Sourdough pizza crust with rye

I've been experimenting a bit with rye lately and the first thing I learned is that it has this weird quality that makes the dough very extensible, but not very elastic, right? So I was thinking to myself, where, oh where could I use that specific quality? And the first answer that came to my mind was Pizza! (The second idea is laminated dough, but I haven't had the chance to try it, I wonder if anyone has). 

I had already planned a pizza party with some friends and at the last minute decided to try that idea by adding 10% of rye flour to my pizza crust recipe. I had never done it with sourdough starter either. I don't make pizza very often, but I'm very happy with the results, I think this is my best attempt yet. They had a very nice oven spring, and the crust was crispy and golden, not super open crumb, but enough that it was really good and almost no edge leftovers, even with a rather picky and healthy audience! And as predicted, the dough balls were very easy to extend to make the pies very thin with a thicker edge. Needless to say, the flavor was great.

The formula was this: 

Levain:

112 grams of sourdough starter at 100% hidration (30% whole rye, 70% whole wheat)

140 grams whole rye flour

354 gr. plain white flour

504 gr. water

I originally calculated this to be ripe in about 12 hours but in the morning, about 8 hours later, it was already quite ripe, so I degassed it, and put it in the fridge for the remaining 4 hours until mixing the final dough.

Final dough:

Levain ..................1120 gr. (40% prefermented flour)

Bread flour ............840 gr.

Salt..........................35 gr. (2.5%)

Sugar.......................40 gr. (2.8%)

Water.......................448 gr.

Total flour: 1400 gr.

Total water/hidration: 1008 gr. (72%)

I mix the levain with the rest of the ingredients in the bowl for about 4 minutes, then let it rest. S&F at 30 and 60 minutes, and then let it rest for about 2.5 more hours. Then cut and shape 8 300gr. balls and let rest covered. The first one was made about 2.5 hours later, and the last one about 5 hours later and they all came out very good. I bake them on a stone at 230°C for 9-10 minutes. The last one was something like a dessert calzonne with pear, pineapple and blueberries.

Happy baking!

Pablo