Pizza is undoubtedly one of the most delicious foods in the world. But unfortunately not everybody is able to fully enjoy it since it can also be quite hard to digest. Fortunately there are a few things that you can do to make any pizza easier to digest. So let’s see what those things are.
In order to make a pizza easier to digest you can:
- Use Less Yeast
- Let the Dough Rise in the Fridge
- Use Sourdough Starter
- Use a Low Protein Flour
- Use Ancient Grain Flour
- Use Less Salt
- Make a Crispy Pizza
- Don’t Overcrowd the Pizza
- Avoid Spicy Toppings
Now let’s take a closer look at each one of those things, and see how and shy they work, and how you can put them into practice.
1. Use Less Yeast
The best way to make pizza easier to digest is to reduce the starch in the dough. And the simplest way to do this is through fermentation. And in order to do this you simply have to let the dough rise.
During this time the yeast is eating away the sugars and starches naturally found in flour and creating carbon dioxide, which makes the dough rise. So the best way to get rid of more starch and sugar is to make the process last longer. And there are a few ways to do this.
One of those ways is to use less yeast. This way the yeast will take longer to make the dough rise completely, so it will have more time to get rid of the starch and sugars.
If you were to add more yeast, the process will happen faster, and the yeast won’t be as effective.
And make sure that you don’t overproof the dough too much, if you do this the pizza will be less tasty and it will be very hard to shape the dough.
If you want to know how you can easily tell if your dough has rested enough or not check out my article: 7 Reasons Why Your Pizza Dough Tears When You Stretch It. There you will find a few simple tests that you can make and see if the dough is ready or not.
2. Let the Dough Rise in the Fridge
Another way to make the fermentation process last longer is to let the dough rise in the fridge.
Yeast is very sensitive to temperature. The hotter it is the more active and faster it does its job. If the temperature is low, the yeast will become less active, so it will move slower, but it will be more efficient. And as an added bonus the pizza will taste better.
What I usually do is let my dough rise in the fridge overnight. On average it takes the dough about 16 hours to rise completely. But depending on how cold your fridge is, it can take up to 24 hours.
3. Use Sourdough Starter
A sourdough starter is simply a mix of flour and water that has been left to fermentate over a long period of time. At least 2 weeks.
While fermenting the starter will develop some good bacteria that are more or less the same thing that you find in commercial yeast. The only major difference between the two is that the sourdough starter is more efficient at getting rid of starch and sugar.
If you want you can also use sourdough starter and let the dough rise in the fridge. Simply think sourdough as a better yeast.
And once you have a starter you can keep it indefinitely, you don’t need a new one.
If you don’t have a starter you can either make your own, or get one from a local bakery.
After you have a starter you need to do some daily maintenance that takes about two minutes. You simply have to throw half of it out, and add some flour. And that’s it. So if you don’t want to start from scratch you can ask a local bakery, since they have to throw some of it out anyway.
If you want to know more about sourdough starter, or if you are looking for a starter recipe use the menu on this site and check out the Sourdough category.
4. Use a Low Protein Flour
Another important part that dramatically influences the digestibility of the pizza is the type of flour that you use.
The best flour for pizza is 00 flour, sometimes referred to as Pastry Flour. And luckily this is also a type of flour that has a small amount of protein in it. So it’s also the easiest to digest.
| Ash Content | Protein | US | Italian | French | German |
| 0.4% | 9% | Pastry Flour | 00 | 45 | 405 |
| 0.5% | 11% | All-Purpose Flour | 0 | 55 | 550 |
| 0.8% | 14% | High Gluten Flour | 1 | 80 | 812 |
| 1% | 15% | First Clear Flour | 2 | 110 | 1050 |
| 1.5% | 13% | Whole Wheat Flour | Faina Integrale | 150 | 1700 |
In the US you will most likely see the US grading system, but it’s not uncommon to see flour that is marketed towards pizza makers labeled as 00 instead of pastry flour. And keep in mind that if a recipe tells you to use 00 flour, you can use Pastry Flour, as it’s the same thing.
A lot of different flours are graded 00, and almost none of them are identical. Different brands have different areas from where they get their wheat, and as a result, the content of the flour will differ. So not all of them will have the same amount of protein, which is just as important as how fine the flour is.
One of the best flours that is also readily available is Caputo, which can be found in most stores, and you can also order it on Amazon.
5. Use Ancient Grain Flour (Spelt, Millet, Emmer, Quinoa, Etc.)
The main reason why pizza is hard to digest is that grains, in general, are hard to digest for humans. But that wasn’t always the case.
