A sourdough pizza dough can ferment overnight on the counter, and the dial that makes it fit the night is the amount of levain. In a 20 °C (68 °F) kitchen, about 15% levain fills a 12-hour night if you ball the dough before bed, by the pizza calculator's model; for a 10-hour night of bulk alone at 18 °C (64 °F) it is about 16%. Recipes for an overnight sourdough pizza dough use anything from a few percent of levain to a quarter of the flour weight, and most say nothing about the kitchen temperature, which matters more. This guide gives the model's levain amount for an 8-, 10- or 12-hour night at 18–26 °C (64–79 °F), for the two ways of doing it. The numbers are predictions; the dough decides.
Two ways to take the dough through the night
- Bulk overnight, balls in the morning. Mix in the evening, let the dough rise in one piece while you sleep, divide and ball it in the morning. The balls then rest at room temperature for a few hours, or go into the fridge until the evening. This is the usual plan for pizza at dinner the next day.
- Balls before bed. Mix in the evening, divide and ball the dough before bed, before the bulk has reached its full rise, and bake in the morning or at lunch. The night is bulk plus balls, so the dough has to move faster: it needs more levain than a bulk-only night of the same length. In the table below the night is the hours from mixing to baking.
The levain is counted the way the pizza dough calculator counts it: ripe levain at 100% hydration as a percentage of the flour you add, built 1 part starter to 2 parts flour and 2 parts water and used at its peak. By the model a 1:2:2 levain takes about 5½ h to peak at 22 °C (72 °F) and about 6½ h at 20 °C (68 °F), so for a 7 p.m. mix feed the starter around noon or a little after. The end of bulk is a rise of about 50–75%, domed and bubbly; the balls are ready when they have roughly doubled and look airy, and the dent from a floured fingertip fills back in slowly.
Bulk overnight, balls in the morning
When only the bulk happens at night, the arithmetic is the one in overnight bulk fermentation for sourdough: the pizza dough is a lean dough and the model is the same, so that guide's table (it calls the levain "starter") applies to pizza too. For a 10-hour night in an 18 °C (64 °F) kitchen the model predicts about 16% levain; for a 12-hour night at 16 °C (61 °F), about 16%. At 20 °C (68 °F) a bulk-only night fits up to about 10 hours: about 17% for 8 hours, about 10% (check early) for 10. A 12-hour bulk there would need about 6%, below the 10% under which the calculator warns that the model extrapolates, so it cannot time that night reliably. At 22 °C (72 °F) only an 8-hour night fits, at about 10%. For a longer night or a warmer kitchen, ball before bed instead (next section), or do the bulk in the evening and let the fridge take the night (sourdough vs yeast pizza dough covers holding the balls in the fridge).
In the morning, divide and ball the dough. The model's rule for the balls at room temperature is half the bulk time, calculated with at least 20% levain, and no less than 2 hours so the gluten relaxes enough to stretch: about 3¾ h at 20 °C (68 °F), about 2½ h at 24 °C (75 °F). It is a rule of thumb, not a pizza model; start checking after about two-thirds of that time. For pizza in the evening, put the balls in the fridge (about 4 °C, 39 °F) as soon as they pass the poke test and take them out about 2 hours before baking, as the calculator plans; the cold hold itself is not modeled.
Balls before bed
Here the night is bulk plus balls, and the table gives the levain amount the model predicts for the two together to take 8, 10 or 12 hours from mixing to baking, by the temperature the kitchen holds overnight. The split follows the calculator's rules: bulk to a 50–75% rise, then balls for half the bulk time (calculated with at least 20% levain, no less than 2 hours).
