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Pizza Crust Yeast

I’ve seen Fleischmann’s Pizza Crust Yeast at my supermarket. What do you think of this product?

According to the package, Fleischmann’s Pizza Crust Yeast allows you to mix, stretch, top, and bake pizza all in one go, with just a few minutes of kneading and no rising time at all. In addition to active dry yeast, the product contains a cocktail of chemicals and enzymes designed to relax the dough. Dough relaxers partially inhibit the formation of strong gluten networks, keeping the dough pliable and easy to stretch and making it quick to rise in the oven.

Given that the structure and flavor of a top-notch pizza crust come from ample fermentation, we were skeptical that dough made in so little time would be any good. When we mixed up a batch, our suspicions were confirmed. Although the dough was incredibly well behaved, stretching without snapping back and rising quickly during baking, its texture and flavor were unimpressive. The crust was leathery, not crisp, on the exterior and spongy and soft on the interior. What’s more, it was bland and devoid of the aromatic complexity that is produced in fermented dough. So we’ll pass on this turbo-charged yeast, preferring to take our time and make pizza dough the old-fashioned way.

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