The Ingredient Substitute You Can't Forget For No-Yeast Pizza Dough

Pizza has become a staple and national comfort food with its cheesy goodness. Making it at home can be a fun experience, but it's also time-consuming, considering the 90 minutes you have to wait for the dough to rise. A flour tortilla is an easy swap for cracker-thin pizza crust, but if you want to make your dough from scratch, you can substitute the yeast in a simple classic pizza crust recipe to nix the wait time. Steve Chiappetti, executive chef at The Albert and Archive Lounge at Hotel EMC2 in Chicago, explained to Daily Meal how to use baking powder instead. The chef noted. "To make a no-yeast pizza dough, the most common substitutes for yeast would be baking powder or baking soda combined with an acid."

As a leavening agent, he said, baking powder releases carbon dioxide when it comes into contact with moisture and heat, making the dough puff up. "It provides an instant rise, unlike yeast, which needs time to ferment. This gives the dough lightness and chew without waiting for proofing," he clarified, adding, "You can mix it directly into the flour. I suggest 2 to 2½ teaspoons per 2 cups of flour." Essentially, this makes a self-rising flour.

If you use baking soda instead, Chiappetti says it's an alkaline you need to activate with an acid. "When mixed with an acid, it releases carbon dioxide gas that helps the dough rise quickly. It mimics yeast's leavening effect without fermentation, making it perfect for fast, yeast-free doughs." For every 2 cups of flour, add 1 teaspoon of baking soda and 5 ounces of yogurt or 1 teaspoon of lemon juice or vinegar.

Along with requiring time to activate, yeast can be an allergen for some people. Steve Chiappetti acknowledges that, while no-yeast pizza is a more dietary-friendly alternative, substituting baking powder or soda changes the texture of the dough. In fact, there are many reasons homemade pizza dough refuses to rise, such as the dough being at the wrong temperature or not having enough time to rise. In this case, though, the lack of yeast altogether makes more of a cracker-style (or tavern-style) pizza.

Explaining why the crust comes out crispier and firmer, Chiappetti says, "Without yeast fermentation, the dough doesn't develop the same airy bubbles, so the result is often also denser, with a crisp, biscuit-like or flatbread-like texture. Yeast contributes to gluten development and chewiness. Without it, the crust is usually more tender and less elastic. Unless you add a lot of baking powder, the crust won't puff up much." And, while it doesn't require the same amount of resting time as yeast and isn't absolutely mandatory, he suggests "allowing the dough to rest for a few minutes to relax the gluten so it will be easier to work with and easier to shape."

What's so great about this substitution, though, is that it's quick. Chiappetti added, "You can even have the kids help with the making and topping of the dough so each person can have their own personalized pizza."