All we ask is you give us a review, tell us what's good or bad, so we know what you really think, to help improve our service to you!
DOUGHRISEFOUNDERS
Baking Tips
6 min read
Spiced Lamb & Roasted Red Pepper Sourdough Pizza
A winter sourdough pizza recipe topped with spiced lamb, roasted red peppers and whipped feta. Long-fermented dough, big flavour, proper technique.
a person holding a thermometer in front of a fireFebruary is a funny month for baking. The nights are still long, the heating is cranked up, and honestly there is no better time to be making sourdough pizza at home. This spiced lamb and roasted red pepper sourdough pizza is the kind of thing you throw together on a Saturday when you want something a bit more interesting than your usual margherita, but you are not looking to spend the whole day in the kitchen stressing about it.
Why Sourdough Pizza in Winter?
There is a logic to making sourdough pizza in the colder months that goes beyond just wanting something warming to eat. Your kitchen temperature in February sits somewhere around 18 to 19 degrees if you are not running the heating constantly, which is actually close to ideal for a long, slow bulk ferment. The dough develops properly without racing ahead of you, and you get that slightly complex, mildly tangy base that makes sourdough pizza genuinely different to anything you can knock out with instant yeast on a weeknight.
The topping here is inspired loosely by lahmacun, the Turkish flatbread topped with spiced minced lamb. It works brilliantly on a sourdough base because the fat from the lamb keeps things moist in the oven, and the spices (cumin, smoked paprika, a little cinnamon) cut right through the gentle acidity of the dough. Roasted red peppers add sweetness, a dollop of whipped feta at the end brings creaminess, and a handful of fresh mint finishes it off. It sounds like a lot but it comes together properly fast once your dough is ready.
Ingredients
For the Sourdough Pizza Dough
- 300g (about 2 cups plus 2 tbsp) strong white bread flour
- 200g (scant 1.5 cups) 00 flour
- 330g (1.5 cups) water, lukewarm
- 100g (about 7 tbsp) active sourdough starter, at peak
- 10g (2 tsp) fine sea salt
- 1 tbsp olive oil
For the Spiced Lamb Topping
- 250g lamb mince
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 0.5 tsp ground cinnamon
- 0.5 tsp dried chilli flakes
- 2 garlic cloves, finely grated
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- Salt and black pepper to taste
For the Rest
- 2 roasted red peppers from a jar, sliced
- 150g feta cheese
- 3 tbsp full-fat yoghurt
- A handful of fresh mint leaves
- A drizzle of good olive oil to finish
- Semolina or fine polenta for dusting your peel or tray
Method
- Make the dough. Combine both flours in a large bowl. Mix the water and active sourdough starter together in a separate jug, then pour into the flour and mix until no dry flour remains. Cover and leave to rest for 45 minutes. This short rest does a lot of the structural work for you before you even touch the dough again.
- Add the salt and oil. Sprinkle the salt over the dough, then add the olive oil. Squeeze and fold the dough repeatedly until both are fully incorporated. It will feel a bit slippery at first; just keep going for two or three minutes until it comes back together.
- Bulk ferment. Cover the bowl and leave at room temperature (18 to 20 degrees is ideal) for around 6 to 7 hours. During the first two hours, perform a set of stretch and folds every 30 minutes (four sets total). After that, leave it alone and let the fermentation do its thing. If you are doing this on a Saturday morning, it lines up nicely for an early evening bake.
- Divide and cold retard. Once the dough has roughly doubled and looks bubbly and alive, tip it onto an unfloured surface and divide into two equal balls. Shape each ball gently by tucking the edges under, then place them in lightly oiled containers or on a floured tray covered tightly with cling film. Pop them in the fridge for at least one hour (or overnight if you are planning ahead).
- Prepare the lamb topping. Combine the lamb mince with the spices, grated garlic, tomato paste, salt and pepper. Mix well and set aside. You want this raw and loose so it can cook directly on the pizza in the oven rather than being pre-cooked. Trust the process here.
- Make the whipped feta. Blitz the feta and yoghurt together in a small food processor until smooth and creamy. Taste and season if needed. This keeps in the fridge for a few days so you can make it ahead.
- Get your oven as hot as it will go. Put a baking stone or heavy baking tray on the top shelf and let it heat for at least 45 minutes. You want 250 to 270 degrees Celsius if your oven can manage it. A cold steel or stone is the enemy of a good pizza base.
- Shape and top. Take a dough ball out of the fridge 30 minutes before you plan to bake. Dust your work surface generously with semolina and stretch the dough out by hand to roughly 28 to 30 centimetres. Do not use a rolling pin; work from the centre outwards, letting gravity help. Transfer to a semolina-dusted peel or the back of a flat baking sheet. Scatter the raw spiced lamb mixture over the base in small nuggets, then add the sliced peppers.
- Bake. Slide the pizza onto your preheated stone or tray and bake for 10 to 12 minutes until the crust is deeply golden at the edges and the lamb is cooked through and slightly caramelised in places. The base should have some char on the bottom when you lift a corner with a palette knife.
- Finish and serve. Dollop the whipped feta over the hot pizza, scatter over the fresh mint, and finish with a good drizzle of olive oil. Eat immediately.
Baker's Tips
- Your starter matters more than anything else here. A sluggish or underfed starter in winter will give you a dense, flavourless base. Feed your starter 6 to 8 hours before mixing the dough and only use it when it is at peak activity (domed on top, full of bubbles, and passing the float test). If you are starting from scratch or your starter has been neglected, the DoughRise Classic Sourdough Starter is worth having to hand as a reliable, active base.
- Do not skip the cold retard. That hour (or overnight) in the fridge after balling your dough makes the pizza significantly easier to shape and gives the gluten time to relax. A freshly balled dough at room temperature will spring back every time you try to stretch it. Cold dough is your friend.
- Raw lamb on pizza sounds alarming but it works perfectly. The key is spreading it in small pieces rather than a solid layer. Thin coverage means it cooks all the way through in 10 to 12 minutes at high heat. If you pile it on thick, you will end up with a soggy middle. Less is more.
Go Make It
This is the kind of pizza that earns you a bit of a reputation. The sourdough base has real character, the lamb topping is genuinely interesting, and the whipped feta and mint at the end lifts the whole thing somewhere a bit unexpected. It is a great one to make when you have a mate coming over on a Sunday and you want to cook something that feels considered without it being a whole production. Pull two cold beers out of the fridge, crank up some music, and enjoy the fact that you made this from scratch. That is what baking is supposed to feel like.
Happy baking! Find everything you need at doughrise.store
Photo by James Hardman on Unsplash