Baking soda instead of yeast?

victor1

just curious has anyone ever substituted baking soda for yeast in pizza dough?  ran into a friend of mine earlier today (owns an Italian restaurant) and just suggested to give it a try.

Jstroke

Essentially you will make biscuits

HeavyG

I've not personally tried it but a friend does make bread using baking soda and lemon juice. Might work for a pizza dough.

http://www.livestrong.com/article/424419-how-to-replace-yeast-with-baking-soda-lemon-juice/

nolaegghead

Creates gas bubbles.  Like yeast does.  Can't taste the gas.  Might want to try baking powder, as it has both the acid and base components and they're water and heat activated.

DieselkW

Are you asking because you have no yeast?

Baking soda requires an acid to react with and make CO2. Buttermilk works, or milk with vinegar in it. Just use that instead of water.

Baking powder has that acid, but be sure to use the double acting type, that has a reaction due to mixing with water, as well as a heat activated reaction.

Pizza dough without yeast... I have no first hand experience with that, but you can expect it to work the same way cornbread works - I've never put yeast in cornbread and it always rises in the oven.

if I was out of yeast, I'd mix up some flour, sugar, and water and put it on the counter next to a bowl of fruit and wait for the wild yeast (it's everywhere) to start making bubbles. Use half of that in your pizza dough recipe and you might like it better than baking powder leavening.

Shiff

In case you are trying to limit your sodium intake, baking soda or powder are high in sodium (unless you buy the no-sodium versions).  I think the texture would be more like a cracker and less like pizza.