Quick Kefir Pizza Dough Without Yeast, Ready in 10 Minutes
This simple, super-quick kefir pizza dough is a practically foolproof way to get lunch or dinner on the table in half an hour. Lots of people make pizza at home with their favorite recipes. As a rule, the toppings depend on what's in the fridge. Less often, you want to make something special, and then it's off to the store for ingredients.
For some reason, people think the hardest part of making pizza is the dough. Not at all: it's hardly any trouble and needs minimal hands-on time. A simple yeast dough, despite the rising time, always works, and you can make it fluffy, thin, soft, crispy and so on. I've been using it in my home cooking for many years and recommend it to everyone.
So-called yeast-free dough, which is used quite often, is actually made with a “starter” or “mother dough.” To make the starter, brewer's yeast or “wild” yeast is used. There are simpler and quicker doughs too: they can be made with baking powder, cultured dairy or a combination of both. Then making the dough and adding the toppings takes only 10 minutes.
If you just mix flour and water, the dough comes out fairly tough and isn't great for pizza. Usually, adding vegetable oil to the dough keeps it somewhat tender. But even then it won't be really soft. You need simple ingredients that “lift” the dough and make it fluffy and soft. If you don't want to use yeast, cultured dairy and baking powder can handle the job just fine.
The most important thing is that the kefir shouldn't taste sharply sour, or the dough will taste the same. You can buy fairly thin, low-fat kefir with a neutral taste; taste it beforehand and decide. You can also use homemade clabbered milk.
For a better kefir pizza crust, add baking powder. As a rule, it's a precisely measured mix of citric acid with bicarbonate or ammonium. Don't use baking soda: it's very hard to get the amount right, and the baked dough ends up tasting of soda. Just mix all the ingredients and knead a soft dough right away. It takes only a few minutes. Adding the toppings is quick too. The pizza bakes for 20-25 minutes. So a tasty pizza in 30-40 minutes is no fantasy.
Ingredients
one 22 cm pizza
- Wheat flour 1 1/2 cups
- Low-fat kefir 100 ml
- Baking powder as needed
- Salt 1 pinch
- Cheese, tomato sauce, herbs, tomatoes, olives, capers, sliced cured meats, mushrooms and so on for the topping
Step-by-step recipe
- Since kefir pizza dough comes together fast, in just a few minutes, get all the ingredients ready at once. Sift the wheat flour and pour half a cup of kefir, ideally at room temperature. Choose the amount of baking powder based on the package directions; it usually says how much flour a sachet is meant for. My baking powder came in sachets for 500 g of flour, and I used about a quarter. By the way, if the sachet has been open for a long time, better throw it out and use a fresh one.
- Get everything for the toppings ready in advance and turn on the oven: it needs to heat to 180°C. Put 1 cup of flour in a bowl (the rest is for adjusting the consistency while kneading), and add a pinch of fine salt and the baking powder. Mix the dry ingredients well with a fork. Pour 1-1 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil into the kefir, either olive or odorless sunflower oil. Whisk it with a fork and pour it into the bowl with the flour.
- Knead a soft dough, making sure all the ingredients are evenly mixed. The dough should be as soft as possible, right on the verge of sticking to your hands. Add flour as needed. You can knead it on the counter or right in the bowl. Right away, without wasting time, put the dough into an oiled pan and stretch it all the way to the edges, forming a thicker rim.
- This amount of dough is enough for a pizza 20-22 cm in diameter. That's a small pizza for one. If you want to make a larger pizza, scale the ingredients up proportionally. At home I make 22 cm or 34 cm pizzas. The larger one has more than twice the area. But as a rule, for a big pizza I make the dough with two cups of flour.
- All that's left is to top the dough and bake the pizza. I'd guess almost every fridge has tomato sauce or ketchup: spread a little on the dough. Add slices of cheese (mozzarella, any blue cheese), olives, a few green onions and a pinch of dried oregano. If you have tomatoes, add a few thin slices. Pizza is especially good sprinkled with a little grated Parmesan. But the toppings are entirely up to you.
- Pizza with this dough bakes in 20-25 minutes. As it bakes, the dough rises well and turns soft and fluffy, which you can clearly see at the rim. To check if it's done, lift the edge of the pizza with the tip of a knife: if the bottom has started to brown, the pizza is ready. Take it out of the oven and transfer it to a board or large flat plate. Cut the pizza into slices and scatter a few arugula or basil leaves on top.
Serves: one 22 cm pizza Calories: 300 Prep: 5 mins Cook: 5 mins Total: 10 mins Category: Pizza Cuisine: European Rating: