Authentic Italian Pizza Margherita with Brewer's Yeast Recipe
Introduction to my Pizza Margherita with Brewer's Yeast
This Pizza Margherita with Brewer's Yeast is quicker than the traditional Sourdough and is in the Neapolitan style (which means it is doughier and has a proper border; in Rome, the pizza is usually much thinner). Brewer Yeast is easier and faster to use, and the result is close enough to what you would get with the more challenging Sourdough.
Pizza Making seems easy—there are few ingredients and simple steps. However, everything must be executed perfectly to get it right, so please read the instructions and tips on this page carefully before you start. Your pizza Margherita with Brewer's Yeast will be as good as one from a pizzeria!
If this is your first time working with Yeast, keep reading before you start.
I believe it is essential to elaborate more on the preparation time (this point is valid for any recipe involving flour and yeast); the raising time is given by several factors, like the amount of yeast used, the environment temperature, and the result you want to achieve, and all of this is pure chemistry.
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Quick History of Pizza Margherita
Pizza Margherita with Brewer's Yeast is one of my favourites. It is the most famous Italian Pizza worldwide and one of the oldest. In 1889, the Neapolitan pizzamaker Raffaele Esposito made it in honour of Queen Margherita of Savoia and garnished it with tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil, representing the Italian flag.
Ingredients for Your Pizza Margherita with Brewer's Yeast
For the dough:
500gr of Caouto Pizzeria or Caputo Nuvola
300gr of Water (Better if from a bottle as Chlorine present in tap water negatively affects dough raising)
17gr of Extra Vergin Olive Oil
10gr of Sea salt
One teaspoon of Brewer Yeast powder (ca 4gr)
For the topping:
250gr of Passata (I use Passata Mutti)
300gr of Mozzarella (check the tips above)
A tablespoon of Extra Vergin Olive Oil
One pinch of salt
2 or 3 leaves of basils
Pizza Margherita with Brewer's Yeast Step by Step
Now, let's start making your Pizza margarita with Brewer's Yeast. You can make the dough by hand or with a dough-maker; remember that gluten takes 10/20 minutes to develop.
NOTE: When I mix it by hand, I mix it roughly and leave it to rest for 30' - 45' to allow the water to be absorbed by the dough and start the gluten production. Then, I return to complete the dough. This will save you a lot of effort.
Mix all the ingredients but the oil in a bowl and work the dough until it becomes elastic. This elasticity allows your pizza not to break when stretched before you cook it. It is due to the protein in the flour that turns into gluten when mixed with water.
NOTE: If you add the oil before this point, the flour will struggle to absorb the water.
Once this is done, add the oil and keep mixing until completely absorbed.
Put the dough on your kitchen table, making sure you have added a bit of flour so it doesn't stick and start working into a round; we call this process in Italian "Pirlatura" (I will try to make a video as soon as I have a moment), but basically, consists in standing and folding the dough (I usually fold it three times) and then with your hand make it into to a ball, this process helps to strengthen the dough and to start trapping the air inside, you will need this air when you prepare your pizza to be cooked :)
Then, you put the dough back in your bowl and cover it so it doesn't dry for a couple of hours; experience will help you understand if more or less time is needed - I usually check after 90' and go from there.
After this time, you put it back on your kitchen table to prepare the balls you need to make your Pizzas. With 500gr of flour, I usually get four large Pizzas or 6 Medium Pizzas. It's up to you to decide when it is time to divide your dough into 4, 5 or 6 parts, again make them into balls, and leave them raising for another hour or so covered with flour and under a kitchen towel or cling film (I use Plastic Pizza Tray, but you probably don't have them home, you will have to improvise a bit).
While waiting, you should prepare your pizza Margherita sauce; I make mine using the following ingredients.
Tomato Passata - I use Mutti Passata Gastronomia Baby Plum
Olive Oil Extra - I source mine from a friend, otherwise I would probably use EVO.
Sea Salt
Basil Leaves
Mix them all in a bowl with a wooden spoon and leave it to rest for at least one hour before using it.
Chop your mozzarella and turn on your oven to the Max (now, the stove is essential. If you haven't done it yet, please read the tips above, as you may need to adjust things accordingly).
Remember to turn on the oven early enough to get it as hot as possible for optimum result of this Pizza Margherita with Brewer's Yeast.
Now it's time to start assembling your Pizza Margherita.
