Freezing pizza dough

[KitchenQueen]

I'm tired of making fresh dough every time  I want a pizza on a whim.

  I want to  make extra  and freeze it.   Ideally, I want to flatten the dough so it stacks well and Foodsaver it.  Please tell me this works. But when? Before first rise, after??  Some sites says add extra yeast if you do this.   Need some help here.   Any freezing tips welcome. Bring to room temp then just let it rise?  It it as good as fresh-made dough?  I don't want to try if frozen dough if doesn't make as good a thin crispy crust when baked.

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[JohnT]

I normally make a 1.2 kg mix of pizza dough, divide it into 4 x 300g and just freeze in an oiled bag. If I want a pizza I defrost 1 bag and let it rise on the counter for an hour or so before rolling it out. The 300g portion makes a 30cm to 35cm  diameter, thin pizza base. The actual pizza takes 8 minutes at 250°C - and that's with quite a healthy topping. It feeds 2 with some leftovers. For the yeast, I only use a half teaspoon of instant yeast.

[KitchenQueen]

So just make it, oil it,bag it and freeze it, no first rise needed??  That is really what I wanted to hear.

 

[Shelby]

I've done it both ways (simply because I wasn't sure how much I was going to use for dinner one night) and have never noticed a difference.  So, yep, easy peasy.  I take it out and let it thaw and come to room temp.  It gets a little puffy.  

[csingley]

6 hours ago, KitchenQueen said:

So just make it, oil it,bag it and freeze it, no first rise needed??  That is really what I wanted to hear.

 

 

You just have to plan ahead.  It gets a slow first rise while defrosting in the fridge.  As a matter of fact I just pulled some pizza dough out of the freezer planning to eat it for dinner tomorrow.  Overnight in the fridge, a couple hours on the counter, that's all the rise you need.

[Thanks for the Crepes]

I'm yeast bread challenged, but even I have had good luck with frozen pizza dough. Pizza is one of my favorite foods so I was determined to make a good dough. I spent years tweaking and making notes, and then found this recipe. I liked it better than my own so that's what I make now. I like a really thin crust, so I take half the dough, spread it on a steel cookie sheet, and use that the first night and freeze the second half. Oh, and I do not use the semolina flour or the pizza dough flavor, both of which are optional. The beer really ups the good yeasty flavor.

 

When I'm ready for another pizza, I take the dough ball out of the freezer and place it in a greased bowl turning it over to grease the entire ball and cover the bowl with plastic wrap or one of those bowl covers that looks like a hotel shower cap.

 

It thaws overnight and all day the next day. Then I take it out and set it on the counter to come to room temp. I typically find this takes about 3 hours or so depending on the temp of the kitchen.

 

The only time I've ever had pizza dough fail completely was when I bought a dough ball from the refrigerated case from Trader Joes. It did not rise and ruined pizza night.  

 

You can also keep pizza dough in the fridge for four or five days, but my husband doesn't like it as much as I do and will complain if I serve it too often. The freezer works better for our situation. The flavor actually improves during fridge storage, though.

[shain]

I think that you will get better results with par-baking. Use a fork to prick the dough and minimize rising where the sauce would have been and remove any air bubbles (leaving the rim to rise), then brush or spray some water on the same area. Bake the naked dough, removing it from the oven once it's fully risen, but not colored. Chill then freeze.

This has the advantage of being faster to bake whenever you want to eat (no need for shaping) you can (and should for better results) bake it straight from the freezer. You can even sauce it before freezing. If you use low moisture cheese, you can grate it and spread on top as well.

Finish in high heat, preferably on a pizza stone or preheated pan. This process results in a crisper crust, but you might need to adjust the temp and oven position so that the cheese and crust are done at the same time.

[Tere]

I usually make enough for 6 pizzas and freeze 4 in balls. Wrap them in clingfilm then into a ziploc bag. I used to just use clingfilm but since moving to biodegradable stuff that doesn't keep as well. Just take out the night before you use it.

[paulraphael]

I've had no trouble doing this when making the dough with instant yeast. If you're using a sourdough culture, it's likely to cause problems.

 

I mostly use sourdough for pizza now, so instead of freezing half the batch, I make a loaf a bread out of it.