
Rise45–60 min
Bake8–10 min
Yield2 × 30 cm pizzas
For the dough
- 250 g strong white bread flour (Marriage's, Shipton Mill, Doves Farm)
- 200 g sourdough discard (any age 1–21 days; ideally 5–14 days from the fridge)
- 100 g water, room temperature
- 7 g fine sea salt
- 1 tbsp olive oil (~15 g)
- ½ tsp instant dried yeast (skip for the overnight version)
- Pinch caster sugar (optional, helps browning)
For a Margherita (per pizza)
- 100 g good tomato passata (Mutti or Cirio)
- ½ ball buffalo mozzarella (~60 g), torn and drained
- Handful fresh basil
- Drizzle olive oil, sea salt flakes to finish
Method, in six steps
Can you use sourdough discard for pizza dough?
Yes — sourdough discard makes excellent pizza dough. The discard contributes flavour, browning, and a tender crumb without needing to do the leavening: a small amount of commercial yeast (or just a long bench rise) handles the rise. The 90-minute UK home method uses 200 g of discard, 250 g of strong white bread flour, 100 g of water, 7 g of salt and a tablespoon of olive oil — mix, rest, stretch, top, bake at 250°C.
Step 1 — Mix until shaggy (2 minutes)
Tip the flour into a bowl. Add the salt to one side, the yeast to the other (salt kills yeast on direct contact — keep them apart for the first 30 seconds). Add the discard, water, and olive oil. Mix with a wooden spoon, then your hands, until there's no dry flour left. The dough will look rough and lumpy. That's fine. Cover with a tea towel.
Step 2 — Rest the dough (30 minutes — the autolyse shortcut)
This is the autolyse shortcut. The flour absorbs water, the gluten starts to organise itself without you doing anything, and the dough goes from rough to soft. Set a timer. Make the passata sauce. Wash up.
Step 3 — Knead briefly and ball (3 minutes)
Tip onto a lightly floured surface. Knead — push, fold, turn — for just three minutes. The dough goes smooth and springy. Divide in two, ball each half, and set aside.
Step 4 — Bench rise (45–60 minutes)
How long does sourdough discard pizza dough take to rise?
A sourdough discard pizza dough rises for 45 to 60 minutes at UK room temperature (18–22°C) before stretching. This is shorter than a traditional sourdough pizza because the discard is not the primary leavener — the bench rise is for gluten relaxation and flavour development, not volume. A longer overnight rise of 12–24 hours in the fridge gives a deeper, tangier crust but is not required for a good Friday-night pizza.
In a cold January kitchen at 16°C, give it 75 minutes. The dough won't double — it'll rise by maybe 40%. That's the right amount.
Step 5 — Stretch and top (10 minutes)
Heat the oven to 250°C, tray inside. On a floured surface, press the dough out from the centre with your knuckles, then lift and stretch from the edges — never use a rolling pin. (Why: see the next section.) Top sparingly: passata, mozzarella, basil. Less is more — overload and the bottom won't crisp.
Step 6 — Bake hot, eat fast
Slide onto the hot tray. 8–10 minutes in a domestic oven. The crust should blister, the mozzarella should bubble and just begin to brown. Out, oil and salt, eat at the kitchen table standing up if you have to.
Same-day (90 minutes) vs overnight (24 hours) — which to choose
Same-day (90 minutes)
Friday-night logistics. With ½ tsp instant yeast for backup leavening.
- 17:30 — Mix (2 min)
- 17:32 — Rest (30 min)
- 18:02 — Knead, ball (3 min)
- 18:05 — Bench rise (45–60 min)
- 19:00 — Stretch, top, bake
- 19:10 — On the plate
Overnight (24 hours)
Saturday lunch. No commercial yeast — pure discard-driven, deeper flavour.
- Fri 14:00 — Mix dough (no yeast)
- 14:30 — Knead, ball
- 14:33 — Fridge, 24 hours
- Sat 12:30 — Out of fridge, 30 min to warm
- 13:00 — Stretch, top, bake
- 13:10 — On the plate
The same-day version is for the bake. The overnight version is for the flavour. Both are correct. Both ship pizzas onto Friday-night plates.
Stretching by hand, not rolling — and why it matters
Rolling pins are for shortcrust pastry. Pizza is a contact sport.
