Pizza Dough Without Yeast: Quick Baking Powder Recipe
When you make pizza at home, the dough is probably the most time-consuming step. But a simple yeast-free pizza dough made with water cuts the time down to a minimum. Basically, the base is ready by the time the oven heats up. All that's left is to spread it with sauce, add the toppings and put it in to bake.
The vast majority of yeast-free pizza dough recipes talk about a “starter”. It's not as simple as it may seem, and if you look into it, the dough rises thanks to biological processes: alcoholic and lactic acid fermentation. You can make a starter yourself or buy a ready-made powder at the store.
A homemade starter takes several days, and the dough rises thanks to lactic acid bacteria together with so-called “wild” yeast. So calling that dough yeast-free is quite a stretch. In Italy they most often knead a natural sourdough, lievito naturale, into the flour; it's essentially a starter, often with some brewer's yeast added.
When we make yeast-free pizza dough at home, we usually use baking powder, which you can buy in any store. It's made of baking soda and ammonium carbonate ground to a very fine powder, almost a dust, mixed with a precisely measured amount of food acid, citric or tartaric. There are versions with more complex formulas, “baker's” blends and so on, but the principle is the same.
First, the ingredients in it are precisely measured. That guarantees your baking won't taste of soda, ammonium or acid. Second, your baking will turn out fluffy, bake through nicely and get a crisp crust. And don't add baking soda slaked with vinegar; it's completely pointless.
In the recipe I've given the ingredients per 1 kg of wheat flour. If you make more or less, scale everything proportionally. For a 36 cm pizza I use two cups of flour. For a 24 cm pizza one cup is plenty. In practice you end up using a little more flour, since it's added in small portions while kneading.
Ingredients
1.5 kg
- Wheat flour (farina) 1 kg
- Baking powder (check the amount of flour per packet) 1-2 packets
- Olive oil 2-3 tbsp
- Salt, sugar to taste
Step-by-step recipe
- Use the best, finely milled wheat flour you can get. It's great if you can buy Italian soft flour, labeled “Farina”: it makes a better, airier dough. Sift the flour into a bowl. Set aside 1 cup of flour to add while kneading. To the rest of the flour, add 0.5 tsp fine salt, 1 tsp sugar and the baking powder (fresh only!). Mix thoroughly so everything is evenly distributed.
- To knead the dough, you need to add water to the flour. As a rule, I add 80 ml of liquid per cup of dry flour. The dough starts out a little softer than it should be, slightly sticky. Then I bring it to the right consistency by adding small portions of flour. 1 kg of flour is a little over 7 cups by volume, so we go by a slightly smaller amount (allowing for the flour set aside for kneading). Add 450-480 ml of lukewarm water to the flour mixture.
- Knead the dough quickly. It will be very soft and a little sticky. Add dry flour in small portions and knead until completely smooth. As soon as it stops feeling sticky, you can stop adding flour. Knead until smooth, then put it in a bowl.
- Next, and this matters, knead in the olive oil. 2-3 tbsp is enough. If olive oil is hard to come by, use odorless sunflower oil. Knead very thoroughly until the oil is fully incorporated and you have a soft dough that stretches easily under its own weight. If you've ended up with a bit too much oil, add a little flour.
- You can stretch the dough onto a pizza pan right away. The dough has fat in it, but it's best to grease the pan lightly, with just 1 tsp vegetable oil. Put the dough in the pan and spread it evenly from edge to edge. It shapes and stretches very easily. If you have time, cover the pan with a cloth and leave it somewhere warm for up to 30 minutes; it will rise and bake up fluffier. Tip: if you like a thin, crispy pizza crust, don't wait. Spread the dough in the pan, add the sauce and toppings, and bake, keeping an eye on it.
- Meanwhile, turn on the oven and preheat it to 180°C. And, importantly, make the topping. Especially after work, I keep it simple: homemade tomato sauce, cheese, tomato, fresh basil and a little dried oregano. Spread the dough with sauce, add the cheese, thin slices of tomato and mozzarella if you have it, then sprinkle with dried oregano and finely grated cheese.
- Put the pan in the preheated oven. When we make pizza on yeast dough, it bakes for 20-25 minutes. Yeast-free dough takes a little longer, 30-40 minutes. Keep an eye on it so it bakes through without burning.
- Cut the finished pizza with a pizza wheel and top with fresh basil. The cut shows clearly that the dough has almost doubled in thickness; it's porous and soft. Frankly, without experience it's hard to tell yeast-free dough from yeast dough. One more thing: this pizza is best eaten right away rather than reheated. Eat it with your hands; I've never understood why pizza gets served with a knife and fork.
| Serves: | 1.5 kg |
| Calories: | 250 |
| Prep: | 5 mins |
| Cook: | 10 mins |
| Total: | 15 mins |
| Category: | Pizza |
| Cuisine: | Italian cuisine |
| Rating: |
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