December 9, 2015 - 1:13am
Prebaking pizza bases
Does anyone have experience pre-baking pizza bases, and freezing them for future use...
I use the Tartine sourdough standard recipe, and often we dont get through two loaves, so I am thinking I could make one of the loaves into a couple of pizza bases instead that I could pop in the freezer, so I could take them out another day, splash on some sauce and cheese, and dinner is ready....
Any good tips for this?
How long should i bake them in the prebake phase? I imagine the freezing kills the ability for the dough to rise, so they need some baking.....
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I parbake ours, brushed with XV olive oil, then I brush them again before topping and returning to the oven. I get a very nice crispy pizza this way (about 11 mm thick crust btw). I do it on a preheated iron base. Although I usually don't freeze them after parbaking, I have done so a couple times in the past and it turned out fine. I parbake about 6-7 min. at 250C. Just do so until you start to get a little light browning, as it will bake again later.
Another key is to top it quickly and be sure to load immediately after topping. Don't let several sit around already topped while a first one bakes, as the sauce will start sogging the crust.
double post, pls delete
I agree, par-bake it first. After par-baking, I would freeze it solid, then wrap it in cling wrap, then wrap it in aluminum foil.
One thought on par-baking is that you might not want to do it at the highest temperature like one normally does for a regular pizza. You want it to just get firm, not necessarily get good color. So maybe 450 for a few minutes (up to 5). Of course when cooking it you can do the full temperature. You can also top your pizza after it freezes and wrap the same way. Then it is ready to go.
Some people will dock the dough to keep it from puffing too much. Docking is just poking it with a fork or other such device.
Edit: Reinhart seems to cook it at higher temperatures but does mention to add extra water if freezing:
I have a friend who works at a Pub style Bar & Restaurant. I've been allowed in the kitchen (as a 'step & fetchit' guy) and get to observe their operations. Most of the food they serve is house made and pretty good, except for a sorry and pathetic excuse for a Pizza (truly the worst I've ever tasted). It was outsourced and came in frozen.
One day, I walked in with an extra pie I made at home (not sourdough) and threw it in their oven. It was just a simple pie, folks, but they loved it. They wanted to adopt such a pie for their menu but had timing issues. They try to get orders out in 10-12 minutes, so forming, topping and baking a pie in the middle of all else going on, wasn't going to happen.
So, I did a test for them whereby I took 3 pie doughs and parbaked 2 and left one as raw dough. One of the parbaked crusts I topped as normal (marinara & mozz) and I froze all three. Other than the olive oil that Gordon mentions, I did exactly how he and Maverick describe.
After two days frozen, I took them down to the restaurant and we topped the frozen raw dough pie and the other 'untopped' prebaked crust and baked all three to the same point. To my surprise, the prebaked, topped before frozen pie (for some reason that I can't explain), was everyone's favorite and to my mind, closest to what I make fresh at home.
So now, the Prep guy whips up a couple of days worth of pie, freezes and then wraps and stacks them in the morning and during sevice, within 10 minutes, the pie is ready to serve. A sprinkle of dry oregano under refreshed mozz at the 3/4 mark, makes it a pretty nice pie, considering. Certainly, light years beyond what they had been doing.
I eat there free now. I usually order whatever is experimental (not off the menu) and I don't do it very often (I prefer to hang in the kitchen, where I get to taste test the experiments anyway).
For what it's worth.
dobie