Homemade Frozen Pizza

[tortoise]

I've finally tweeked and tweeked to get a homemade pizza that rivals DiGiorno's (in my fiance's opinion).

Now I need to figure out how to freeze it for baking in 20 minutes.

I found big freezer bags today that I can fit a whole pizza in. Now to figure out the rest...

I'm assuming some pre-baking of the crust is required? Then add toppings and freeze?

 

[freemotion]

I used to make a couple dozen single-serving pizzas at a time when I was single and working full-time. I would cut up boxes to get 24 pieces of cardboard that fit inside a gallon ziploc (with wiggle room for the thickness of the pizza), cover them with foil, and make the pizzas right onto them. I'd freeze them raw.

To cook them, I'd slide the foil off the cardboard and right onto the oven rack of a preheated oven. I'd save the cardboard and the bags to use over and over. It worked out GREAT and was a huge time and money saver. I want to do it again but we rarely have that much freezer space anymore!

I remember figuring out the time it took per pizza and although it took a good part of an afternoon to make them up, it still ended up being less time per pizza than ordering out. MUCH cheaper, too.

I also made a bunch with sharp cheddar and brocolli and no sauce that were quite good, although a garlic sauce might be good on those.

 

[patandchickens]

I haven't experimented with different methods very much so do not claim this is the best, but I can tell you it works Real Well for me:

I just make the crust, shape it, and bake it til it is just barely 'set' (i.e. there is no raw dough left but it has not yet begun to crisp or brown). Then I cool it on a rack and freeze it (plain). To use, I take it out of the freezer onto a baking pan, apply sauce/cheese/toppings, and pop into a 425-450 F oven til done. So you are putting fresh toppings on the frozen crust and going right into the oven.

I have also tried applying (cold) toppings to a prebaked and thoroughly-cooled crust, then immediately freezing; but it came out soggier for me that way and seemed to take a bit longer to bake(?).

The biggest advantage to me of just freezing the nekkid prebaked crust is that you can use it to with whatever is kicking around the fridge at the time when you want pizza. So it is very adaptable.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[tortoise]

Thanks Pat. So maybe if I bake it for 1/2 the cooking time, top it, freeze it?

So 10 minutes for thick crust. Then freeze. And bake 20 minutes to finish it off?

Some days I have tons of energy to cook, but then we end up with too many leftovers and wasted food! If I can divert my excess cooking enthusiasm into pre-making pizza crusts... we can save up to $20/week by not buying DiGiorno. Even if we wait until they are on sale, it still ends up giving me sticker shock.

 

[patandchickens]

To be honest I have never really noticed what the cooking time is, but half is probably ballpark right -- a good time to check, anyhow. (I am not big on cooking by numbers, neither time temperature nor measured amounts, which is probably why I *sucked* at doing bench chemistry water quality type stuff back when I was a biologist LOL)

Yeah, frozen pizza crusts are REALLY worth having in the freezer IMO. And honestly I think they are a lot tastier than the storeboughten ones.

In particular I recommend a smear of tomato paste with fresh (if available) oregano added, instead of pizza sauce; and a very liberal sprinkling of granulated garlic or homemade garlic powder over top of the whole thing just before it goes into the oven.

Alternatively, I also like a white pizza where you make a sort of loose paste out of olive oil, herbs and a little grated parmesan-type cheese, smear it across the crust, top with mozzarella, and then add some grilled chicken and onions, or some pepperoni that has been cut into slivers.

My problem is that we eat pizza at a faster rate than I tend to make and freeze crusts, lol.

Pat

 

[Bettacreek]

I mix up all the dough, then just freeze the dough. It doesn't take long at all to flour the pan, roll out the dough and dump as much junk on it as you can. The long part is making up all the darn dough. BUT, don't make your dough batches too big. I double my recipe, and once tried to quadruple it and ended up kicking myself in the arse. It took SOOOO long to knead. It'd be easier and quicker to make several batches in seperate bowls to be honest.

 

[tortoise]

I mix up all the dough, then just freeze the dough. It doesn't take long at all to flour the pan, roll out the dough and dump as much junk on it as you can. The long part is making up all the darn dough. BUT, don't make your dough batches too big. I double my recipe, and once tried to quadruple it and ended up kicking myself in the arse. It took SOOOO long to knead. It'd be easier and quicker to make several batches in seperate bowls to be honest.

I hear you there! When I was a kid, we made 12 loaves of bread almost every week. My mom had a big bread hook thingie (very cool!) to mix and knead the bread. We did it in 2 batches.

I'm making thiese 1 at a time because I only have one pan. That's OK. I only plan to have 2 - 4 in the freezer at any given time.

I have to get some cheese tomorrow when I'm in town, and then I can play around with making pizza. (Yay!)

 

[Wildsky]

What kinda dough are you guys mixing up?

My dad makes an awesome pizza, and the dough is just flour, water and salt, and oiled hands to spread it out. Its a thin crispy crust. Its so fast that its not worth it to make ahead of time to freeze.

 

[patandchickens]

What kinda dough are you guys mixing up?

My dad makes an awesome pizza, and the dough is just flour, water and salt, and oiled hands to spread it out. Its a thin crispy crust. Its so fast that its not worth it to make ahead of time to freeze.

Hm, that sounds really interesting -- recipe, recipe?

I have only ever used a yeast dough.

Pat

 

[me&thegals]

Yes, we definitely need some recipes, people!! I haven't made pizza in ages, and I'm getting hungry for 1 or 3