How to Speed Up Pizza’s Leavening Time in The Oven: Methods and Tips

Leavening is one of the key steps to obtain a soft and well-honeycombed pizza, with the right lightness and crunchiness. During the maturation process, the yeast ferments, producing carbon dioxide that is trapped inside the gluten mesh. The dough swells, increasing in volume: it is easy to work, the cooking of the pizza improves in structure and becomes a tastier and more digestible product. This, obviously, if the correct conditions are created: the activity of the yeast is influenced by multiple factors and two of the most important are the temperature and the environmental humidity. In the first case, the optimal one is around 82°F/28°C, while in the second case what must be avoided is drying out the dough. It may happen that you need to slow down the leavening, perhaps in the summer, when it is too hot, then the fridge becomes an excellent ally: on the contrary, the leavening may need to be accelerated or stimulated, because it is too cold, like in winter, or because you have less time available. What comes to the rescue? The oven, which will not only be used to cook the pizza, but also to help it leaven. Let's see how it's done.

Three Easy Ways to Make Pizza Rise in The Oven

The oven as a “trick” to speed up the leavening of the dough can also be used for bread and focaccia, as well as if you use brewer's yeast or mother yeast. It's about giving a boost to recipes that require short and medium leavening with pizzas to be baked in the same day.

The most advanced models of household appliances have specific functions to create a stable and protected environment inside the chamber, not subject to temperature changes and with the right level of humidity. But don't worry, because the same conditions can also be achieved in ovens that are less up to date with technology with the following methods:

• Oven light on: A very common method that does not pose any particular problems is to place the container inside the oven with the courtesy light on. The amount of heat emitted by the light bulb is light, enough to maintain a constant temperature ideal for the dough to rise.
• Heat the oven slightly: when they come into contact with temperatures higher than 100°F/38°C, yeasts begin to die, thus blocking their activity. This is why when applying this technique you need to be a little careful not to overheat the dough. In practice, it is as easy as the previous one: heat the oven for a few seconds to the minimum temperature (86-95°F/30-35 °C), turn it off and insert the container. The residual heat will help the leavening.
• Pot of boiling water: the combination of heat and humidity of professional leavening chambers is used together, recreating it at home. Just heat a pot with water (it does not need to boil) and then place it on the lower shelf of the turned off oven. On the upper shelf, on the grill, place the container with the dough: the environment will have a warmer temperature and a moderate amount of steam will develop which enhances the process.

Don't forget that once the dough has reached the volume required by the recipe it must be immediately worked and cooked: prolonging this phase if it has been completed correctly will not bring any advantage, indeed, the risk is that of obtaining the opposite result.