Some types of grain, known as ancient grain, are easier to digest than the rest. They are called “ancient” because they’ve been grown the same way for several hundred years, according to the Whole Grains Council. Unlike some modern wheat products, they haven’t been genetically modified. And as a result they are easier to digest, but harder to grow.
6. Use Less Salt
Salt can negatively affect the good bacteria in our gut that are responsible for digestion. So, naturally one way to get rid of this problem is to use less salt, or none at all.
7. Make a Crispy Pizza
Crispy pizza is easier to digest. When the pizza is in the oven the starch from the dough transforms into dextrin.
When we digest pizza the starch is broken down into dextrin which is further transformed into monosaccharide dextrose. So by making the pizza crispy we are basically doing some of the work that our stomach would have done. So the bread will be considerably easier to digest.
Here are two articles that will help you achieve the perfect crispy pizza, without burning it: How to Fix a Soggy Pizza (+How to Prevent) and 7 Easy Ways to Stop Burnt Pizza Bottoms.
The best way that I’ve discovered to make a crispy pizza without burning it is to use sand.
This is a trick that I learned when I was trying to bake a cake, which has a bottom that is even easier to burn than that of a pizza. And I’ve been using this trick for almost anything that I’ve been baking ever since.
Let me tell you what you need to do, as it’s very simple. All you have to do is fill your oven tray with sand, any type of sand should do the job. And that’s basically it.
Place your pizza either directly on top of the sand, using parchment paper, or put the pizza on a smaller tray, and place that tray on top of the sand.
The sand won’t heat as much as the tray will, so it will act as a barrier that reduces the heat that is transferred directly to the bottom of the pizza. So the bottom and the top will cook perfectly even.
Over the years I’ve been using different quantities and types of sand, here are some observations, that will be useful if you choose to use this method:
- Fine sand tends to heat up slower
- Sand that has small stones in it, and overall larger grains will heat up faster and give out more heat
- The thicker the sand layer, the more it will take to heat up
- Make sure that the sand has no leaves or wood in it, they can catch fire
- Don’t wash the sand, if you do this you will lose some of the sand
- Heating up the sand in the oven will get rid of all germs and bacteria
- Make sure that the sand hasn’t been treated in any way
This method 100% gets rid of the burnt bottom. I’ve been using this method for years for pizza, bread, and cakes, and I’ve never had a burnt bottom. The only way you can end up with a burnt bottom if you use this method is if you burn the whole pizza until it turns into charcoal completely.
If you want to make a pizza right now and you have no way to get some sand quickly there are still a few more things that you can do to prevent a burnt bottom.
The only time I wouldn’t recommend you to use this trick is if you are making very thin pizza, in those cases you need the opposite. You need more heat at the bottom so I would recommend you to use a pizza stone.
8. Don’t Overcrowd the Pizza
One common mistake that can make a pizza hard to digest is overcrowding the pizza.
A pizza that has too many toppings on it is almost impossible to cook properly. This is because the toppings will prevent the top from being cooked at the same rate as the bottom is. So the pizza will either turn out with an uncooked top or with a burnt bottom.
And just as important is the order in which you place the toppings. If you place soft cheese, that has a lot of water and melts easily, or vegetables that are full of water, like mushrooms, first. Then all that water will get into the dough, and it will prevent it from cooking properly.
And if the dough doesn’t cook properly it will have more starch in it than it should, and it will be harder to digest.
If you want a more in depth article about what is the correct order of the toppings you can check out this article: What Is the Topping Order for Pizza? (The Final Answer).
But just to give you an idea the order should look something like this:
- Tomato Sauce
- Hard Cheese
- Toppings, first the meat, then the vegetables
- Soft Cheese
- Garnishes, after the pizza is cooked
9. Avoid Spicy Toppings
The final thing that can make a pizza hard to digest are spicy toppings, and toppings with a lot of condiments in general.
Most condiments, especially the spicy ones, can easily irritate the stomach, which will have a harder time digesting the pizza, which is already hard to digest. So do your best and try to avoid toppings with a lot of condiments.
Final Thoughts
And those are my 9 tips that will make any pizza easier to digest. And the best thing about this is that you can easily combine them.
The best way to put this in practice is to make a pizza using sourdough starter instead of yeast, use little or no salt, use a low protein flour, let it rise in the fridge, put a few toppings on top of it, and make sure that none of them are spicy, and let it in the oven until it’s crispy. And in the end you will have the easiest to digest pizza.