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Make-Ahead Pizza

From

February/March 2009

Make-Ahead Pizza

Make-Ahead Pizza is tricky. Ice crystals that form in dough in the freezer puncture the yeast cells, inhibiting their ability to form carbon dioxide, which is what causes the dough to rise. To bolster the dough’s rising power, we added baking powder. To eliminate any toughness on the crust’s interior, we turned to half-and-half. The dairy added extra richness and made a soft dough that tasters appreciated. We also replaced some of the flour with cornstarch to further tenderize the dough. To achieve a crisp, chewy exterior crust, we tweaked the water-to-flour ratio of the dough. Since inevitable moisture loss occurs in the freezer, we mixed up dough with a higher proportion of water to flour, patted the dough out into disposable aluminum pizza pans, gave the pizza a few days in the freezer, and then baked it. For the sauce, switching from fresh to dried herbs and doubling the amounts normally called for compensated for the dulling deep freeze.

Makes two 12-inch pizzas

You will need two 12-inch disposable aluminum pizza pans and a baking stone for this recipe. See related testing for the test kitchen’s recommended baking stone.

Ingredients

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