What oil, sugar and yeast do in pizza dough (in varying amounts)

What's really cool about this channel is that if you watch chronologically, he steadily, gradually builds on what he's learned. It plays like a curriculum.

the blonde colour from the extra yeast can also be a symptom of converting much of the available sugars present in the dough into ethanol and Co2. Also the increased acidity inhibits or slows the maillard reactions which is why it could be blonder. I've made dough that fermented far too long and basically would never evenly brown.

One idea about the yeast free bread is that yeast does inhibit bacteria growth, and with the multi-day rise time, you could have gotten some bacteria growth which caused the "arm-pit" smell.

Love the methodology here. I have been using Adam's very hydrated NY style pizza dough recipe (the one where you keep it in the fridge for 4 or 5 days for a slow ferment) and it really is the perfect crust for me. This video is great because it explains the why.

Extra yeast: "Tastes more yeasty. Really yeasty" The greatest secret of home cooking pizza dough that you could have ever brought to light.

My suspicion on the "extra wet" of the extra yeast is simply that there is actually more water. Although it takes one water molecule to break sucrose into fructose & glucose, four H2O's are then released by the rest of the processes. It might not seem like much, but a couple of mL's at the start might be enough to make that dough noticeably wetter.

I absolutely LOVE the rigorous methodology here and in other videos where you actually test various different options. It’s so specific and thorough. It’s my preferred approach to cooking videos because with most other channels it’s just “I cooked something that looks delicious, doesn’t it look good?” With no real help or understanding when our own versions don’t turn out the same, viewers are left dangling. You have a real educator’s talent for sharing knowledge. Cannot give you a big enough thumbs up, cheers from the UK 👍

"Plss dad I'm full of bread" "C'mon son its for science!"

This is the answer that I was looking for for about 3 years and eventually find the answer here. It was painful for me to see how those who cook full-time and give recipes to everyone cannot explain how sugar ratio or yeast ratio affect the final recipe. Now, you can say "I want my dough to be fluffier so I will add a little more sugar and oil". This is cooking.

I would love a part 2 to this, expanding upon other factors like acid or alcohol (even salt maybe) and their effect on a dough. Super interesting stuff, I love videos like this because it answers so many questions that us at home don't really have the time to experiment to answer. :)

King Arthur also offers a high gluten flour you could try with your extra yeast recipe and see if you get better results. Their high gluten has about 14% protein content compared to their bread flour at 12.7%. In general pizza places use the high gluten flour for their pizza crusts for the exact reasons you are experiencing, could be worth the experimentation.

I accidentally did an experiment on this yesterday. I forgot to add oil to the dough and didn't realise before I popped it into the fridge. Naturally, I made another dough with oil to get a comparison. I must say, that the one with oil was a lot better.

4:12Yeast produces liquid as a waste product. This is really evident when you make sourdough. A person can start with a fairly dry lump of sourdough, but by the time the dough has risen and done what it needs to for baking it is sticky and damp to the touch. This is why people who make sourdough use those cloths. The cloths help to absorb the moisture from the dough, helping to prevent over-hydration and the outside skin becoming sticky from the added moisture. It would make sense that the bowl that has more yeast, and thus more organisms producing this liquid waste, would be more wet than a bowl with less yeast..

finally another adam ragusea pizza video my prayers have been answered

I dig your scientific approach to these videos - well done. And you remind me of Alton Brown of Good Eats, who also had a scientific flavor (punny) to his shows.

I'm going to try this with spelt flour. Spelt has what is called a "brittle" gluten so I think I'll try with regular yeast amount, half the sugar and half the oil just to make things super easy for the low levels of gluten that are in spelt. Thanks for clarifying what makes things easier and harder for gluten to develop. I will experiment, too, if I'm not delighted with the result.

Adam is doing the world a great service with his research into the world of pizza science. Pizza restaurants have done this all before, but they keep the information to themselves.

I've been wondering about this stuff a lot lately - great timing! This is such a Kenji-like experiment. So awesome to see all the experiments you've been doing the last while. And it's so great to see the experiments in video. Very inspiring and informative.

Adam immediately giving us the answer to the video's title in the beginning of the video instantly reminds me as to why I love this channel in the first place.

Hey, Pizza bread! I actually made that for lunch today, on a cast iron pan. Put it on the pan cold with plenty of oil, put it on the stovetop on medium until the bottom darkens to a level you like, then put in the oven for 7 minutes. Great if you don't have a pizza steel. Bonus technique: divide into 4 portions, oil the top and bottom, then flatten, stretch, and fold them, like, 5 times. (After a while you will have trouble stretching the dough; that's when you should stop.) You should end up with a flaky roll with a bunch of distinct layers, with very little prep or cooking time.