15-Minute Pizza Dough Recipe (No Yeast) | Bigger Bolder Baking (2024)

FAQs

What happens if you don't add yeast to pizza dough? ›

No-yeast pizza dough does not go through a lot of kneading and rising, so it has a softer, fluffier, less chewy, and more bread-like texture. It's not super crispy, it does not make those big delicate bubbles on the edges, and it doesn't get very brown.

Baking powder: Without yeast, the pizza dough needs baking powder to rise. Salt: A pinch of salt enhances the flavor and strengthens the gluten.

The more gluten in the flour, the more elastic the dough, and the firmer the baked crust will be. Kneading the dough liberates starches that are attached to the proteins and allows the gluten to form networks that make the dough strong and stretchy. When you let the dough rest, the networks relax.

You can substitute yeast with equal parts lemon juice and baking soda. So if a recipe calls for 1 teaspoon of yeast, you can use half a teaspoon of lemon juice and half a teaspoon of baking soda.

In dough, salt slows down the activity of yeast somewhat by messing with a key enzyme. But, if salt as a dry ingredient contacts yeast as a dry ingredient, then salt can kill yeast. Other bone-dry ingredients like sugar can do the same.

Not Letting the Dough Rest

Proofing – which is the process of putting the dough aside and allowing it to rise – enables the yeast to leaven through fermentation, making the dough rise. Not allowing your dough to proof for long enough will result in a hard, dense and just plain gross pizza base.

If you want to successfully substitute the yeast called for in a recipe, you just need to swap in the right amount of baking soda and acid to make the dough rise. You can use lemon juice, buttermilk, or milk combined with an equal part of vinegar as your acid. Add all the ingredients according to the recipe.

If you don't proof the dough then you will get a crust which has very little rise and small air pockets. Some dough are like this though – think of flat bread and other unleavened bread which contains no yeast. The pizza will be quite dense and chewy if you make the crust thick.

“A few days' rise is fine and will enhance the taste of the crust, but any more than three days and the yeast will start to eat up all the sugar in the dough and convert it into alcohol, which will adversely affect crust flavor,” Schwartz said. Over-proofing is another consequence of resting your dough for too long.

Any pizza dough with a complex flavor has been slow-fermented. All this means is that the yeast it contains has had ample time to eat the simple sugars in the flour. The longer the yeast has had to feast – ideally 24 to 48 hours – the lighter and more flavorful the pizza dough will be.

Is it better to make dough with milk or water? ›

Using milk instead of water in your yeasted bread is an easy way to add a touch of sweetness, making it ideal for challah, dinner rolls, cinnamon rolls, and hot dog buns. Milk sugars not only add a hint of sweetness but also result in a softer, more uniform crumb and ensure a nicely browned crust.

Yes, milk will make your dough quite a bit softer. Also, if you use water to make your dough, you can do a long ferment with a small amount of yeast, but if you use milk, you probably wouldn't want to do that because the milk would sour. Try using both milk and water, in different combinations and see what you think.

You would enrich the dough with milk proteins and fat. You will need a bit more milk than the amount of water required (because of the milk solids). The dough will be softer, the crumb less open. You will have to bake it at lower temperatures than a lean bread.

Whole wheat pizza dough without yeast tends to make a crust that is thicker and crunchier, like a roti flatbread pizza. However, this no yeast all-purpose flour dough has a more traditional texture and taste. The crust is crisp on the outside and a bit chewy on the inside.

Yeast: The Essential Component

The yeast's activity creates a light, airy texture and adds flavor to the dough. Different types of yeast can affect how fast the dough rises and the final taste of your pizza.

Yeast is important in pizza dough because it helps leaven the dough and create air pockets, resulting in a light and airy crust. Yeast also contributes to the flavor of the crust through its fermentation process and by-products.

Just remember: the less yeast, the longer the rising time (and/or the warmer the rising temperature). Start by cutting the yeast in your recipe by 50 percent and if the results are reasonable, lower the amount even more next time.