Freezing Pizza Dough

My family loves the weekly pizza night. We often hold them on Fridays, as a way to celebrate the end of a busy work and school week.

Making pizzas sounds like it might be a labour-intensive endeavour, but when my freezer is stocked with ready-made dough, it’s a cinch to assemble everyone’s favourite. What’s that you say? Pizza dough in the freezer? Absolutely!

Once every month or so, I triple my favourite pizza dough recipe and stock my freezer with frozen balls of dough. The process is simple: I divide the dough into 18 individual portions, brush the tops and sides with a little olive oil and tightly bundle each in plastic wrap. I tuck the balls away in the freezer and use them as needed.

Keeping pizza dough in the freezer is great for the following:

Last minute dinners when you have no idea what to cook
Family Friday pizza nights
Entertaining: divide each dough into mini balls and make individual pizzas, top with pesto and brie, or sausage and red pepper for an easy appetizer
Making cinnamon buns
Having friends over for calzones and movies
School lunches
Breadsticks

Do you make your own pizza dough? What are your favourite pizza toppings?

Homemade Pizza Dough

Adapted from The Barefoot Contessa. I triple this recipe for my family, but feel free to make one or two batches, if you prefer.

You’ll Need

1 ¼ cups warm water
1 Tbsp plus 1 tsp active dry yeast
2 Tbsp honey
3 Tbsp olive oil
4 cups all-purpose or bread flour, plus extra for kneading
2 tsp kosher salt

Prep and Cook

Combine the water, yeast, honey, and olive oil in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add 3 cups flour, then the salt, and mix well.
While mixing, add 1 more cup of flour, or enough to make soft dough. Knead the dough on low to medium speed for about 10 minutes until smooth, sprinkling it with flour, if necessary, to keep it from sticking to the bowl.
When the dough is ready, turn it out onto a floured board and knead by hand a dozen times. It should be smooth and elastic.
Divide the dough into 6 equal portions. Brush each with olive oil and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Store in the freezer until needed.
To thaw the dough, remove it from the freezer and thaw in the fridge overnight. Unwrap the dough, place it on a baking sheet and allow it to rise in a warm room for 30 minutes to 1 hour.