Lightening Up Foods Without the Benefit of Yeast

Sometimes it seems like the allergies in my household just keep piling on us. In the past few years, my youngest has not outgrown any allergies, my oldest has re-developed her reactions to eggs, my husband has been hit with the oral-allergy-syndrome reactions, and I've developed an intolerance to yeast and a diagnosis of eosinophilic esophagitis from exposure to as-yet-uncertain foods. I usually try not to think about it all so that my head doesn't spin! But I've really been missing pizza and focaccia dough lately. Now that my Gram's go-to dough starter, Hot Roll Mix, doesn't have dairy (which was our issue there for years), I would love to try it again...but I've stopped using live yeast in our house. I'm a science researcher at heart, though, so I headed online and learned all about yeast alternatives: baking soda and baking powder, specifically. I was excited pretty much immediately, when I found out that baking powder came into existence because of A FOOD ALLERGY! In the 1800s! A British chemist's wife was allergic to eggs and yeast, so he standardized a powdered ingredient that she could use instead in her baking. A food allergy changed the world. :-) We've gotta love that, right? If you want to learn more, check out my entire post at http://foodallergypantry.weebly.com/the-cookbook-apothecary-blog/leavened-breadand-cakesand-cookies (and it has links to some of the sources there, too). Happy bread baking!