The Role of Salt in Pizza Dough: Understanding Its Impact and Importance
The role of salt in dough is crucial. Alongside yeast and flour, it is a key ingredient that significantly impacts both the handling properties of the dough and the characteristics of the baked pizza. In this article, we’ll cover everything you need to know about salt and its effects on pizza dough
How Salt Affects Dough Properties
Salt has two main effects on the dough itself, which we’ll cover in detail in the following sections:
- It strengthens the gluten
- It regulates yeast activity
Gluten Strengthening
Salt plays a crucial role in strengthening gluten bonds, which directly impacts the overall strength of the dough. This is one of the key reasons for adding salt to the dough.
The process by which salt strengthens gluten is complex and involves hardcore chemistry, which will not be discussed here. While the scientific details are still debated, it’s generally understood that gluten-forming proteins, glutenin and gliadin, carry a negative charge, causing them to repel each other – much like similarly charged magnets (+/+ or -/-). The positive ions in sodium (from salt) help to neutralize this charge, allowing the proteins to come together and form stronger bonds.
In simpler terms, salt strengthens gluten bonds, making the dough stronger and more elastic.
For further reading on elasticity and extensibility and their effect on dough, refer to the following article: Elasticity and Extensibility in Dough: Understanding the Two Most Important Properties for Pizza Dough (recommended).
Increasing the salt content in a dough typically leads to a stronger, more elastic structure. This principle is especially useful when working with weak flours, as it allows us to use salt as a natural “dough strengthener”. For example, Neapolitan pizza, which is traditionally made with naturally weak Italian flour, incorporates a relatively high salt content of 3% to compensate for the flour’s lack of strength/elasticity.
Similarly, pizza dough used in acrobatic competitions, where it’s stretched, tossed, and manipulated, contains 4-5% salt. This high concentration ensures a very strong and elastic dough, suited for intense handling.
For these reasons, omitting salt entirely in pizza or bread dough is not advisable, as it will significantly affect the dough’s characteristics and handling properties.
Yeat and Enzymatic Activity Regulation
Salt acts as a regulator of yeast activity due to a phenomenon called osmotic pressure, which is explained in detail in this article: Everything You Need to Know About Baker’s Yeast: Types, Characteristics, and Uses in Pizza Dough (section ‘Yeast and Osmotic Pressure’). In short, salt increases osmotic pressure in the dough, slowing down yeast activity.
Osmotic pressure is a natural occurrence in dough; there’s no need for direct contact between the yeast and the salt for this phenomenon to happen.
The higher the salt content, the greater the osmotic pressure, which results in slower yeast activity and fermentation. For example, if you compare doughs with no salt and 3% salt, you’ll notice a significant difference in their fermentation rate.
Beyond its effect on yeast, salt also inhibits enzymatic activity in the flour, particularly the protease enzymes that break down gluten. This gives salt a dual role in gluten development: it strengthens the gluten, while also slowing down its breakdown.
It is important to note that the effect of salt mentioned here is intentional and beneficial. Although yeast activity can be controlled by adjusting the amount of yeast used, when following a specific recipe, changing the salt content will unavoidably alter the fermentation results (rate).
Additionally, PizzaBlab’s dough calculator, like other yeast calculators, is designed for dough with standard salt levels. To achieve accurate fermentation results, it’s recommended to use the standard amount of salt (covered later) when determining yeast quantities using a yeast calculator.
How Salt Affects the Final Product
Beyond influencing the dough’s handling properties, salt also has two significant impacts on the final product:
- It affects flavor.
- It affects the dough’s elasticity, which directly influences the crumb structure and eating characteristics of the pizza.
Effect on Flavor
In terms of flavor, salt changes the taste of the dough. It brings out the desirable flavors and “masks” the less pleasant ones, much like it does in other foods.
Typically, if the salt content in the dough is below 1.2% (in baker’s percentage), it will lack flavor and taste bland. Conversely, if the salt content exceeds 3%, the dough may taste too salty, though this can vary based on individual preference.
Effect on Crumb Structure
It’s important to note that everything mentioned in this section assumes we are discussing the same dough, with the salt content being the only variable. Other factors, such as dough hydration, the flour being used, and fermentation time (whether in bulk or balls), can also affect the dough’s extensibility and elasticity, and consequently, the crumb structure.
As the salt content exceeds 2%, the crumb structure becomes denser and more closed, and the volume decreases because the dough becomes more elastic and resists stretching during the oven spring phase.
On the other hand, reducing salt below 2% leads to a more open crumb structure due to increased extensibility. However, this might also reduce the baked product’s volume as elasticity decreases.
Therefore, the optimal salt range for most doughs is between 2-3%. To achieve a more open crumb structure with more/larger “air bubbles”, you can reduce the salt content. Keep in mind, though, that this will also affect the dough’s flavor and handling properties.
