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Freezing and reheating pizza

Marni's picture
Marni

Freezing and reheating pizza

I'd like to make about 15 or so individual pizzas in advance of a lunch I'm hosting.  I've been making sourdough crusts, and thought I would try freezing the finished pizzas.  Is this a good idea?  I know a pizza stone is best, but I don't have one and we're enjoying the pizza as it is.  So I don't have that for the reheating.  I could just make the crusts in adavnce and freeze them, but the one time I tried it they were a little soggy. I appreciate any thoughts on this.

Thanks,

Marni

rainbowbrown's picture
rainbowbrown

Hmm. I regularly make giant batches of pizza dough and freeze it in single pizza sized portions. I've never frozen crusts that have already been baked, though. If you have time to fit in assembly and baking, I'd recommend just making the dough in advance and freezing it in little balls of individual sizes. I mean, even if you froze the whole baked thing before hand, you'd still have to heat it up in the oven right? So, in my opinion it doesn't seem like much more trouble to top and bake dough than to top and bake prebaked crust... Hmm. Either way a pizza party sure does sound fun...

Oh, the way I freeze pizza dough is make it normal-like up through the bulk fermentation, then instead of proceeding, I oil a ziplock baggie and put a ball of dough in it. Then let it thaw in the fridge for a day before shaping, topping and baking.

Good luck.

nbicomputers's picture
nbicomputers

there are two ways to do this

the first is to dock the crust using a fork of a dough docker tool to punch small hols in the dough to prevent the dough from blowing up to much

the second if to put a very light layer of sauce on the top.

then bake them in a very hot oven till just done not fully cooked but like brown and serve just barely done

cool them as fast as you can and frez them fast in a very cold frezer with no plastic or cover.

when they are completly forzzen then wrap them in plastic wrap and put them back in the frezzeer

when serving them top them and bake them in a hot 500-550 oven most pizza ovens are at 550 to 600 most home ovens only go to 550 so bake them as hot as possible

Alan's picture
Alan

I have found that if I leave pizza dough in the freezer for more than a couple of days it kills the yeast. When I move it to the refrigerator and later take it out to shape and bake it doesn't rise. I found a quick and effective way to correct this and return the dough to it's original bouyancy. I simply flatten the refrigerated dough into an oblong and sprinkle about 1/4 teaspoon of instant yeast over the dough. I then do a couple of French folds and return it to the fridge overnight. When I remove it to bake the next day I do another French fold before letting the dough come to room temperature for shaping. This procedure has saved me several balls of pizza dough that previously would have had to been tossed. Try it if your pizza suffers from too long in the freezer.

Marni's picture
Marni

I ended up making calzones which turned out great.  Spinach, broccoli, cheeses, yum. 

I think I'll try the partially cooked crusts, those could come in handy for quick dinners.  Almost as easy as take-out. Did I understand correctly that I should freeze them with sauce?  So I should dock, spread sauce, partially bake and proceed with the freezing etc.

Alan, thanks for the idea.  It sounds like a good method for shorter term storage. Maybe make dough on Sunday for a weekday meal. Thanks.

Marni