Sourdough Pizza Pockets – Simple Sourdough Recipe

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Sourdough pizza pockets are simple and easy to make and are great for when you’re on the go.  They can be stuffed with lots of different fillings and can be a great way to use up leftover meat or veggies in your refrigerator.  The sourdough portion of these sourdough pizza pockets can be made the night before or even several days ahead of time and placed in the refrigerator to long ferment which increases the health benefits of the dough.  Having the dough made ahead of time means you can pull it out, put some leftover meat and veggies into these little pockets and bake them fresh for a quick and easy meal.  I suggest making a double, triple or even quadruple batch of the dough and baking up a bunch of these when you have a few extra minutes.  This way your freezer will be well stocked with fast lunches that are easy to grab and take with you when you’re on the go in the summertime, or for back-to-school time in the fall.

Quick And Easy Meals

Our family raises a big market garden every summer, so I am always on the lookout for quick and easy, yet healthy meal options during the summer.  My husband also works outside of the home, and packs a lunch everyday, and these sourdough pizza pockets are great to have in the freezer for those times when I don’t have anything to send him for lunch.  Keeping things like this in the freezer is important so we never have to rely on eating out even when we are busy and on the go.

Ways To Enjoy These Sourdough Pizza Pockets

We produce most all of our own food on our Nebraska homestead, and so we have a pantry that is always stocked with home canned pizza sauce, frozen hamburger or breakfast sausage and homemade cheese.  These sourdough pizza pockets are a great way to package up these homemade ingredients into a fun and delicious meal.  We also like to put broccoli from the garden and cheese made from our Jersey milk cows, or home canned sauerkraut and hamburger into these homemade pizza pockets.  They would also be really good with fresh mushrooms, spinach and some feta and parmesan cheese, or home canned chicken, alfredo sauce and spinach from the garden.  The sky is the limit!  We like to have family pizza nights once a week, and these are a nice variation on traditional pizza.  These would also be the perfect recipe for a pizza party to celebrate a birthday.

What is sourdough starter?

A sourdough starter is simply a fermented mix of flour and water that is used to make all kinds of baked goods.  Because it is a fermented food, it is very easy for your body to digest and is one of the most traditional and healthiest foods on the planet. 

Make Your Own Homemade Sourdough Starter

Here is my simple and easy method for making your own sourdough starter without a scale or any fancy equipment.

What is sourdough discard?  

Sourdough starter discard is fermented flour and water that has to be removed or discarded from your sourdough starter before you can feed your starter more flour and water.  It should never actually be thrown out (or discarded) though, because it can be used in hundreds of different recipes.  I always try to keep a fair amount of sourdough discard in a jar in my refrigerator. That way anytime I want to make these sourdough discard pancakes or any other discard recipe, I can do so quickly.  Most recipes that call for sourdough discard rely on something else to actually “raise” the end product if applicable. In this case, we’re using baking powder and baking soda as the leavening agent to make the bread portion of these sourdough pizza pockets light and fluffy.

What are the health benefits of sourdough?

Anytime you add a fermented element like sourdough to a recipe, it becomes more nutritious because it contains live probiotics and good bacteria that help with gut health and digestion.  Gluten and phytic acid are naturally present in wheat, and are usually what is to blame for people not being able to digest gluten well.  When the grain is fermented through the sourdough process, the gluten and phytic acid are broken down, making it easier to digest.  A lot of people that struggle with gluten intolerance (not people with celiac), can digest food made with sourdough without any issue, especially if the recipe is allowed to sit out for a few hours and “long ferment”.   

In addition, phytic acid is an anti-nutrient that blocks absorption of the nutrients found in wheat. During the sourdough fermentation process, the phytic acid gets broken down and the nutrients are more bio-available to the body. This is why baking with sourdough is so important for our health.

Why You Will Love This Sourdough Recipe

Healthy – because of the addition of the sourdough to this recipe, these sourdough pizza pockets are nutritious and easy to digest.  I also like to flexibility of being able to make the dough ahead of time and allow it to long ferment.  I like to get several kinds of sourdough going at one time, and then let it all rest in the refrigerator ready to bake through the week as needed and time allows.

