ADY and IDY Yeast for Making Pizza

I am going to try and explain what the difference is with using ADY (active dry yeast) and IDY (instant dried yeast).

ADY (active dry yeast) should be rehydrated in a small amount of the formula water at a temperature of around 105 degrees F for about 10 minutes.  Then it can be added to the rest of the ingredients in the mixer bowl or to the rest of the formula water.  The other formula water then should be on the cool side or even cold, all depending if you want to make your dough the same day or let the pizza dough cold ferment. Even if you keep ADY in the refrigerator there shouldn’t be any problems rehydrating the ADY, because the water will be warm.

IDY (instant dry yeast) can be added directly to the flour, as can be the salt.  Some people put the IDY on one side of the flour and the salt on the other side of the flour before starting the mixing of the dough. This is the way I usually add the IDY, is to put salt on one side of the flour and IDY on the other side of the flour.

If you let any pizza doughs sit at room temperature too long, you have the possibility of the dough overfermenting if the ambient temperature of your room is too warm, using either ADY or IDY.  You have to learn to watch your pizza dough and see how it behaves, or either let the dough sit out right away and only ferment a little and then put the dough into the refrigerator to cold ferment. Pizza doughs should be around 75-85 degrees F, after being mixed.

IDY and ADY are a form of a leavening agent to get the dough to rise.  Later on in my post I will post about using dough leavened with a natural yeast, which in my opinion does give different texture to the crust and crumb of a pizza.

Using IDY or ADY above 2% can make a pizza dough taste yeastly in the finished crust.

Fleischmann’s makes both IDY and ADY.

I will post more about using cake yeast and also how to determine how much yeast you might need to add to the pizza dough.

http://www.fleischmannsyeast.com/landing.html

http://www.redstaryeast.com/

If you live in different part of the world, there are many yeasts that can be used for pizza.  Some examples are other brands of ADY or IDY, flake yeast and others.


I used Saf yeast (IDY), most of the time for my pizza dough, but have also used ADY, and now am experimenting more with natural starters for making pizza doughs.

I will post more about using cake yeast in later posts.

Norma