Brown Rice Syrup For Pizza Dough
Yeast Fermentation
To feed the yeast, you can use Brown rice syrup (malt syrup) in specific dough recipes. The adage "you are what you eat" also applies to yeast regarding flavor. The saying has its roots in one of the many quotes of the French author Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, whose book The Physiology of Taste was published in 1826. The original quote is, "Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you who you are." Savarin may be more familiar with baking, as the Savarin cake pan or mold is named in his honor.
A few variables impact the flavors and multiplication rate of yeast: the type of yeast, the temperature, and the sugars it feeds from. Baker's yeast goes very well with brown rice syrup as a food. Brown rice syrup is a malt syrup; it typically consists of about two-thirds maltose (a disaccharide malt sugar), and the other one-third typically consists of maltotriose, malt sugar (a trisaccharide sugar), dextrins, and some glucose. Standard white table sugar, beet sugar, and cane sugar are almost entirely composed of sucrose (a disaccharide). Yeast ferments different sugar types at different rates, contributing to the flavor profile. The resulting flavors from fermenting dough with brown rice syrup are typically favorable and consistent when using different flour types. Brown rice syrup tastes less sweet than table sugar, so its sweetness does not impact the dough.
The principle of using malt syrup to feed the yeast is to develop the yeast fermentation flavor profile before introducing the yeast into the flour. The yeast feeds off the brown rice syrup sugars, developing flavors apart from those if it was just feeding off the flour.
Pizza Dough Flavor
Pre- fermenting the malt syrup water and yeast mixture gives a robust flavor profile to pizza dough, so Brown Rice Syrup is best suited for pizza doughs and focaccia bread. Complimenting the robust dough flavors with Italian pizza-type seasonings and toppings results in a good, finished dough-based recipe. Brown rice syrup is easy to dissolve in warm water, 120F to 130F, and adding your dry yeast into the mix at this temperature with the Brown Rice Syrup will quickly expand and raise the dough. Letting the water, yeast, and malt syrup grow for 15 minutes in a proofing oven creates a very active foaming fermented mixture. When introduced into the dough, your yeast will quickly start producing carbon dioxide to raise the dough and produce alcohol with other complex compounds to add to the dough's flavor. Brown rice syrup helps you to make flavorful pizza-style dough at home, make it consistent, and make it good.