Quick and easy

When you need quick and easy meals, these sourdough pizza pockets are just the thing to have in your freezer.  If you don’t have time to make the dough ahead of time, and long ferment it, you can always just mix them up quickly and bake right away. 

Endless variations

There are endless variations of things you can put into these sourdough pizza pockets.  You could even fill them with breakfast or dessert fillings for camping trips or vacation time with family.

Freezes Well

These sourdough pizza pockets freeze really well.  Just wrap them in plastic wrap or put them into a quart freezer bag, label and put directly into the freezer.  They will store in the freezer for up to 3 months.

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Tips

If possible, make your dough ahead of time and allow it to long ferment.  You can also make your filling ahead of time as well.

Use leftover meat and veggies from your refrigerator as fillings for these pizza pockets.

Double or triple the batch of dough so you can make extras for the freezer.

Roll out the whole batch of dough into a large rectangle and spread the filling ingredients onto the dough like you would for cinnamon rolls.  Roll up and cut like cinnamon rolls.  This is an easy way to make sourdough pizza rolls.

​Place the seam underneath each sourdough pizza pocket, so it looks more like a stuffed hamburger bun, and you will have sourdough pizza bombs.

Be sure to check out some of our favorite sourdough recipes here.

Supplies You May Need

Bosch Mixer

​Measuring Cups and Spoons

​Rolling Pin

Baking Sheet

Parchment Paper

Pastry Brush

Ingredients

Sourdough starter – can be active sourdough starter or sourdough discard from your refrigerator.

Mlik – I like to use buttermilk, but regular milk is fine too

Butter – I use fresh butter from our Jersey cows

Sugar – you can use cane sugar or honey

Eggs – farm fresh eggs are best

Salt – redmond salt is my favorite as it has a lot of additional minerals that are good for you

All purpose flour or bread flour – I like to buy this flour in bulk from Azure Standard

Baking soda

Baking powder

Filling options:  homemade pizza sauce or tomato sauce, meat, cheese, veggies, etc.

How To Make Sourdough Pizza Pockets

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine milk, sourdough starter, butter, sugar and eggs.  Mix well using the dough hook attachment.

Add salt, flour, baking soda and baking powder.  Mix for 5-7 minutes.

Wrap ball of dough in plastic wrap or place in an airtight bowl and allow to ferment at room temperature overnight, or in the refrigerator for up to a week.

The next morning, or when you’re ready to bake the sourdough pizza pockets, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Divide dough into 8 equal pieces. 

On a lightly floured surface, roll each dough ball into a circle using a rolling pin.

Mix up filling ingredients.  If browning the meat fresh and not using leftovers, I like to cook it in a cast iron skillet.  Then add my other ingredients right into the same pan.

Some of our favorite combinations are:

Hamburger or sausage, pizza sauce, fresh basil and fresh mozzarella cheese.  Can also add pineapple zucchini, olives, mushrooms or onions.

Spinach, mushrooms and feta cheese

Home canned sauerkraut, hamburger and cheese

Home canned chicken, alfredo sauce, mushroom and spinach

The next step is to place approximately ½ cup of filling into the center of each dough circle.

Fold dough in half and pinch the edges closed.

In a small bowl, beat an egg with a fork and then brush the tops of the pizza pockets with the egg wash using a pastry brush.  This will give them a beautiful glossy finish once baked.

Place on a sheet of parchment paper and bake on a baking sheet or place on a preheated pizza stone using a pizza peel.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

Enjoy fresh, or allow to cool and place in quart ziplock bags and put in the freezer.  Will keep in the freezer for up to 3 months.

To thaw 

Place on a cookie sheet in the oven and bake until warmed through.  

Microwave for 1-2 minutes until warmed through

If it’s a warm day and we’re out and about, we will sometimes put these on the dash of our vehicle to thaw and warm while we’re working.

I hope you enjoy these sourdough pizza pockets as much as we do.  Learning how to eat healthy and nourishing food even during busy seasons is a worthy pursuit, and one we are here to help you with.  Thanks for following along as we share more about modern homesteading and how to grow a simple, sustainable life.

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