Quick Kefir Pizza Dough
Ingredients
1 pizza, 22 cm
- For the dough
- Wheat flour 1½ cups (195 g)
- Low-fat kefir 100 ml (½ cup)
- Vegetable oil (olive or odorless sunflower) 1–1½ tbsp, plus a little for the pan
- Baking powder as the package directs
- Salt 1 pinch
- For the topping
- Tomato sauce or ketchup a little
- Cheese (mozzarella, blue cheese), Parmesan to taste
- Tomatoes, olives, capers, green onions, dried oregano to taste
- Sliced cured meats, mushrooms optional
- Arugula or basil for serving
Step-by-step recipe
Getting ready
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 (100 ml), 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.
The dough
Put 1 cup of flour (130 g) in a bowl (the rest is for adjusting the consistency while kneading). Add a pinch of fine salt and the baking powder. Mix the dry ingredients well with a fork.
Pour 1–1½ 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 (260 g).
Topping and baking
All that’s left is to top the dough and bake the pizza.
Spread a little tomato sauce or ketchup on the dough, just a little. I’d guess almost every fridge has one or the other.
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.
Bake the pizza for 20–25 minutes. As it bakes, the dough rises well and becomes soft and fluffy; you can see it in the rim.
Check doneness by lifting the edge of the pizza with the tip of a knife: if the bottom has started to brown, the pizza is done. Take it out of the oven and move it to a board or a large flat plate.
Cut the pizza into slices with a knife and scatter a few arugula or basil leaves on top.
Calories and macros
279 kcal
100 g
- Protein7.1 g11% of kcal
- Fat6.2 g21% of kcal
- Carbs46.2 g69% of kcal
Calculated from the recipe ingredients, excluding salt and spices. Data: USDA and Matvaretabellen.
To Get It Right
Which kefir to use
Above all, the kefir for pizza shouldn’t taste sharply sour, or the dough will taste the same. Fairly thin, low-fat kefir with a neutral taste is best; taste it beforehand.
Baking powder, not baking soda
Don’t use baking soda for pizza: it’s very hard to get the amount right, and the baked dough ends up tasting of soda. Store-bought baking powder is a precisely measured mix, so check the package for the amount.
Don’t wait
Kefir pizza dough doesn’t need to rest: right after kneading it goes into the pan, gets its toppings and goes into the oven. That’s why you turn the oven on in advance.
In a gas oven
Kefir pizza works just fine in a gas oven too: that’s exactly how I bake it myself.
Have your own trick for this recipe?
Questions and answers
How long to bake kefir pizza in the oven?
20–25 minutes in an oven heated to 180°C. Check doneness by lifting the edge of the pizza with a knife: if the bottom has started to brown, it’s ready.
Does kefir pizza dough need yeast?
No, this dough is yeast-free: kefir and baking powder make it rise. I also have a simple yeast pizza dough, but it needs time to rise.
How to make kefir pizza dough soft and fluffy?
Knead the softest dough you can, right on the verge of sticking to your hands, and add flour a little at a time, only as needed. Use fresh baking powder: in the oven the dough rises well and turns fluffy, which you can see in the rim.
What size pizza is this dough for?
One small pizza, 20–22 cm. For a large 34 cm pizza I make the dough with two cups of flour (260 g) and scale up the rest proportionally.
What can I use instead of kefir in pizza dough?
Homemade clabbered milk works.