| Kitchen overnight | 8-hour night | 10-hour night | 12-hour night |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18 °C (64 °F) | over 30% | over 30% | about 27% (extrapolated) |
| 20 °C (68 °F) | over 30% | about 26% (extrapolated) | about 15% |
| 22 °C (72 °F) | about 28% (extrapolated) | about 14% | below 10% (see below) |
| 24 °C (75 °F) | about 16% | below 10% (see below) | below 10% (see below) |
| 26 °C (79 °F) | below 10% (see below) | below 10% (see below) | below 10% (see below) |
Read it this way: in a 20 °C (68 °F) kitchen, a 12-hour night asks for about 15% levain. The model predicts about 8¼ h of bulk and then about 3¾ h as balls, so for a dough mixed at 7 p.m. the model's clock would ball it at about 3 a.m. In practice you ball the dough at bedtime, before the model's bulk ends; the table only says whether the night as a whole is long enough. As common practice, not a model prediction, a dough balled early finishes more slowly as balls, so check them as soon as you are up (from about 5 a.m. in this example, with the model's clock running to 7 a.m.). At 22 °C (72 °F) a 10-hour night asks for about 14%, and a 12-hour night about 8%, below the 10% under which the calculator warns that the model extrapolates (the fit covers 5–20% but matches best at 10–20%). At 24 °C (75 °F) only an 8-hour night fits, at about 16%.
The model's levain term is fitted to test doughs with 5–20% levain at 19–23 °C (66–73 °F) (The Sourdough Journey, bulk fermentation timetables), and it matches that data best at 10–20%. "Extrapolated" marks amounts above 20%, and the 18 °C (64 °F) and 24–26 °C (75–79 °F) rows are outside the test doughs' temperatures, so treat them as extrapolation too and check early. The pizza calculator accepts up to 40% levain, but like the overnight bulk guide this table stops quoting amounts above 30%: "over 30%" means the kitchen is too cold for that night. Give it a longer night (mix earlier) or a warmer spot. "Below 10%" means the kitchen is too warm for a night that long: shorten the night, or use the fridge.
The downside of balling before bed is that the balls finish while you sleep, so you cannot stop them at the right moment. In the morning, look before you bake: ready balls are domed, with small bubbles under the skin, and the dent from a gentle poke fills back in slowly. Balls that have spread wide and flat, with large bubbles on top and a sharp sour or alcohol smell, have gone too far. To rescue them (common practice, not a model prediction), do not re-ball them: chill them as they are, covered, for 30–60 minutes so they firm up, then lift each one with a floured scraper and stretch it gently on a well-floured counter. Expect a flatter pizza with a lower rim and less oven spring. If you do re-ball them, give them 1–2 hours at room temperature to relax before stretching.
What the levain does to the bulk
With 20% levain in a 22 °C (72 °F) kitchen the model predicts about 6 h of bulk, and with 10% about 8 h: half the levain makes bulk about a third longer, not twice as long. That is why the levain amount can stretch a bulk by a few hours but cannot turn a warm kitchen into an overnight one; the temperature does far more. How much starter in sourdough explains the convention and the model's levain term, and sourdough vs yeast pizza dough gives the same-day timings, including when to feed the starter so the levain peaks when you want to mix.
The kitchen overnight
The table assumes the room holds one temperature all night. Kitchens cool after midnight, especially in winter, so a dough that starts in a 22 °C (72 °F) kitchen may spend most of the night at 19 °C (66 °F). Measure the temperature where the tub sits, during the night if you can, and use that rather than the evening reading. A cooler night slows the dough and gives you margin in the morning; a kitchen that stays warm, or a tub left near a heat vent or radiator, does the opposite.
For a dough that has to be ready at a fixed time regardless of the weather, the fridge is the more forgiving plan: bulk in the evening at room temperature, ball, then hold the balls cold until about 2 hours before baking. The calculator's model does not cover sourdough in the fridge, so judge the balls by eye, as described in sourdough vs yeast pizza dough. For food-safety sources on dough left out overnight, see can pizza dough sit out overnight; that guide is about yeast dough, and the official guidance it cites does not depend on the leavening.
Plan it with the calculator
In sourdough mode, the pizza dough calculator takes your levain percentage and room temperature and gives the levain's peak time, the bulk and the time for the balls, with the grams for your number of pizzas. It works forward from the levain amount; the table above runs the same rules backward from the night you have. Put the amount from the table into the calculator and it lays out the evening for you, from feeding the starter to balling the dough.