Sourdough Pizza Dough Recipe (UK Master Guide)

Most online sourdough pizza recipes assume you can buy Italian 00 flour easily. This one's adapted specifically for UK kitchens, using flours from any supermarket and tested across hundreds of bakes in domestic ovens. The result: a proper Naples-style sourdough pizza with crisp edges, soft middle, and the deep flavour that only a 24-hour cold ferment can produce.

The recipe (adapted for UK ingredients)

Ingredient	Weight	Baker's %
Strong white bread flour	500g	100%
Cold water	325g	65%
Active sourdough starter	75g	15%
Fine sea salt	12g	2.4%
Olive oil	10g	2%

Makes 4 × 220g dough balls (each yielding a 30cm pizza).

UK flour: which to use

Italian 00 flour is the gold standard for pizza, but it's not always easy to source in the UK. Strong white bread flour is the next best, and gives 95% of the result. Specifically:

• Marriages Strong White (Tesco, Waitrose, Sainsbury's): excellent. 13g protein per 100g, fine grind. Our default.
• Shipton Mill Canadian Strong White (online or independents): the closest UK approximation to Italian 00. Slightly sweeter, very fine.
• Wessex Mill Strong White: good for everyday use, in many supermarkets.
• Tesco/Sainsbury's own brand strong white: serviceable, the cheapest option, slightly less consistent.

Avoid:

• Plain flour or all-purpose — too weak for the long ferment.
• "Bread flour" without the "strong" label — protein content can be too low.
• Self-raising — never appropriate for sourdough.

If you can find Caputo 00 (Italian deli or online), it's noticeably better — softer, more elastic dough. Worth the £4 a bag if you're going to bake pizza weekly.

The 24-hour timeline

Day 1, 6pm — Mix

In a large bowl, dissolve salt in cold water. Add the starter, stir to combine. Add the flour. Mix to a shaggy dough — about 3 minutes by hand. Add the olive oil and pinch through.

Cover and rest 30 minutes.

Day 1, 6:30pm to 9pm — Stretch and folds

Three sets of stretch-and-folds, 45 minutes apart:

• 7:15pm — Set 1 (4 stretches around the bowl)
• 8:00pm — Set 2
• 8:45pm — Set 3

By the third fold the dough should be smooth and slightly bouncy. Leave to bulk for another 90 minutes at room temperature.

Day 1, 10:30pm — Divide and ball

Tip onto a counter. Divide into 4 × 220g pieces. Shape each into a tight ball. Place in oiled containers (Tupperware works well) with room to grow.

Day 1, 10:30pm — Into the fridge

The cold ferment is non-negotiable for the flavour you want. Minimum 24 hours; 36 hours is the sweet spot; 48 hours is delicious if a slightly bigger flavour. Don't go past 72.

Day 2 (or 3), evening — Bake

Take out 90 minutes before baking. The dough balls need to come fully to room temperature before stretching.

Setting up a UK domestic oven

Most UK ovens cap at 240–260°C. That's not as hot as a Naples oven (450°C), but it's enough — provided you compensate with thermal mass.

Pizza steel (best option, £35–50)

A 6mm steel slab. Preheat for 45 minutes on the second-from-top rack, with the grill setting on if your oven has it. The steel transfers heat to the base of the pizza far better than a stone — base crisps in 90 seconds.

Pizza stone (good alternative, £15–25)

Thick ceramic stone. Preheat for 60 minutes (longer than steel — ceramic absorbs heat slowly). Avoid thin cordierite stones — they crack.

Heavy baking tray (workable in a pinch)

Preheat for 30 minutes. Slide the pizza directly onto the hot tray. Less consistent than a steel or stone but produces a respectable pizza.

The bake

Stretch a dough ball on a counter dusted with semolina (semolina, not flour — it acts like ball bearings under the dough). Top sparingly. Slide onto the hot steel.

Bake at maximum temperature, with the grill setting on if your oven has one. Watch closely — domestic pizza bakes in 4–6 minutes.

Signs of doneness:

• Crust spotted black-brown ('leoparding').
• Cheese fully melted with brown patches.
• Base hollow-sounding when tapped with a peel.

Slide onto a wire rack to rest 60 seconds — this stops the base going soggy from steam.

UK toppings that work

Margherita

Tinned San Marzano tomatoes (Cirio, Mutti — both available in UK supermarkets). Crush by hand. Fresh mozzarella (Galbani fior di latte, drained and patted dry). Fresh basil added after baking. Olive oil drizzle.

Marinara

Tomato, garlic slivers, dried oregano, olive oil. No cheese. The cleanest, most elegant pizza.

Salami and chilli

Tomato, mozzarella, slices of fennel salami (any UK deli), pickled chillies. Drizzle of chilli oil after baking.

British twist

Tomato, mozzarella, crumbled black pudding, slices of cooking apple, sprigs of thyme. Genuinely brilliant.

Pear and gorgonzola

Olive oil base (no tomato), mozzarella, sliced pear, gorgonzola crumbles, walnut. Drizzle of honey after baking.

The 80% rule on toppings

Don't overload. The dough can hold about 150g of toppings comfortably. More than that and the centre will sag, the toppings will steam rather than caramelise, and the base won't crisp.

