Keeping store-bought or homemade pizza dough in your fridge or freezer is a terrific way to have pizza on hand whenever the need strikes. When you know how to properly store pizza dough, you can rest assured that delicious pizza is never more than a few hours away.
Pizza dough is a leavened, wheat-based dough that is rolled thin and shaped into a disc or rectangle by pizza makers. Toppings like sauces, tomatoes, oodles of cheese, meats, and vegetables can be added to the dough before baking at a high temperature. The dough bakes into a chewy, crispy pizza crust.
Homemade pizza dough can be stored properly for up to five days in the fridge or three months in the freezer. The amount of yeast in the dough, however, will determine the ideal storage duration. In general, the less yeast there is in the dough, the longer it will keep. Keeping the extra dough in the freezer is thus a wonderful method for making meal planning much easier.
Here’s how you can store your pizza dough.
At Room Temperature:
During fermentation, pizza dough is often kept at room temperature on the counter. While standard pizza dough is left for 1-2 hours, Neapolitan pizza dough is fermented at room temperature for 8–12 hours. The only change is the amount of yeast used. The less yeast there is in the dough, the longer it may be left out at room temperature without over-proofing.
Olive oil should be brushed on the dough and the container. Pizza dough should be wrapped in plastic wrap or kept in an airtight container. As a result, the dough doesn't dry out and develops a hard, dry surface. It makes it simpler to remove from the container when you're ready to bake pizza, as well.
When preparing pizza dough, it is best to start with one large dough and then double or triple the recipe. Then, as indicated before, keep it in an oiled container for 1-2 hours. Make smaller, portion-sized dough balls first. Then, depending on the type of pizza dough you're creating, leave it for another hour overnight.
In The Refrigerator:
Refrigerating pizza dough is good if you want to make it ahead of time or have leftover dough after baking pizza. It is also beneficial for slow fermentation, which produces a more complex flavour.
Here are a few steps to storing it right:
• Make the pizza dough.
• As directed by the recipe, let the pizza dough rise.
• Make separate dough balls.
• Place the dough balls in olive oil-coated, airtight containers or in a plastic-wrapped basin.
• For up to 7 days, keep the container in the fridge.
In The Freezer
If you're not going to use the remaining dough for a while or simply want to keep some backup pizza dough on hand at all times, you should freeze it.
Here's how to freeze it:
• Bulk-ferment your pizza dough. Allow the pizza dough to rise according to the directions on the package.
• Separate the dough into separate balls.
• Place the dough balls in an airtight container covered with olive oil or in a zip-lock bag.
• Allow the dough balls to rise until almost totally fermented.
• For up to three months, store the container in the freezer.
