The art of pizza making, a culinary tradition now celebrated globally, sees preferments as a valuable ally to enhance the quality and flavor of the dough. The use of a selected and high-quality pizza flour in combination is crucial when choosing pre-dough fermentation techniques. This article explores the world of biological yeast, with a focus on its applications in baking, particularly in pizza making, and delves into the science behind fermentation and the various types of preferments used to achieve optimal results.
Understanding Preferments: Biga and Poolish
Preferments are pre-fermented doughs that are added to the final dough mixture to improve flavor, texture, and shelf life. Two popular preferments in Italian baking are biga and poolish.
Biga: The Italian Approach to Fermentation
Traditionally used in Italy, biga is a low-hydration preferment (45%). It is ideal for use in a dough made with pizza flour that needs a long fermentation process to intensify the aromas, resulting in a pizza with a crispier crust. The biga should ferment at a temperature of 16-18°C (for bigas not exceeding 24 hours). To make biga, use type 0 or 00 pizza flour to which you will add the water where you have previously dissolved the brewer's yeast. It is important to dissolve the yeast because the kneading time (especially if done by hand) will be short and if we were to insert it directly into the flour, we would not be able to distribute it evenly. You must obtain a coarse dough, with all the water absorbed by the flour and without parts of dry flour, you must not form a glutinous mesh in this phase. The optimal closing temperature of the biga is 21°C (an optimal range is however between 20 and 22°C). To be sure to finish the biga at this temperature, it is useful to use a simple formula which is: 55 (value to be kept fixed) - T. Flour - T.
Poolish: A Touch of Polish Influence
Originating in Poland but later spreading to France, poolish, unlike biga, has a 100% hydration and a shorter fermentation period than biga. It gives the finished product a thin and fragrant crust.
Flexibility in Preferment Usage
It is important to note that there are no fixed quantities in the use of preferments; everything will depend on the final product you want to obtain.
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Lievito Madre: The Ancient Art of Natural Yeast
The sourdough, also known as "natural yeast", is defined as a "dough consisting of a mixture of water, cereal flour of various types (soft wheat, durum wheat, rye and barley are the most common) left to rise spontaneously or more frequently started by adding a portion of mature dough resulting from a previous processing". The use of natural leavening as a leavening agent is one of the oldest biotechnological processes in the food sector, dating back to around 1000 BC.
Understanding the Microorganisms at Play
All the microorganisms of a Lievito Madre are therefore able to express different enzymes capable of breaking down even the most complex sugars such as starches, proteins and fats contained in the doughs, into simpler molecules that fall within the energy cycles. Initially, the microorganisms use oxygen to breathe and transform the sugars present in the flour, deriving energy for their sustenance and releasing carbon dioxide. Once the oxygen is exhausted, the yeasts begin fermentation, breaking down sugars without using oxygen, but producing ethyl alcohol in addition to carbon dioxide.
Solid vs. Liquid Pasta Madre
There are two main types of pasta madre: solid and liquid. Solid pasta madre is the result of a dough of flour hydrated to 40-50%. Liquid pasta madre, on the other hand, is obtained by hydrating the flour with 100-120% water. A higher hydration changes the properties of the culture environment. In solid pasta madre, there is a denser and more consistent environment in which anaerobic conditions are created more quickly, giving a more markedly fermentative environment that acidifies quickly. Liquid pasta madre is instead characterized by the presence of more water which makes the medium more fluid and consequently richer in oxygen which is also more easily usable in a more "dynamic" environment. For this reason, the anaerobic conditions necessary for the start of fermentation are more delayed and therefore this activity is less marked and aggressive. Naturally, the different concentration of water favors the development of species relatively tolerant compared to others, thus giving peculiar biological balances to these management methods. In particular, the balance of organic acids changes from a solid pasta madre (generally 1:3 between acetic acid and lactic acid) to a liquid pasta madre (generally 1:5 between acetic acid and lactic acid). These differences make solid or liquid pasta madre more or less suitable for particular processes. Workings that need a "tight" glutinous mesh because they are rich in heavy ingredients and which involve long doughs and long leavenings, need a yeast with the right ratio between organic acids that can guarantee the tightness of the mesh. Simpler processes that need relatively short leavening times, on the other hand, can be carried out with liquid pasta madre. Finally, there is the management of solid pasta madre tied or in water. Solid pasta madre, when tied, somehow reaches a moment of "compression" that acts on the culture itself by controlling fermentation.