Specifically:

• Sauce: 2–3 tablespoons.
• Cheese: 100g, well-distributed but with gaps.
• Other toppings: 60–80g maximum.

Common UK kitchen problems

Pale crust: oven temperature drops when you open the door. UK ovens lose 30–40°C in seconds. Open once, bake, take out — don't peek.

Soggy middle: too much sauce or the steel/stone wasn't hot enough. Drain the mozzarella; preheat 60 minutes minimum.

Tough chewy crust: dough wasn't fermented long enough. The 24-hour cold ferment is non-negotiable.

Dough won't stretch: not at room temperature. Take it out 90 minutes before baking, not 30.

Pizza tears as you slide it: sat on the peel too long, or used flour instead of semolina. Slide quickly; semolina under the dough.

Storage and reheating

Cooked pizza reheats best in a hot dry frying pan on the hob — 3 minutes covered. The microwave turns crust to leather; the oven dries it out.

Dough balls freeze well — after the cold ferment, transfer to airtight bags. Defrost overnight in the fridge, then 2 hours at room temperature before stretching.

FAQ

What's the difference between this and a Roman-style pizza dough?

Roman is thinner overall (3–4mm) and crispier; Naples is fluffy at the edge (cornicione) and softer in the centre. Both are valid; this recipe leans Naples.

Can I use easy-bake yeast instead of sourdough?

Yes — substitute the starter with 5g of dried yeast, and reduce the cold ferment to 24 hours. The flavour is less complex but the technique is otherwise identical.

What's the lowest oven temperature this works at?

240°C is the floor. Below that the dough doesn't crisp properly. Most UK ovens reach 260°C, which is fine.

Why does mine taste flat compared to restaurant pizza?

Almost always under-fermented. Push the cold ferment to 36 hours. Restaurant pizza tastes more complex because most use 48–72 hour cold ferments.

Can I make this same-day?

Yes — bulk for 4 hours at room temperature, then ball and let rise another 2 hours. The flavour is markedly less developed than the cold ferment version. Don't shortcut if you want the best.

Why semolina under the pizza, not flour?

Semolina rolls under the dough like tiny ball bearings, helping the pizza slide off the peel cleanly. Flour clumps and absorbs moisture.

Where do I buy 00 flour in the UK?

Larger Sainsbury's, Waitrose, and Italian delis stock Caputo or Le 5 Stagioni. Online: Sous Chef, Ocado, Amazon. £3–5 per kg, lasts 8 pizzas.

The Friday night pizza routine

Mix dough Wednesday or Thursday evening. Cold ferment Thursday into Friday. Friday night, stretch and bake one at a time while a glass of wine breathes. Total active time: 45 minutes spread across two evenings. Cost per pizza: about £2 of ingredients. Quality: better than the £14 takeaway.

This is sustainable home pizza — repeatable, cheaper than takeaway, dramatically more fun, and produces a meaningfully better dinner than anything you'd order. Most home bakers who try this for a month never order pizza again.

The pizza ladder

If you're new to pizza:

1. First 3 Friday-night pizzas: just margherita. Master the dough, stretching, and bake.
2. Pizzas 4–10: introduce one new topping each week.
3. Pizzas 11–20: experiment with white-base pizzas, dessert pizzas, focaccia from the same dough.
4. Pizzas 21+: push to 70% hydration, longer ferments, bigger flavour.

Two months in, you'll be making pizza that genuinely competes with anything in your local pizzeria.

The supermarket flour comparison

For UK home cooks, here's an honest comparison of supermarket strong white bread flours, ranked for pizza:

1. Marriages Strong White: our default. 13% protein, fine grind, consistent. £2.20/kg in most supermarkets.
2. Shipton Mill Canadian Strong White: slightly better but harder to find. £2.80/kg online.
3. Wessex Mill Strong White: good for everyday use, slightly less elastic.
4. Allinson Strong White: reliable supermarket option.
5. Tesco/Sainsbury's own brand: serviceable. Hidden inconsistency between batches.

If pizza is your main reason for buying flour, the £4 bag of Caputo 00 from a deli is worth the upgrade — but you can make excellent pizza with any of the supermarket strong whites.

Equipment summary for UK home pizza

Total cost: under £80 for a kit that lasts forever.

• Pizza steel (£40) — the single biggest upgrade.
• Wooden peel (£15) — for sliding pizzas in.
• Metal peel (£12) — for retrieving baked pizzas (faster than wooden).
• Bench scraper (£5) — for dividing dough.
• Oil sprayer (£5) — for greasing dough containers.

Pays back in 4–5 Friday nights vs ordering pizza. Lasts decades.

The British contribution to home pizza

Pizza in the UK has become genuinely interesting in the last decade. Independent pizzerias like Pizza Pilgrims, Sodo, Crust Bros and Crisp Pizza have raised expectations dramatically. The home-pizza movement has followed — most serious home cooks now know about hydration, fermentation, ovens, and steel slabs in a way that wasn't true ten years ago.

The recipe in this guide reflects that British contribution: traditional Naples technique, adapted for UK ingredients, executable in a UK kitchen. You won't be making the exact same pizza as Da Michele in Naples, but you'll be making a pizza that's recognisably in the same family — and one a pizza-obsessive Italian friend would describe as "genuinely good."