Freezing pizza and bread dough

[Musie]

I want to make batches of pizza dough (and maybe bread dough too) that I will just defrost when I need to use it. I've not done this with uncooked dough before, so is there anything I should know?

Should I let it rise before or after freezing, or both?

[shallots]

For Pizza dough, I strongly recommend Peter Reinhart's book American Pie. I've made four of his pizza dough's many times and frozen them and had no problems (and no failures).

I also freeze the dough in oiled zip lock bags; when I take it out of the freezer, I transfer it (before it starts to thaw) to a Glad plastic box (with cover ) and let it thaw and expand there (it's easier to get out of a fixed wall than a soft wall).

We drilled four holes in a piece of wood and stuck ten inch dowels in each. I use that to dry out my zip lock bags before I store them for the next use.

[Musie]

Pizza dough seems pretty good to freeze raw then bake when needed. Bread looks like it might take some experimentation.

[Spice_zing]

Here’s a link that may help. I seldom freeze dough because I’ve had mixed results. I usually bake and freeze the finished product. Good luck.

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/5100...

[CocoaChanel]

Mr. Vuitton makes and freezes pizza dough frequently. He freezes it after it rises. Just wrap it well in plastic wrap. To use, we simply take it out of the freezer a few hours in advance, let it thaw and then roll it out on the pizza stone, add and toppings and bake the pizza

[Mestralle]

Ditto what Cocoa said, except since plastic wrap for some reason annoys me to no end, I portion the dough balls/disks into freezer bags that are misted on the inside with olive oil.

I also mark the weight of each portion with a Sharpie on the bag, since we generally make individual pizzas, and my husband likes his slightly bigger and thicker.

[foodieX2]

I was going to post the same thing- oil a freezer bag as that plastic wrap can be a bear at times. I don't mark the weight but I do mark the date. I often have multiple bags of dough in the fridge and try to use the oldest first.

[Spice_zing]

Freezer paper works great bec the dough doesn't seem to stick like it does with plastic wrap. Also adds a layer of protection from moisture and odors. Then you can put it in freezer bags.