The knuckle-stretch technique
Press the dough out from the centre with your knuckles, working outwards. Lift it gently by one edge and let gravity do the last 20% — the weight of the dough hanging from your hands stretches it more evenly than any push. Aim for a circle 30 cm across, with a slightly thicker rim.
Why rolling pins flatten the soul of the dough
When the dough rests for 45 minutes, tiny gas pockets form, even with this short rise. Roll, and you flatten them. Stretch, and you preserve them. The pockets are what give a cooked pizza crust its blistered ring — the cornicione.
When the dough fights back (the 5-minute rest fix)
If the dough springs back every time you stretch it, the gluten is too tight. Cover with a tea towel, walk away for 5 minutes, come back. It'll stretch like silk. The dough sets its own pace; you bend to it, not the other way around.
Cooking it: the UK home-oven matrix
What temperature do you cook sourdough discard pizza at?
Sourdough discard pizza cooks at 250°C in a UK home oven (the maximum most domestic ovens reach) on a preheated tray or pizza stone, for 8 to 12 minutes. In a cast-iron skillet, start on a hot hob for 3 minutes then transfer to a hot grill for 4 minutes. In an Ooni or Gozney outdoor pizza oven at 400–450°C, the bake is 90 seconds. Higher heat = better crust char and shorter cook.
Home oven (on a hot tray)
250°C 8–12 min Preheat a heavy baking tray inside the oven for 20 minutes. Slide the pizza on. The default UK domestic setup. Bottom is fine, crust slightly slower than pizza-oven results — but real pizza all the same.
Home oven + pizza stone or steel
250°C 6–8 min A steel beats a stone — twice the thermal conductivity, blistered bottom in half the time. Preheat 30 minutes. The upgrade most worth £40.
Cast-iron skillet (hob-to-grill cheat code)
Hob max + grill 3 + 4 min Stretch the dough straight into a hot cast-iron pan over the hob. 3 minutes until the base sets. Top, slide under a screaming-hot grill for 4 minutes until the top browns. Genuinely brilliant.
Ooni, Gozney and other outdoor pizza ovens
400–450°C 90 sec The bake time drops to 90 seconds. The crust chars in spots — proper Neapolitan blister. If you've invested in an Ooni Karu or Gozney Roccbox, this dough is what they were built for.
Which method matches which crust you want
| Method | Crust style | Entry cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plain tray | Solid, even, lightly blistered | £0 | Most UK kitchens |
| Pizza stone or steel | Blistered bottom, faster bake | £25–60 | Regular pizza nights |
| Cast-iron skillet | Crisp-deep base, brown top | £20 (own one already) | Sicilian-style, smaller pizzas |
| Ooni / Gozney | Charred Neapolitan, 90-sec bake | £300+ | Pizza obsessives, garden cooks |
Five UK topping classics
Margherita
Passata, torn buffalo mozzarella, basil, olive oil, salt. The recipe that proves your dough is right.
Cheddar-and-Marmite
Don't knock it. Thin smear of Marmite on the stretched dough, generous grated mature cheddar, a few thyme leaves. The discard's tang meets Marmite's umami and the cheddar binds them. British comfort food on bread.
Mushroom and taleggio
Wild mushrooms (chestnut, oyster, or a mix) sautéed in butter and thyme. Torn taleggio. A grind of black pepper at the plate.
'Nduja and honey
Spicy 'nduja sausage dotted across the dough, mozzarella, a drizzle of runny honey straight off the oven. The honey takes the edge off the chilli; the discard underneath sings.
Sunday-roast leftovers
Shredded roast chicken, sliced red onion, mozzarella; bake; finish with rocket and a squeeze of lemon. Tuesday-night reinvention of a Sunday lunch.
The toddler-approved variation
Friday-night pizza for the under-fives
Skip the garlic in the passata and halve the salt. Use mozzarella only — no blue, no taleggio, no 'nduja. The plain-side/fancy-side trick: stretch one pizza, top half with plain mozzarella for the children, half with whatever the grown-ups want. Bake the whole thing on one tray; slice down the middle.
For the proper toddler experience, stretch a 20 cm "their pizza" — they roll the dough (yes, with a rolling pin, this is the one allowed exception), top it themselves, watch it bake through the oven door. The pizza they made is always the best one. Always.
Clara: "We've been doing this every Friday since the kids were two. Mine roll their own — a rolling pin is fine when they're tiny, the cornicione doesn't matter on a 20 cm pizza, and they get to put pepperoni faces on. The discard jar is empty by Saturday morning."
