Pizza is now a new way of life. Whether the reason is the relishing taste or the easy preparation, you can never have enough of pizza. When it comes to making pizza, the dough is the trickiest part. Buying readymade dough every other day or preparing the dough every third week can be hassling.
To save yourself from this trouble, you can easily try out storing the pizza dough by refrigerating it. But it can get messy when you’re finally ready to defrost it.
So, for your benefit, we’ve come up with some easy and suitable methods on how to defrost frozen pizza dough that will save your time and energy.
5 Methods to Defrost Pizza Dough
Although there are many methods that you can use to defrost your pizza dough, not all of them apply to everyone. Pizza dough varies on a lot of aspects – it can be flatbread, Detroit, stuffed crust, and so on.
Each of these has a specific consistency, and taste may alter if incorrectly refrigerated and later defrosted. It is important to know how to freeze pizza dough and later defrost it properly. So, we’ve categorized the best five methods to defrost your pizza dough:
1. Defrosting in the Refrigerator
The ideal way to defrost your pizza is to refrigerate it again after removing it from the fridge and storing it in an airtight bag. You can also use a dish wide enough for it to stretch. The next morning you will notice that the exterior of the bag is filled with bubbles and the dough has gradually inflated over time.
But it hasn’t defrosted completely yet. Take the dough out and place it on your kitchen counter for an hour or two to completely defrost it. And you’re ready to use it!
2. Using a Cold-Water Bath
Using a cold-water bath for your pizza dough is one of the oldest methods that exist. Most people have preferred defrosting anything by using cold-water baths as they turn out to be the most effective. The advantage of using a cold-water bath is that the bread consistency will not change, and the dough will not obtain a funny taste.
To try this method out, take your dough from the refrigerator and place it inside a storage bag. It can be an airtight bag like the former method. Next, place it as usual in a wide enough dish and pour cold water inside the dish. The height of cold water should be enough to immerse the bag of pizza dough.
Keep it in this way for around two hours at most. This will defrost the dough completely, and after two hours or so, the dough will appear swelled up and softer.
A way of identifying if the dough is ready is to see the appearance of small bubbles. Take the dough out of the bag and let it dry for some more time so that it is warm enough for you to use it.
3. Placing the Dough on the Counter
This is usually the easiest method to defrost your pizza dough. But this method is only applicable if you have four or five hours at hand. If you’re looking for quicker alternatives, the warm defrosting methods are the best options.
To try this method out, simply take your pizza dough out of the fridge and remove it from the airtight bag. Place it in a wide bowl or dish or any form of container big enough to hold it when it rises.
Wrap it with plastic and leave it for three to four hours in this way. Over time, the dough will begin to soften and rise. You can use it for baking when it is thawed enough.
4. Using a Bowl of Warm Water
The previous methods were all cold defrosting methods. Although they are more effective, they are time-consuming. Warm defrosting methods are quicker alternatives to cold defrosting methods.
Using a warm bowl of water is not an ideal method to defrost your pizza dough, but it can be the quickest. You may not always have three to four hours at hand to defrost your pizza dough and then spend another hour baking it.
Sometimes when you need your dough as fast as possible to be defrosted, using warm water may be the most effective method. The trickiest part of using warm water is that you may accidentally cook it.
So, appropriate care must be taken to avoid cooking it. Place your pizza dough and store it in an airtight bag. Pour warm water in a wide enough bowl and place the pizza dough inside it.
When the dough is placed inside a warm water bowl, it tends to cool rapidly. So, it is important to replace the water in the bowl after 10-15 minutes repeatedly.
It may take less than 10 minutes for the water to cool, so the water should be tested frequently to check. Repeat the process until the dough becomes softened to use for baking.
5. Using an Oven
An oven should be the last thing you should use for defrosting your pizza dough. But if you’re running out of time and the former methods are very time consuming for you, you can save this method as your last resort.
To try this method, scatter some oil in an ovenproof container and the pizza dough. The container should be big enough to hold the dough when it inflates. Wrap the container with plastic and put it inside your oven.
Set the temperature to 100° Fahrenheit and keep it for 40-45 minutes. Most ovens come with a bread-proofing setting. If your oven comes with this setting, then set it accordingly. This setting is the exact temperature to defrost the pizza dough.
When the time has passed, take it out of the oven and check for any inflation. If there is no inflation, keep it back for another 20 minutes. It should be done by the next time.
Make sure that your dough does not get cooked and keep track of time. Once it has softened enough, you can set it aside for 10-15 minutes, and it will be ready to use for baking.
Conclusion
Summing it up, it is evident that defrosting pizza dough can be easy and simple if proper methods are known.
Although both cold and warm defrosting methods work fine for pizza dough, the choice depends on your preference and time availability. All these methods on how to defrost frozen pizza dough will be effective equally.