Star Shaped Pizza
This is an impressive way to make pizza. The crust can be stuffed with any topping you enjoy. I love putting ricotta on my pizza, so that’s what I used, but pepperoni or mushrooms would be delicious too. Follow the sourdough pizza crust recipe or buy the best dough you can find. If you are buying the dough, skip to step 6 of instructions.
Sourdough Pizza Crust
Makes 1 large pizza
PREP 10 minutes
COOK 18 minutes
INGREDIENTS
1 cup (241g) sourdough starter, unfed/discard
1/2 cup (113g) warm water
2 1/2 cups (298g) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon instant or active dry yeast
INSTRUCTIONS
To Make the Dough: Stir any liquid on top of your refrigerated starter back into it before measuring 1 cup (241g) into a large mixing bowl. Note: This is a good opportunity to feed the remainder of your starter, if necessary.
Add the warm water, flour, salt, yeast, and Pizza Dough Flavor (if using). Mix to combine, then knead for about 7 minutes in a mixer with the dough hook, until the dough wraps itself around the hook and cleans the side of the bowl.
Place the dough in a greased container, cover and let rise until almost doubled in bulk. Depending on the vitality of your starter, this will take between 2 and 4 hours. For a faster rise, place the dough in a warm spot, or double the yeast.
For a thicker, large pizza, oil a 14" round pizza pan (an 18" x 13" half-sheet pan will also work). Place the dough in the selected pan and press it out to the edges, again giving it a 15-minute rest before continuing if it starts to snap back.
Cover the pan(s) and let the dough rise until it's as thick as you like.
To Assemble the Pizza: Preheat oven to 450 degrees. If you have a pizza stone, place that in the oven.
Stretch your pizza dough as you would normally do, trying to keep it in a circle. Place the dough on a pizza peel, inverted cookies sheet or a piece of parchment paper, dusted with flour or semolina.
Using a sharp knife cut the pizza dough 2” deep, towards the center, on the top, bottom, left and right side of the dough. You will be dividing the dough into quarters.
Now make 4 more cuts, dividing those original cuts in half. You should have 8 cuts now.
Dress the center of the pizza as you normally would with sauce and cheese. Place a little sauce and ricotta cheese (or whatever you like) in the center of each of the 8 tabs. Make sure you leave some dough around the outside of the tabs.
Pinch both sides of the tabs together, sealing the dough and creating a point at the end. Continue with the remaining 7 tabs.
Place the pizza in the oven and cook for about 20 minutes, or until crust is golden brown and cheese is melted and browning.
Allow the pizza to cool for a few minutes before cutting it to avoid the cheese sliding off.
