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Recipe
6 min read
Sourdough Pizza with Roasted Aubergine, Whipped Goat's Cheese & Chilli Honey
A summer sourdough pizza loaded with silky roasted aubergine, whipped goat's cheese and chilli honey. Real flavour, real technique, proper results at home.
Photo by David Todd McCarty on UnsplashThere is something about pulling a pizza from a screaming hot oven in late June, the cheese just beginning to catch at the edges and the aubergine collapsed into something almost jammy, that makes the whole effort feel completely worth it. This one has been in rotation at mine for the past couple of summers, and it is one of those combinations that sounds slightly fancy but comes together without any drama.
Roasted aubergine on pizza gets a bad reputation, usually because people slice it raw and chuck it straight on, which gives you undercooked, slightly bitter slabs. The fix is simple: roast the aubergine separately first, until it is genuinely soft and a little caramelised. Pair that with whipped goat's cheese (tangy, creamy, a bit lighter than mozzarella in summer heat), a drizzle of chilli honey once it comes out of the oven, and a handful of fresh basil, and you have got something that feels properly considered without being precious. The sourdough base does most of the heavy lifting here , blistered, slightly chewy, with that faint tang that no commercial yeast pizza can replicate.
The Dough
- 350g strong white bread flour
- 245g water, room temperature (around 70g per 100g flour , 70% hydration)
- 70g active sourdough starter (at peak activity)
- 8g (1.5 tsp) fine sea salt
- 10g (2 tsp) extra virgin olive oil
Roasted Aubergine
- 1 large aubergine (around 300g), sliced into 1cm rounds
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- Salt and black pepper
Whipped Goat's Cheese
- 150g soft goat's cheese (chèvre)
- 3 tbsp crème fraîche
- 1 small garlic clove, grated
- Zest of half a lemon
- Salt to taste
To Finish
- 2 tbsp runny honey
- 0.5 tsp dried chilli flakes (or more, to taste)
- A handful of fresh basil leaves
- Flaky sea salt
Baker's Tips
- In summer, your kitchen is warm and fermentation will move fast. Mix the dough in the morning and it should be ready to ball and cold-proof by early afternoon. If you are baking in the evening, do the bulk in the fridge to slow things down and give you more control over timing.
- The whipped goat's cheese goes on the dough raw before baking , it sets slightly in the oven and develops a little colour at the edges. Do not be tempted to add it halfway through; you want that faint crust on the cheese.
- If you are scaling this up to feed a group (or tracking costs properly for a supper club), the DoughRise Bakery plan includes commercial batch scaling and bakery cost reporting, which is genuinely useful once you are making more than two or three pizzas at a time.
METHOD
- Mix the dough. Combine the flour, water, active sourdough starter and olive oil in a large bowl. Mix until no dry flour remains, then leave to rest for 30 minutes. This short rest lets the flour fully hydrate before you add the salt.
- Add the salt. Sprinkle the fine sea salt over the rested dough and work it in thoroughly with your fingers, squeezing the dough through your fists until the salt is fully incorporated. The dough will tighten slightly and feel more cohesive.
- Stretch and fold. Over the next 2 hours, perform four sets of stretch and folds, roughly 30 minutes apart. For each set, grab one side of the dough, stretch it up as far as it will go without tearing, and fold it over the centre. Rotate the bowl and repeat on all four sides. After the last set, the dough should feel noticeably stronger and slightly springy.
- Bulk ferment. Leave the dough to complete its bulk fermentation at room temperature. In a warm summer kitchen (around 24–26°C), this will take roughly 4–6 hours total from mixing. You are looking for the dough to have grown by around 50–75%, with a domed surface and some visible bubbles. Check the bulk fermentation time calculator if you are working in an unusually warm room , a few degrees makes a real difference this time of year.
- Divide and ball. Turn the fermented dough onto a lightly oiled surface and divide it into two equal pieces (around 340g each). Shape each piece into a tight ball by pulling the edges underneath and creating surface tension. Place the dough balls on a lightly oiled tray, cover with a damp cloth, and leave at room temperature for 30–45 minutes before stretching. If you are not baking immediately, refrigerate the balls for up to 24 hours.
- Roast the aubergine. Preheat your oven to 220°C (200°C fan). Lay the aubergine slices on a lined baking tray, brush generously with olive oil, dust with smoked paprika, and season well. Roast for 20–25 minutes, flipping once halfway through, until they are deeply golden and soft. Set aside to cool slightly.
- Whip the goat's cheese. In a bowl, beat together the goat's cheese, crème fraîche, grated garlic and lemon zest until smooth and a little fluffy. Season to taste. This can be done ahead of time and kept in the fridge.
- Crank the oven. Get your oven as hot as it will go , 250°C plus, with a baking stone or a heavy upturned baking tray inside, preheating for at least 45 minutes. If you have a pizza steel, even better. This is non-negotiable for a properly blistered base.
- Stretch the dough. Take a dough ball and press it out from the centre with your fingertips, working outward and leaving a slightly thicker rim around the edge. Lift it onto your knuckles and gently stretch, rotating as you go. Aim for a roughly 30–32cm round. It does not need to be perfect , a slightly irregular shape is fine.
- Top and bake. Transfer the stretched base onto a lightly floured pizza peel or the back of a flat baking tray. Spread the whipped goat's cheese mixture evenly over the base, leaving a 2cm border. Arrange the roasted aubergine slices over the top. Slide the pizza onto your preheated stone and bake for 8–10 minutes, until the crust is golden, blistered and pulling away slightly at the edges and the cheese has a little colour.
- Finish and serve. While the pizza is still hot, drizzle over the chilli honey, scatter with fresh basil leaves and a pinch of flaky sea salt. Repeat with the second pizza. Eat immediately.
Why this works
Stretch and folds build gluten structure without the effort of kneading, and they do it gently enough that you keep the gases produced by your starter trapped inside the dough. Each fold encourages gluten strands to align and bond. By the fourth set, that extensible, slightly tacky texture is your dough telling you the structure is there.
SHAPE & ROAST
Want to dial in this recipe? Use the free DoughRise Hydration Calculator to calculate exactly the right ratios for your flour and batch size.
Happy baking! Find everything you need at doughrise.store
Photo by David Todd McCarty on Unsplash
