Refrigerator pizza dough is the best way to have fresh, homemade pizza anytime you crave it! Make it ahead, let it rise, and it’s ready to use for up to 2 whole weeks!
It’s a rare day that you wouldn’t find pizza dough in our fridge. Sometimes we need a last minute meal and pizza is our favorite go-to. You can put almost anything on a pizza and make it good. This dough is great because you can make a batch (or double batch), toss it in the fridge, and then I know that you’re covered for dinner emergencies for the next two weeks. You can pull it out of my fridge and have dinner ready within 15 minutes. We showed this trick once for a group cooking lesson and everyone was amazed.
There is no reason to order out. Just keep shredded mozzarella and pepperoni in your freezer, and a jar of sauce in your pantry, and of course some dough in your fridge. It’s easy and it only takes 5 minutes of hands on work to put the dough together. Forget about it for an hour or two while it rises, and then toss it in the fridge.
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Topping Options:
You can add any and all of your favorite toppings to this pizza dough! You can spread it with pizza sauce, pesto, or even just a garlic and olive oil mixture. Veggie lover? Meat lover? It’s all up to you and what you prefer on a pizza. We promise you’re going to love it!
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Instant Vs. Active Dry Yeast:
You can use either yeast in this recipe. Instant yeast can be added with all ingredients and doesn’t require any activation or proofing time. If you choose to use active dry yeast, you’ll want to let that proof in a small bowl by mixing it with the amount of water called for in this recipe. Your water needs to be warm, and should be between 100-105 degrees F to properly proof the yeast.
I love this recipe. I use whole wheat flour instead of all-purpose and am very happy with the result.
During this quarantine we tried many dough recipes, but this is the best!
We could finally enjoy a delicious pizza!
Thank you for the recipe.
The ingredients are so similar to the no knead bread recipes that I have found. Could your recipe also be used for a loaf of bread?
It can, but it’s not my favorite loaf.
Try the natural way of forming your crust. Get a good idea of the size you want to make. Place the dough in the center of a cookie skeet. Start in the center, and with your fingers spread, gently but quickly push the dough evenly outward. Push it to form a circle about 6″ across. Then, starting from the center, pushing the dough out to the size circle you want. Push the dough up to form a free-form rim. If there’s a part you don’t like, let it sit for 5-6 mintues. The dough will be relaxed and you can guide it as you wish. You will have a lovely round which is more alive than one that has been stretched by a rolling pin. The dough will help you do what it wants and shaping gets to be easier. If you like, lightly sprinkle with a little olive oil as you go for a richer flavor.
This is a great basic dough to work with!
Reviving an old post again, but I found this online and want to try it! I’m also a huge fan of the Bread in 5 book, and bake that simple bread often. So my question is, do you need to let the dough warm up when you want to use it, either before or after rolling it out? I’m guessing not, but other materials have said that pizza dough does much better when it warms up so it makes me think. Looking forward to it though 🙂 Maybe we’d actually have pizza more often if it was ready to go!
I don’t necessarily let it warm up. Yes, it makes it easier to work with, but to me the whole point of having refrigerator pizza dough is to make things fast.
This may be a dumb question, but how do you get the pizza onto the pizza stone without it completely falling apart? With all the toppings on it, its hard to handle, especially since the pizza stone is so hot. A frozen pizza is easy, but what do you do with a fresh one?
By the way, I love your videos and your approach to cooking!
You use a pizza peel! Dust it generously with cornmeal and the pizza should roll right off and onto the stone with a few flicks of the wrist. It’s an art.