DD101 Extra: Freezing Your Pizza Dough

DD101 Extra: Freezing Your Pizza Dough:

A visitor to the website asked about freezing deep dish pizza dough. I’m not a fan of freezing any kind of pizza dough, as it’s not very practical, tends to kill off some of the yeast, and modifies the texture a bit. I’d rather the dough hung out in a zip top bag in the fridge if you’re making it a day or 3 ahead of time, but freezing can be done.

PREPARING YOUR DOUGH FOR THE FREEZER:

If you know ahead of time that you are going to freeze your dough, you can give it a better chance to recover from the freezing by slightly increasing the yeast and sugar amounts in your dough recipe. After letting your dough rise, punch it down, work it back into a ball, then coat the ball lightly in oil, seal it up in plastic wrap or a zip top bag (get as much air out as you can), then seal in aluminum foil and place in your freezer. Label and date your package so you know what kind of dough it is and when you made it.

THAWING YOUR DOUGH:

Move the frozen dough TO THE REFRIGERATOR and LET IT GO at least 24 hours to thaw in the fridge before moving it to the counter to warm up.

WHILE YOU WAIT:

It will take about 1 to 2 hours to warm up your dough. I’ve pressed out and baked deep dish dough that had been out of the fridge for about an hour and was still a little cold, and the pizza still baked OK. While you wait for your dough to warm up, you can preheat your oven and pizza stone, and start preparing your pizza toppings so you can assemble your pizza quicker.