3 Easiest Ways About How to Store Pizza Dough Ahead Of Times
If you have little ones in your house who unexpectedly rant for pizzas any time, first of all, the best way to bring your life out of “Pizza-Pizza stress” is to make preparations ahead of time. If you only fancy homemade dough, storing pizza dough for later uses can reduce 70% of your pizza-making job.
But how to store pizza dough so it doesn’t lose its freshness, elasticity, texture, and all other essential qualities that turn it into irresistible pizza?
The Good news is, there are no multifaceted equations to deal with. The best way to store leftover pizza dough depends on when you are going to have it again. But anyways, we have countertop, fridge, and freezer methods to store pizza dough for the next planned or unplanned pizza emergency.
Let’s look further into how and why you store pizza in this fancy busy world.
How to Store Pizza Dough – The Benefits of Storing Pizza Dough for Crucial Times:
This world is under the evil influence of microbes that can turn any edible items into waste material. Your dough has yeast, which is itself a delicate thing regarding bacteria and hot temperatures. And you may know, you have to KEEP YOUR DOUGH AWAY FROM DRYNESS for the sake of a good pizza.
Storing pizza dough has the following major benefits;
- You keep it to make your life easier against your family’s unplanned requests.
- It reduces your pizza-making efforts whenever you go for pizza making
- Your dough will definitely last longer according to your needs
- You would be less bound to temperatures, so you can add desirable ingredients to test different flavors
- Last but not least, you can scale it commercially – you can do “dough-making” services.
One thing more, storing pizza dough is entirely hooked on your need about when you will be having your dough to enlighten your dining table again.
How To Store Pizza Dough OverNight – The Counter Top Method:
It perfectly makes sense that you might not be in a hurry to go for pizza baking right after you finish with the dough stuff. In that case, you can store pizza dough on the kitchen countertop at room temperature.
So, this method springs you leverage to rest your pizza dough for 4-12 hours at room temperature, depending on various factors.
But I would suggest you don’t go above 6 hours as there will be more chances the pizza dough will be killed, which we normally say as overproofing.
The max 12 hours limit is for those conditions in which temperatures remain 15-25F degrees.
Moreover, the given time range is indirectly proportional to the quantity of Yeast. The more the yeast concentration will be, the less time will be required to store pizza dough on the countertop.
The third and last one is crust type, what type of dough crust you are going to make, Neapolitan, Italian, NewYork, etc. The Neapolitan-style dough can settle in-between 8-12 hours, but to protect you from repentances, I am again suggesting you not to go above 4hrs if your focus is not Neapolitan
So, this is how to store pizza dough overnight;
- Roll the pizza dough into balls size puffs.
- Do some olive oil facial of dough balls.
- Place in an airtight container or cover the dough balls with a lid
- Leave it for some time for fermentation
How To Store Pizza Dough in Fridge – For Mid-range Resting:
You made the pizza on the weekdays, and now you want to reap full advantage of leftover dough on weekends, so storing pizza dough in the fridge is your go-to method.
This is also called the Cold fermentation method, and you can know in detail how long the dough lasts in the fridge.
Fundamentally, you slow down the fermentation process at low temperatures. As a result, the dough can rest for 3-7+ days. But, in the matters of dough, as everything is a conditional substance, I would again put this forward that DON’T go above 3 days.
Making Pizza Dough Ahead of Times Via Fridge Method:
The whole mechanism is simple that includes;
- After making the pizza dough, it’s good to turn the whole dough into balls, ideally measuring 250gms each.
- Coat some Olive oil and place it in an airtight zipper bag, container, or any other packaging.
- Leave the dough for the mentioned duration.
As this is a slow fermentation process, the yeast will not potentially be paused from its working. The richness of gluten in the flour, less concentration of yeast, and no dairy products in the recipe will bring better long-lasting results than the countertop method.
The Freezer Method – Freezing Homemade Pizza Dough:
Can you freeze homemade pizza dough? Absolutely yes, buddy! Not 1 day, 3 days, or a week, but if you want to go for long-term preservation, let’s free homemade pizza dough for 3-4 months.
Every chef uses their own techniques to freeze pizza dough; yet, there are also multiple ways to defrost the frozen dough then.
Technically, you entirely halt the yeast processing at freezing temperatures so you can keep it for more extended uses.
This is how you do it through my advice;
- Convert the dough into balls
- Some chefs do, some don’t, but let the dough rest for 1-2 hours at room temperature before you place it into the freezer room. This will start the fermentation process, and you’ll be somewhat near the fermentation heights.
- Oil the dough balls
- Pack it into airtight zipper bags or place it in cans.
- Let it rest for 3-4 months.
What to Do With Leftover Pizza Dough? Some Great Ideas With Stored Pizza Dough:
Arguably, the existence of this question is real, what can I do with leftover pizza dough? You can bring that stored pizza dough for domestic and commercial purposes; let’s face this;
Adding Flavor – You Can Definitely Love It:
When storing dough on the countertop and in the fridge, the most advisable note you get from all of the expert chefs is don’t add dairy products or some spices as they decompose faster than basic ingredients, potentially risking your stored pizza dough.
Adding milk (dry, scalded, skimmed) adds softness, chewiness, and flavor. So, when you reactivate the dough at room Temperature, you can add these ingredients according to your liking.
Using Dough as a Business:
Although I don’t do it anymore, you can do it to treasuring out some extra bucks from your pizza artistry. The stored dough can be marketed as a brand in retail stores, and then you can even emerge as a brand by scaling the business goals.
Saving Your Efforts, Rescuing Your Reputation:
Who doesn’t like unwanted guests? Everyone doesn’t, I guess. The same goes for sudden pizza requests from your partner and your naughty ones.
To keep the impact minimal of those “circumstances,” making pizza dough ahead of times, especially for those “sudden” moments, is exceptionally a good idea.
People Also Ask – FAQs
Can we keep ready-made pizza base in the fridge?
Yes, you have to immediately store readymade pizza base in the freezer or fridge according to your needs. You can also store it at room temperatures but then you have to use it under 4 hours.
How to store pizza dough for a few hours?
The right way to do it is to store on the countertop at the room Temperatures. This way you can start making pizza from it after 4-6 hours. But don’t go beyond this limit. You may face quality issues.
How do you store pizza dough after making it?
Whether you store pizza dough in the fridge, freezer, and countertop, you should make dough balls, oil it, and place in airtight containers or bags to avoid dryness and change in elasticity.
The Bottom Line – What’s The Crux:
So when you are left with some extra dough and don’t have an idea what more can be done with these extra pizza dough balls, don’t ever think to throw away or waste that gem source of the favorite staple food of ALL-aged persons. Store it, but how to store pizza dough with safety and less effort?
There are three ways: leaving it on the countertop, storing pizza dough in the fridge, and freezing homemade pizza for long-term use.
Factually, there are multiple benefits to that such act, and you’ll definitely find your pizza motivation in storing pizza dough.
