When I teach sourdough bread baking classes in my home in east London, the day is broken up with crumpets and waffles for breakfast, and pizza and wine for lunch. Without question, everyone’s favourite pizza is always my signature white pie with brown butter mushrooms, sage and Stilton. It’s wonderfully garlicky, rich and savoury, with an incomparable nuttiness from the blue cheese bronzed under the grill.  

 

So to celebrate the spring arrival of one of my favourite vegetables, Jersey Royal potatoes, I thought I’d give away my secrets to making this pie, swapping out mushrooms for these wonderfully buttery little ‘taters, whose short season begins now and ends in June, and so, just like with British asparagus and forced rhubarb, the rule is that we must eat them at least four times a day. Ideally five. 

 

The gloriously creamy potatoes pair beautifully with the caramelised cheese and onion on this pizza, and the pumpkin seeds and oil give it a further richness and crunch that makes is supremely savoury and utterly moreish. I challenge you not to want a second pizza after devouring your first. With that in mind, you should probably double your dough. (PS. It keeps well in the freezer if frozen after the first proof, or immediately after the balling stage.) 

 

To make these sourdough bases you need a healthy sourdough starter and a decent understanding of how to make sourdough; you can learn all this by subscribing to my online cooking school @themuffkitchen 

 

Makes 5 individual pizzas 

Cooking time: 20 mins 

Prep: 30 mins  

Prep and proofing time for dough: At least one full day and night 

 

Sourdough pizza dough 

200g sourdough levain, at peak 

500g 00 flour / strong white bread flour 

300-350g water, depending on your sourdough skills (less if you’re a beginner, more if you’re a pro) 

15g sea salt 

 

Toppings 

20 Jersey Royal potatoes 

1 red onion 

250g Stilton 

300g crème fraiche  

3-4 cloves of garlic 

A big fistful of pumpkin seeds 

15 or so sage leaves 

Parmesan 

Olive oil 

Salt 

Pepper 

Vegetable oil 

 

 

Method 

To make dough, a day before you want pizza: 

• Mix all ingredients into a shaggy mess, by hand or in a mixer, making sure all the flour is hydrated. It will still be quite wet but not sloppy. Cover and leave for 30 mins 

• Carry out stretch and folds / coil folds on your dough roughly every 45 mins for 4-6 hours (time depends on the power of your starter and the temperature of your house), tightening up the dough and increasing tension until it is poofy and aerated, smooth and taut 
• Put into a lidded Tupperware with room for growth and leave in the fridge overnight 
• The next day, portion the dough into 5 equal pieces (roughly 260g each), roll into tight smooth balls, and lay on a flour-dusted baking tray, spaced well apart. Dust with flour, cover tray tightly with a tea towel or cling film, ideally not touching balls, and leave for 3-4 hours, depending on how warm your house is (less if it’s warm) to relax 
• Start prepping your toppings 

To make toppings: 

• Wash Jersey Royals well (scrub if muddy), place in a saucepan of cold salty water, bring to boil and boil for 3 minutes, rinse under cold water and, once cool, slice into wide chunky slices 
• Finely slice onion and fry in olive oil, salt and pepper until caramelised – at least 10 mins 
• Grate garlic into crème fraiche and mix with a big glug of olive oil, salt and pepper – it should be the consistency of yoghurt and taste wonderful 
• Toast pumpkin seeds in a pan with a little olive oil, salt and pepper until popping 

 

To cook pizzas 

• Heat your oven grill to 300C and put a pizza stone or baking tray very near the top  
• Heat a drop or two of sunflower oil in a large cast iron pan, mine is 30cm diameter, medium high 
• Dust a work surface near the pan with flour, lift one pizza ball onto it, then flatten and stretch it out, from the middle out, leaving the edges puffy, until it is large and round and slightly bigger than the base of the pan (it will shrink back when hot) 
• Carefully lift the dough onto the pan so it covers the bottom 

• Spread a spoonful of crème fraiche thin on the base of the pizza, top with a few onions, four sliced potatoes, a crumble of Stilton, a few sage leaves, a good grating of parmesan and a drizzle of pumpkin seed oil 
• Once bubbly around the edges and charred on the bottom, carefully transfer the pizza to the oven and cook for 3 mins or so, until bubbles are charred. WATCH CAREFULLY. How quick this happens will depend hugely on your grill. You want the bubbles to be black but the rest of the dough still pale golden. 
• Remove from oven and leave for a minute before slicing 
• Repeat with next pie