The Virtues and Challenges of Pasta Acida
The virtues of an acidic paste, of a certain acidity of course, which should not be confused with the re-dough, are different. First of all, a better formation of aromas from a quantitative-qualitative point of view thanks to the aromatic precursors and aromatic substances. Furthermore, there will be an antimicrobial activity thanks to the lowering of the pH value, which will lead to a consequential inhibition of the mold, as well as an improvement of the properties of the paste thanks to the presence of organic acids. The problem with sourdough in the face of so many benefits is the management of the yeast itself. A factor to always keep in mind is acidity, which can prove to be your best friend but also your worst enemy. The problem of managing this acidic paste is really important; a bakery that wants to invest must manage it daily, without breaks and without holidays, if it wants to make it efficient in its performance. You get to the point that with a badly managed yeast you can't even bake the bread.
Lievito Madre di Tipo 3: An Acidifying Agent
Lievito madre di tipo 3 is a particular process of treatment of the sourdough that is not a leavening agent, but a fermentation agent. Leavening is the effect of a larger process called fermentation; this type 3 yeast is only an acidifier of your dough. During the process of making this dehydrated yeast, you go through processes of forcing the system with temperature and PH, which select certain bacterial strains, but to do these operations you destroy all the yeasts that are inside your sourdough. So what's left? Only bacteria that in the best of cases acidify the product, but will have minimal if any production of carbon dioxide, a factor that does not lead to the leavening of the product. To this should then be added compressed yeast, hence in the packages that we find to this acidifier are added powdered Saccaromiceti. So it is not a sourdough, but a starter, where I mean something of which I know paternity and maternity, which will give life to an inductive process. While in the case of pasta madre we are talking about a selective process; hence the selective logic of sourdough leads you to a differentiation of the product.
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The Essence of Pane: A Cultural and Ancestral Connection
Pane (bread) is something that goes beyond flour mixed with water, leavened and baked; it is a food rich in aromas and flavors, a food where ancestral memories, symbolic values, regional and local customs are layered. Italy has always stood out for the quantity and variety of form and taste, a heritage so rich and important that it should not be forgotten and underestimated.
The Evolution of Bread Making
In ancient times, it was understood that the fermentation that naturally occurred in the dough of water and flour made the bread more pleasant, better and digestible. Already in Egypt and Greece, breads of various types were produced, and throughout the Mediterranean, the fermentation of cereals such as barley and wheat was well known, which gave rise to beer, and that of grapes which transformed the sweet juice of the fruit into an even richer drink. of alcohol, wine. There is a very close connection between beer, wine and bread, precisely because the microorganisms at the base of fermentation are the same. Invisible and unknown to the men and women of antiquity, only from the eighteenth century, with the birth of modern microbiology, have they had a name, and have been studied to the point of being able to reproduce them in the laboratory. Pasteur discovered that yeast was also responsible for the fermentation of wine and beer, hence the term still in use today, brewer's yeast. At the beginning of the twentieth century, biologists discovered that yeast multiplies quickly in the presence of air, without the production of alcohol. These microorganisms carry out two very important metabolic phases, an aerobic phase (in the presence of oxygen) in which they reproduce and an anaerobic phase (in the absence of oxygen) in which they ferment, that is, they metabolize simple sugars (e.g. glucose and fructose).
Alternative Leavening Methods: Yeast-Free Baking
While yeast is a common ingredient in baking, it is possible to create delicious breads, pizzas, and desserts without it.
Instant Yeast Alternatives
It is very easy to prepare instant yeast at home using ingredients like bicarbonate, vinegar, buttermilk, and cream of tartar.
Yeast-Free Pizza and Bread
You can prepare a delicious pizza without yeast by using a simple recipe that allows you to prepare the classic pizza base. It is also possible to make bread without yeast, or rather, beautiful rolls to cook in a pan.
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Yeast-Free Desserts
There are many excellent desserts that can be made without yeast, such as chocolate cake and wine biscuits.
The Science of Leavening Agents: Beyond Yeast
A leavening agent is a chemical substance that helps a dough grow in volume before and during cooking. Air itself can act as a leavening agent, for example in the preparation of sponge cake, which traditionally does not need yeast. Other times it can be water that acts as a leavening agent, partially transforming into steam and thus creating small bubbles in the dough that expand due to the high temperatures. Most of the time, however, it is carbon dioxide that creates bubbles in the dough that increase in volume during cooking. CO2 in the case of bread and pizzas is almost exclusively generated by microorganisms, such as brewer's yeast or sourdough. Only in particular cases, as in the case of Irish Soda Bread, is sodium bicarbonate used.