First, gently take one of your Pizza Balls out and lay it on your well-floured Pizza Paddle (sorry, everything else is optional, but a Pizza Paddle is a must if you want to make more than one pizza). You can get them very cheaply from Amazon. I got a wooden one as I found it better than the metal one when you slide the pizza into the oven. Alternatively, you can put the pizza in a tray, but the risk is to get a soggy bottom if your oven is not hot enough.
NOTE:Â Make sure you put enough flour on your paddle. Your pizza needs to slide into the oven; if it gets stuck, it's a big problem, and you may have to throw it away.
How to stretch your Pizza Margherita Dough ball Before Moving it onto the Paddle or a Backing Tray
Go in the middle of it with your fingers' tip and push three times, moving up.
Then rotate your dough 90 degrees and push thrice, still moving up. This should create the border of your pizza and a depression in the middle of it.
Now, start enlarging the disc (there are different techniques to do that). The easiest one is lifting the pizza and rotating it, leaving gravity to do the work. But be careful; if you hold it for too long, the dough can break or become oblong, so try to move your hand evenly and at a constant speed to get a nice circle with its border.
Once this process is done, you should get something like this.
You can start adding the tomato, mozzarella, and basil, but try not to add too much tomato sauce or fresh mozzarella, as it will make your pizza heavy and difficult to manage. if your oven is not hot enough to dry the excess water, try mixing half-fresh and half-dry grated mozzarella.
Bake your Pizza Margherita
Becoming obsessed with the perfect Pizza, I bought myself a small professional pizza oven that reaches over 350-380 degrees and cooked my pizzas in 120 seconds max, but before I remember having to wait 7 or 8 minutes with my regular kitchen oven, this is something you will have to try and adjust depending on what do you need to work with.
If you have a standard kitchen oven, I recommend using a baking stone. If you don't, a baking tray would probably be better.
About Brewer's Yeast
Brewer's Yeast is a fast natural instant yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) that may be classed as top-cropping. This yeast is so-called because it forms a foam at the top of the wort during fermentation. This yeast ferments well at low temperatures and is way faster than sourdough yeast, giving your pizza a distinct flavour. It can be found both fresh and dehydrated (commonly in grains) and is very easy to use.
Fresh Brewer's Yeast: As the name suggests, this yeast is fresh and usually comes in cubes. Like any fresh thing, it has a not-too-far expiration date, so keep that in mind if you want to use it for your pizza.
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Dry Brewer Yeast can be found in small boxes and mono-dose sashes (which are convenient if you don't bake often). Once opened, yeast gradually loses its raising power; keeping them in the fridge helps, but only to a certain extent. I love Caputo's Products and buy their little Tin of beer's yeast, as it always works and doesn't require activation.
Here is a few helpful information before you start making your Pizza Margherita
The Right Ingredients for the Perfect Pizza
The quality of the Ingredients must be Excellent. At the end of the post, I will list what I have used for this recipe and where I obtained them.
Preparing your Pizza Dough
The flour and process of creating the pizza dough are the most critical parts of making a good pizza. You can do this by hand, using a Planetary Mixer or a dough mixer.
Each method has pros and cons that I will elaborate on in the TIPS and TRICKS section. Still, for now, it is essential to remember that the temperature of the Pizza Dough should never go higher than 28°C (82.4°F), or the structure of your pizza will not be elastic enough to support the rising.
You will end up with a flat and undercooked pizza. I will create a post about this point as it's quite a long topic, but if you're using a Mixer, I recommend using very cold water to keep the temperature of the Dough as low as possible.
Baking your Pizza
To bake an excellent Italian Pizza at Home, the oven has to be as hot as possible; a regular home oven reaches a top hit of 275°C (527°F), which is enough to cook your Pizza in about 7/8 minutes if helped with Backing Stone (This is the one I use). Turning the oven to max one hour before baking should give you enough hit to avoid soggy bottoms.
The Cheese for your Pizza Margherita is based on your tools
Mozzarella Cheese contains lots of water, and a home oven doesn't reach the heat of a Pizzeria one (averaging 380-450°C (716-842°F), enough to dry the Mozzarella water in excess.
If the water in the mozzarella is not dried while your pizza Margherita cooks, you will end up with a pond on top of it and a very soggy bottom,
To avoid this, you have a few different options:
Dry Mozzarella altogether (you can buy this from any supermarket in packs of 300 or 500gr or larger packs from Amazon, which is more cost-effective; I usually buy this and freeze it)
A mix of dry mozzarella and fresh mozzarella is available in any supermarket.
Fresh Mozzarella, but break it into pieces and leave it in a colander for a few hours to dry before use.