Roll over sourdough. Italian scientists develop a new way rise pizza crust

Air bubbles form in the dough when yeast is allowed to ferment the flour and water. Scientists in Naples are working on a new approach that does not rely on yeast.

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He says he has to hide because he will be covered with bumps and bubbles on the whole body.

Di Maio is a materials scientist at the University of Naples. He had to stop eating bread and pizza in Italy. Why are you eating pasta? That is strange.

When Paolo Iaccarino showed up to work on his PhD in Di Maio's lab, he revealed that he is a pizza maker at a legit pizzeria. He has made a lot of pizzas over the last several years.

Iaccarino was put to work on a project to make pizza dough without yeast. The results of the scientific andculinary experiment are in the Tuesday edition of the physics of fluids. Rossana is a chemical engineer who studies the flow of materials, including pizza dough. It needs to be elastic enough to be perfect when you eat it.

This tiny pizza, half the size of a penny, was made in a lab in Naples using a new approach for raising dough that doesn't involve yeast.

Ernesto Di Maio

David Hu, a physicist at Georgia Tech not involved in the research, says yeast eat the sugars in the dough. As they digest the sugar, they create bubbles because the dough traps the bubbles inside. The air bubbles are cooked into the dough, creating a light, heavenly texture.

A baked loaf of bread or a baked pizza is a cemetery of dead microorganisms, according to Francisco Migoya, head chef at Modernist Cuisine.

The Italian researchers had to get that same rise out of their pizza dough without yeast. Rossana Pasquino wanted to replicate the physical properties of regular dough in their yeast-free version. She got Iaccarino to make a pizza with a temperature sensor.

The breakthrough came when Di Maio thought to use pressurized gas to form bubbles in the dough and inflate it, an approach he had taken years to perfect. They used both carbon dioxide and helium.

A time lapse video of a yeast-free miniature pizza dough rising due to pressurized gas.

They turned to an oven called an autoclave, which is a pressurized oven used to kill dangerous organisms. The team placed their yeast-free dough into the autoclave and at the right time, temperature, and pressure, flooded it with the gas. The approach is similar to carbonating soda. As the scientists gradually released the pressure and added heat, the dough rose as it baked.

A pizza dough is about to be removed.

Ernesto Di Maio

A set of tiny pizzas were created because the autoclave they had on hand was small. The finished pizza doughs had an airy texture and the taste was similar to the yeast pizza, according to Ernesto Di Maio.

The complexity of the aromas, the flavors that you find, are just some of the things that Yeast does.

There is yeast in our environment. Even in dough where no commercial yeast is added, there is still a little bit of airborne yeast that will end up in it. When airborne yeast is encouraged to take up residence in the mixture, flour and water transform into sourdough starter.

Baking powder or baking soda can be used to create rise without yeast, but it is not a substitute for yeast.

The approach she and her colleagues have developed relies on a physical process, instead of a chemical Additive like baking powder. She thinks yeast-free pizza could be a time saver since one wouldn't need to wait for the dough to rise or proof. Since most of us don't have access to the specialized equipment needed to inflate the dough, this approach isn't ready for home bakers.

Paolo Iaccarino acknowledges that their dough isn't intended for the average pizza lover. It is an alternative for those with restrictions.

The researchers dream about using their method in a pizzeria. The next step is for them to make a 10-inch pizza. She admits that she will probably not be eating it. The problem is that it makes me fat. That could be the next challenge to overcome.