The Role of Bicarbonate of Soda
Bicarbonate of soda can be used as a leavening agent, but its decomposition is not commonly exploited because the substance that is produced, sodium carbonate, is more alkaline than bicarbonate, which is only weakly so, and can give rise to undesirable reactions in the dough. The acidic component can be directly present in the food or in the dough. Many foods are naturally acidic and can therefore react directly with bicarbonate and thus form carbon dioxide bubbles: yogurt, buttermilk, chocolate, untreated cocoa, molasses and whole sugar, fruit juices and so on. In many recipes of Anglo-Saxon origin it may happen to find baking soda among the ingredients: this is nothing more than sodium bicarbonate.
The Evolution of Chemical Yeast
Originally, the composition of chemical yeast consisted of bicarbonate and cream of tartar, more correctly called potassium acid tartrate or potassium hydrogen tartrate, to which starch was added with the aim of facilitating the mixing of the yeast in the dough, of keeping the bicarbonate and the acid separate, but above all of absorbing the humidity present in the air. The main defect of this first formulation is its speed in reacting: within two minutes of adding water, most of the CO2 has already been released.
Understanding Volume Increase During Baking
The volume of an air bubble increases by 38% during baking. If the temperatures are sufficiently high and the dough contains water, this is partially transformed into steam and, expanding, contributes to the increase in total volume.
Lieviti Indigeni vs. Lieviti Selezionati: A Matter of Terroir?
The use of indigenous yeasts is often associated with the concept of terroir, the idea that the environment in which a food is produced imparts unique characteristics to its flavor and aroma. However, the science behind this claim is complex and debated.
The Origins and Function of Yeast in Winemaking
The scientific name of what we commonly call yeast is Saccharomyces cerevisiae. It is a unicellular fungus responsible for the biological process known as alcoholic fermentation, which transforms simple sugars, glucose and fructose, into alcohol and carbon dioxide. In nature it is very widespread, but since it is an organism not endowed with its own mobility, its diffusion takes place by insects, and by the wind. However, the action of dissemination by insects is the most important.
The Myth of Lieviti Autoctoni
All the scholars who have carried out microbial ecology research on the surface of the berries agree that it is rare to find Saccharomyces on the skin of the grapes, especially if they are perfectly intact and healthy. In reality, if all the grapes of a vineyard were perfectly healthy and intact, there would be very few yeasts.
The Importance of Yeast Selection
The yeasts that develop in the must just obtained from the pressing of the grapes are many, of different species and have different characteristics and properties. Not all of these yeasts survive in a fermenting must and above all not all operate transformations favorable to the quality of the wine, however all give their contribution, small or large, good or bad, to the final result.
Flour Types and Their Impact on Baking
The type of flour used in baking significantly affects the final product's texture, flavor, and nutritional value.
The Spectrum of Flour Types
Today, in commerce, among the conventional flours, we find different types, each different for its characteristics and nutritional values. Flour 00 or at most 0 were the most common, but it is good to remember that before getting white flours like these, in ancient times only wholemeal flour was used. The visual characteristics are also different, flour 00 is white while the other flours have a gradually darker color.
Recognizing Different Flour Types
At a visual level it is easy to recognize a type 00 or 0 flour from a type 1, precisely because the type 1 flour is more "dark", or rather, the product is "dotted" thanks to the small leaves of bran present inside it.
Type "1" Flour: A Rustic and Digestible Option
Type "1" flour with wheat germ is even richer in fiber, which gives an unmistakable aroma and flavor. It is distinguished by its high digestibility as well as the rusticity of the dough. This flour is recommended for all bread products such as bread, pizza and focaccia.
Organic Type "1" Flour: Harmony with Nature
Organic type "1" flour is ideal for pizza, pastry and the production of bread and focaccia.
Type "1" Flour for Cakes and Shortcrust Pastry
Type "1" flour with wheat germ for cakes and shortcrust pastry is produced with a mixture of specific grains for the production of shortcrust pastry, sponge cake and cakes. The dough is easy and quick, well homogeneous. This type 1 flour is suitable for the production of pies, biscuits and sponge cake. If mixed at 50% with "Sal De Riso - Lievitati" flour, it becomes the right base for puff pastry desserts.