Hello everyone -
Again....I love this list. I've gotten lots of great tips which is great
since I'm so very new to bread baking. A couple of weeks ago, I asked
for ways to store pizza dough so that I can make it "fresh" when I come
home from work. If anyone is interested, here is a compilation of the
responses I received.
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- -I always make my dough the day before. I do it on the dough setting in
the
bread machine, take it out, spray some Pam in a ziplock bag, and throw
the
dough into the bag, and seal it up leaving some air space in the bag.
Then I
put it in the fridge till I want to make the pizza. It does rise in
there.
This does one other thing too. The resting time makes the dough easier to
spread or roll out too.
I've also been told you can freeze the dough successfully, but I haven't
tried it myself
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- -If you make pizza dough using a "knead and first rise" cycle or
equivalent, you can either freeze the dough or refrigerate it.
I usually freeze it, and, if I'm organized enough to plan ahead, I put it
in the refrigerator the night before I want to use it. Then when I come
home from work, I either roll out it, put toppings on it and bake it
or--if I have more time--I roll it out, let it rise again for an hour,
then do the rest.
It's worth trying both ways. You get a lighter dough if you let it rise
again, obviously, but the other way is perfectly fine.
By the way, I goofed on my schedule a while back and wound up leaving the
dough in the fridge for about 2 weeks before I used it. It did not rise
at all that time--I imagine all the little yeast creatures had eaten
their fill--but the dough was still good, although more like pita bread
than pizza dough.
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- - Just wrap the dough in plastic wrap and freeze. When you use it you
can
unwrap it, place it in a bowl, cover, and place in the refrigerator
overnite.
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- -I'll tell you what I do with pizza dough to have it ready when you want
it.
Make the dough and then shape it on the pan. I use cake pans for
individual
size pizza, but you can make a large one or two depending on how much
dough you have.
I let the dough rise a little and shape it with my hand to make a crust
around
the edge, then take a fork and poke little holes all around the bottom.
Put the pizza crusts in a preheated oven for 10 minutes. Remove and let
cool.
Wrap the crusts in plastic bags, cling wrap, or whatever you use for
putting
stuff in the freezer. Freeze until you want them.
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Diane Butts
phone: 202-501-7117
fax: 202-501-6093
e-mail: dbutts@usia.gov
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