Freezer Cooking Friday: Pizza Crust

One of my all time favorite things to make and freeze has always been pizza crust.  The stuff is just so darn versatile.  I mean you can even turn it into bread sticks or dinner rolls if worse comes to worse.

I usually take Jay's Pizza Crust Recipe on AllRecipes.com and double the recipe in my bread maker on the dough setting (warning you WILL have to add some extra flour as it is kneading in the bread maker to get it to not stick to everything and knead right.  I usually just add as it is kneading until the stuff stops sticking to the walls of the bread maker and kneads right).

To Freeze:  When it beeps your dough is going to be HUGE, so turn it out onto a floured surface, punch it down good and then I divide it into 1/2 if just going with the original recipe (not doubled or anything).  Each 1/2 will make one good sized pizza (I can usually fit a pizza on my pizza stone no problem per 1/2 batch of dough) and put it into different freezer bags.  Then immediately freeze it.  It'll expand a bit in the freezer as the yeast continues to work, but not too bad.

When Ready to Prepare:  Just pull the dough out of the freezer and leave your bag on the counter.  I usually do this about, oh, 3 hours or so before I plan to make the dough.  It'll go through it's second rise as it defrosts and don't lose track of it or you're going to have ONE big dough ball to deal with.

Take your now big dough out of the bag (I usually just shake it out onto a floured countertop), punch it down, knead it a couple of times to get the air pockets out of it, and stretch it onto your pizza pan of choice.  Place whatever toppings you want on it and bake in a 425 degree oven for ABOUT 15 to 20 minutes (start checking it after 15 minutes so it doesn't overcook) until everything is melted and looks like pizza ;).

And voila!  Easy peazy!