Effect on the Pizza’s Eating Characteristics (Crumb Tenderness/Chewiness)
Salt content can also affect the eating characteristics of the pizza. Since salt increases the dough’s elasticity, and a more elastic dough produces a cheiwer crust, a higher salt content can lead to a chewier, tougher final texture. On the other hand, reducing the amount of salt may produce a more tender crust.
What’s the Best Salt to Use in Pizza Dough?
In general, for yeast-leavened doughs like pizza, bread, or other baked goods, it is recommended to use kosher or sea salt. These salts contain essential minerals that support yeast activity. However, using regular table salt is also perfectly fine.
How Much Salt Should You Use in Pizza Dough?
For pizza dough, the typical salt range is between 2-3%. Neapolitan pizza is at the upper end of this range (3%), while most other types of pizza generally fall within 2-2.5%. Chicago Deep Dish is an exception (about 1%) since the pizza itself is rich in flavors, reducing the need for additional salt in the dough.
For bread dough, the standard salt amount is 2%. This provides a good balance of flavor, texture, and dough handling.
When and How to Add Salt During Dough Mixing
The optimal timing for salt addition during dough mixing is often debated. To determine the best time for adding it, it’s crucial to understand the reasoning behind both early and delayed addition.
During the kneading/mixing step, salt has three main effects:
- Salt acts as an oxidation inhibitor (though it is not an antioxidant itself), slowing down the oxidation of the dough during mixing.
- Salt competes with gluten-forming proteins for water, causing these proteins to absorb water more slowly. This delay in water absorption leads to slower gluten development, as gluten-forming proteins need to absorb water for gluten bonds to form.
- The sodium in salt chemically reacts with gluten-forming proteins, resulting in the ‘stiffening’ or strengthening of the gluten structure.
When salt is added at the beginning of mixing, the dough oxidizes more slowly, and gluten bonds form at a slower rate. In essence, early addition of salt results in slower gluten development compared to adding salt later in the mixing process.
Conversely, adding salt later allows for faster oxidation and quicker gluten development, as the gluten-forming proteins absorb water more readily. Additionally, the gluten remains less stiff and more pliable during kneading due to the absence of salt. As a result, with delayed salt addition, gluten development occurs more quickly within the same kneading time
While it may sound advantageous to speed up gluten development, this approach is not always ideal or desired. As discussed in the mixing and kneading fundamentals article, there are three kneading methods: minimal, improved, and intensive, each corresponding to different levels of gluten development at the end of initial kneading. For long-fermented dough, intensive kneading (which achieves full gluten development) is not recommended; minimal or improved kneading is preferred.
Delayed salt addition can be beneficial when using intensive kneading, enabling maximum gluten development in a shorter time. This is why, historically and even today, many industrial bakeries employ a method that combines intensive kneading with delayed salt addition, allowing for shorter mixing times. While this approach increases yield and reduces wear and tear on the mixer, it often comes at the expense of the quality of the baked product.
However, for minimal and improved kneading, where significant gluten development at the end of initial kneading is not desired, delayed salt addition may not offer any benefits, and could even lead to negative outcomes. Salt helps to ‘slow down’ gluten development and facilitates ‘controlled’ oxidation, preventing over-mixing. Therefore, for minimal or improved kneading, it is best to add salt from the start.
In conclusion, for most applications, it’s best to add salt at the beginning, ideally directly to the water, to ensure proper dissolution. For pizza dough and most breads, delayed salt addition provides little value and can lead to issues, such as uneven salt distribution or forgetting to add salt altogether.
If using coarse or kosher salt, it is highly recommended to mix it into the water first, ensuring it dissolves completely before adding the other ingredients. This practice ensures even distribution and prevents the formation of concentrated “salt pockets” in the dough.
Can You Add Salt and Yeast Together?
The short answer is yes, there is no problem adding yeast directly with salt.
In more detail, while salt has the potential to draw moisture from yeast cells and impair their functionality, this would require a very high salt concentration and a long exposure time – conditions not typically present when making dough.
To explore this further, a study was conducted to assess the effect of salt on yeast activity and fermentation. The study involved suspending yeast in a saltwater solution with a concentration of 7% for 20 and 40 minutes before incorporating it into the remaining dough ingredients. The aim was to evaluate the impact on fermentation and the final product, including volume, taste, and overall quality.
Surprisingly, the study found that dough in which yeast had been suspended for 40 minutes in the saltwater solution had the largest volume and ranked highest in taste, aroma, and overall quality. The study concluded that the “stress” induced by the salt did not harm the yeast, but actually enhanced its functionality, resulting in improved bread quality.
Of course, this does not mean that it is advisable or recommended to dissolve yeast in saltwater before adding it to the dough, and the results of the study can be further interpreted and analyzed. However, this study proves, at the very least, that yeast does not die or sustain significant damage in the presence of salt.
Therefore, as long as salt and yeast are not left together for an extended period, adding salt directly with yeast should not be an issue.
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