We sell raw dough balls to our guests to make their own pies at home. I know I should know this :? … but I had a guest ask about freezing uncooked pizza dough. Can it be done and still turn out okay? I never really thought about it. Thanks for your info.
Once your dough is balled put in a plastic bag and freeze.Just take out 3-4 hours before ready to use.Or take out day before and let thaw in the refridgerater,be sure it is covered in plastic though.You can add some recipes in your bag for fried dough or some pizza sauce,just another gimmick to push a sale.
NiccademoAir is the enemy when freezing, so mash out the air when bagging. I just read in magazine this month about their testing just this. It said to make sure that you let the dough rise the first time before freezing for best results (yeast dies in the freezer).
Do you advertise this ‘service’, or just sell when people ask you? Do you need any special permitting like USDA or anything?
Here is Tom’s answer to that question from a while back. http://www.pmq.com/cgi-bin/tt/index.cgi?read=24266
It helped me.
We don’t really “advertise” it though it is on our board listed at pizza dough. We sell all sizes (10" to 18") for different prices. People started asking from the beginning and we said “why not”? We have some local chefs that buy our “balls” when they bake at home. They’ve use it to BBQ as well. As far as USDA permits, don’t know. Haven’t really checked into it. We have had the health department in the shop at one point while I was wrapping up the dough for a guest. He asked what we were doing but didn’t say that we couldn’t. Didn’t get written up. So I guess it’s okay. Thanks for all your info!
Pizza Hut uses frozen do, so yeah it works. And their dough rises after it thaws.
Raw pizza dough, or even bread and soft bun doughs can be frozen in the average home or store freezer for up to 10 days, after that, it deteriorates pretty fast. For this reason we normally say that it will keep for a full week as a week is easier to keep track of than 10 days. The type of deterioration that the dough will experience is a lack of consistent rising properties, so the dough may not rise as well as expected and as a result it will not bake-out as well either. Here’s a tip that might help those of you making frozen dough for your customers, or for those of you with customers requesting dough that they will take home to freeze; Suggest to your customer that they freeze the dough for up to a week, but not to exceed 10 days. To use the dough, lightly oil the dough ball and thaw it out inside of a plastic bag in the refrigerator overnight, then remove it from the bag and knead the dough for a couple minutes, shape it back into a dough ball and place it into a lightly oiled bowl, cover to prevent drying and allow to set at room temperature for about 90 minutes, or until the dough can be easily shaped to fit the pizza pan, then proceed with dressing the pizza skin and bake as normal. The kneading of the dough ball after thawing helps to restore some of the vitality back to the dough.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
Not sure, but I don’t think you have any worries about the USDA unless you’re selling for resale.
For freezing, I tried it with an unbaked pizza some years ago - what I found was that it was fine for a couple weeks, but began deteriorating noticably after that. I’d assume it would be the same for a doughball. My trouble might have been with letting air get at the dough, however.
there is no need for USDA concern, as you are licensed as a food establishment…
USDA gets involved when the meat content % exceeds 3% of the total weight of the pizza
Actually, the problem wasn’t with air getting at the dough ball at all, the problem has to do with the slow freezing rate that the dough was exposed to when you froze it. Slow freezing, or static freezing as it is referred to is extremely deleterious to the yeast due to the large size of ice crystals formed. Blast freezing (the way cmmercial frozen dough is frozen) is accomplished at temperatures of -25 to -35F for a mechanical freezer and -45 to -65F for a cryogenic freezer (liquid carbon dioxide or nitrogen). At these much lower freezing temperatures a smaller ice crystal is formed, which does not damage the yeast nearlt as much. Also, certain chemicals can be added to the dough (oxidants) such as ascorbic acid, azodicarbonamide, potassium iodate, potassium bromate, and oxidative enzymes, which will have a strengthening affect on the dough as it ages in the freezer. This is how the long shelf life properties are achieved with the commercial frozen doughs. For the most part, dough that is not blast frozen will have a shelf life of 2 to 3 weeks, after which time the quality falls off quickly.
Tom Lehmann/the Dough Doctor
The place I buy my frozen dough balls said I could use it up to 6 mos as long as I keep it frozen.Now I’m having 2nd thoughts
Derek
I’d be having second thoughts too. Six months is just too far out for a quality frozen dough, especially one of a lean dough formulation such as a pizza dough.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
We have used Hunt Brothers frozen pizza crusts (some with sauce and cheese) and we add toppings and put immediately into our oven to cook for about 6.5 minutes. These are very good pizzas. Can this be done with home made crusts? Anybody familiar with Hunt Brothers process, I know they are a national chain.