Freezing dough

Can dough be frozen? If so at what point? Example I want to make a batch of pizza dough enough for 6 - 12 inch pizzas. But since there is only me and my wife I am not going to eat them all in one day or even a week.

Can I make the dough, portion and freeze before the first ferment or, after the 1st ferment.

Any thoughts

I regularly freeze several naturally leavened doughs: pizza, tortilla and brioche. I freeze pre-shaping, after the bulk. For pizza and tortilla, I take an amount of dough for 1 pizza or tortilla, roll into a ball and then flatten into a disk, but not a disk as large as what I’ll eventually bake. For a 12 inch pizza, I might make 4-6 inch disks … the other thing keeping them to a size to fit in a ziploc bag. I find the disk shape stores easily and still thaws fairly fast. I use parchment between the disks and then into a ziploc to freeze. This allows me to easily remove 1 or more disks to thaw, roll to final size and bake. For pizza I thaw to the point of being able to roll, cover and let warm further and rise.

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Thank you very much. I like your system for the pizza dough which I will certainly adopt.

Have a great day, GT

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Thanks, Liz, great to know. This is a question that has been vaguely floating around in my consciousness for a while but I’ve never bothered to ask or research.

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How long from freezer until a personal pizza dough is thawed, puffed up and ready to use? Roughly of course :smirk: I guess my question is do you pull from the freezer the night before for dinner the next day, or the same morning?

Ha! Usually, I think “oh, pizza sounds good” … about the time I’m hungry. So, I pull out a disk, unwrap and put it on a bare granite countertop. I think you have granite also, or at least stone and this goes along with the thermal mass discussion on your Instagram … you probably know, but things thaw faster on stone, lose heat faster also. Anyway, as soon as the disk feels pliable, I shape it a bit, turn it over on the countertop, etc., etc. I preheat a cast iron “stone”. Then add toppings and I pretty much do a “bake from cold”, i.e. it is not all puffy when it goes in the oven like it is if you bake it fresh. But the hot stone and warmish dough gives some spring and I get a nice crisp on the bottom crust with puffy edges.

***Edited days later after next response. I realize I never wrote estimated time. I’m going to say about 45 - 60 minutes from freezer to oven.

Oh good the process sounds forgiving and same-day friendly. Yes, I have some sort of thick metal plank I use to defrost meat on, same idea I guess. Thanks!

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