Can you make pizza dough with old sourdough discard?
Yes — and old sourdough discard often makes better pizza dough than fresh. Discard that's been in the fridge for 7 to 21 days has built up acetic acid, the vinegary tang that makes restaurant-style sourdough pizza crusts taste so distinctive. As long as the discard still smells of fermentation (sharp, sour, yoghurty) rather than solvent (paint thinner, rancid), it's good. The older the discard, the deeper the crust flavour.
Sourdough-discard pizza, when it goes wrong
Gummy in the middle (the under-bake fix)
The bottom didn't get enough heat. Preheat the tray longer (20–30 min minimum), or upgrade to a pizza stone or steel. Slide the pizza onto the lower oven shelf for the final 2 minutes if needed.
Tough and chewy (the over-flour fix)
You added too much flour during stretching. Use a light dusting only — the dough should be slightly sticky to the fingers. If it tears, that's a gluten issue, not a flour issue — see the next entry.
Bottom burnt, top pale (the heat-distribution fix)
Move the pizza to a higher shelf for the last 2 minutes, or finish under a hot grill (slide the whole tray up). Most home ovens run too cool at the top — using grill mode for the finish is fine.
Wouldn't stretch (the gluten-rest fix)
Cover and walk away for 5 minutes. Always works. If still tight after 5 minutes, give it another 5. The gluten relaxes; the dough surrenders.
No flavour (the old-discard upgrade)
Fresh discard makes a pleasant pizza but not a distinctive one. Use older discard (7–14 days from the fridge) next time. The acetic acid that's built up in the cold is exactly what restaurant pizza crusts have.
Frequently asked questions
Can you use sourdough discard for pizza dough?
Yes — sourdough discard makes excellent pizza dough. The discard contributes flavour, browning, and a tender crumb without needing to do the leavening: a small amount of commercial yeast (or just a long bench rise) handles the rise. The 90-minute UK home method uses 200 g of discard, 250 g of strong white bread flour, 100 g of water, 7 g of salt and a tablespoon of olive oil — mix, rest, stretch, top, bake at 250°C.
How long does sourdough discard pizza dough take to rise?
A sourdough discard pizza dough rises for 45 to 60 minutes at UK room temperature (18–22°C) before stretching. This is shorter than a traditional sourdough pizza because the discard is not the primary leavener — the bench rise is for gluten relaxation and flavour development, not volume. A longer overnight rise of 12–24 hours in the fridge gives a deeper, tangier crust but is not required for a good Friday-night pizza.
Can you make pizza dough with old sourdough discard?
Yes — and old sourdough discard often makes better pizza dough than fresh. Discard that's been in the fridge for 7 to 21 days has built up acetic acid, the vinegary tang that makes restaurant-style sourdough pizza crusts taste so distinctive. As long as the discard still smells of fermentation (sharp, sour, yoghurty) rather than solvent (paint thinner, rancid), it's good. The older the discard, the deeper the crust flavour.
What temperature do you cook sourdough discard pizza at?
Sourdough discard pizza cooks at 250°C in a UK home oven (the maximum most domestic ovens reach) on a preheated tray or pizza stone, for 8 to 12 minutes. In a cast-iron skillet, start on a hot hob for 3 minutes then transfer to a hot grill for 4 minutes. In an Ooni or Gozney outdoor pizza oven at 400–450°C, the bake is 90 seconds. Higher heat = better crust char and shorter cook.
Do I need a pizza stone or steel?
No, but a steel is the single upgrade most worth £40. A heavy preheated baking tray gets you 80% of the way there. A pizza stone or steel adds blistered bottom, faster bake (6–8 minutes vs 10–12), and a more even crust. If you make pizza monthly, get a stone. If you make pizza weekly, get a steel.
Which Sourdough Hub kit works best for pizza discard?
Both the Sourdough Kit (white) and the Spelt Kit produce discard well-suited to pizza dough. The white-flour discard gives a classic Neapolitan-style crust; the spelt discard gives a nuttier, slightly chewier base. Rye-kit discard is bolder than most people want in pizza, but it works for a savoury, deeper-flavoured base.
What's next
For the other 24 ways to use up the discard jar, see our discard recipe pillar. New to discard altogether? Where to start with discard is the orientation piece. And while the discard's out, the same discard makes excellent crackers for nibbling while the pizza bakes.
