So pizza to me is that one desert island food. Meaning if ever I’m trapped on an island with only one food source I want pizza to be it. As long as I can make a fire (google ‘how to make a fire with no matches’) I’m golden. Pizza, like bacon, should be its own food group. For as long as I can remember Friday night was pizza night in my house. Even as far back as my childhood, Mom always made us pizza on Fridays. When I bought my first house and pre-Mr. Fantabulous Friday nights was pizza night whether I was working at our pizza shop, on a date (yes even a date) or chilling out at home. Pizza was my boyfriend.
When Mr. Fantabulous and I started dating instead of going out on Fridays we’d grab a pizza, some soda and watch movies. I can remember the one night we power watched H.R. Pufnstuf for 6 hours straight. I think we went through 2 whole pizzas, doritos and a 2 litre of coke. Oh young love… Now I’m lucky I can stay up past 11pm on a Friday night and eat more than 2 slices.
I honestly meant to share this kitchen ‘recipe’ years ago but I just kept forgetting. It’s not like this is super secret and it’s one of those things EVERYONE in the world should do. I loathe frozen ‘cardboard’ type pizzas and am not a fan of chain-type pizza shops. Anything made in mass production in a facility and then shipped to stores to reheat is just not my thing. I’m all for the stand alone pizza shops. I fully support local.
And for those of you that think there isn’t, yes, there is such a thing as bad pizza. No longer is “even if it’s bad pizza it’s still good as it’s pizza” a valid statement. Yeah, WRONG! This past summer, while we were in Scottsdale for vacation we stopped at this one pizza shop. They weren’t busy but we were hungry and we opted to give it a try. Now I should have known it was going to be bad after I tasted their “homemade” caesar salad dressing. It was probably the nastiest caesar dressing I have ever had. It was like you made it with anchovies that sat out in the 110F degree sun…uncovered. Yeah, nasty!
Out comes this pizza to our table and I made a face. It was cut “wrong” as it was a round pizza but it was cut in squares. I get that’s a regional type thing but no, no no no. Pizza slices are triangular; specifically it’s an Isosceles triangle TYVM.
So Mr. Fantabulous grabs his square of pizza, takes one bite and puts it down. He doesn’t chew, he just sits there looking at me with a bite of pizza in his mouth. I take my bite, chew once, stop, set my pizza down and look back at him.
…did you ever take a bite of something that you so badly want to spit out but you can’t do to manners? That was this pizza. I thought about grabbing my napkin and spitting it out but the girl came right back and said “Isn’t it awesome? Don’t you just love it?” I ended up swallowing that bite whole, taking one for the team, and said “Um it’s um…something“. Folks it was so bad that we literally left the entire pizza there, paid our bill and walked out.
Since I spent the past few weeks prepping for my shoulder surgery I made 5 frozen pizzas for Mr. Fantabulous that he can just pop into the oven and ‘cook’ dinner for us. Now trust me this man will take full credit for cooking dinner when he makes these. But that’s cool, as long as my butt gets a slice or two.
These couldn’t be any easier to make. The only specialty thing I’d advise getting (though not necessary) are the cardboard cake rounds when you want to freeze them. They just add more support to the pizza as they are freezing and it makes stacking in the freezer much easier.
When it comes to making these at home, you want to par-bake your dough naked. One thing that is a must when you make your pizza shells is once you stretch it and put it on your pizza screen (that’s what I use) you need to ‘dock the dough’. Docking the dough can be done with the tines of a fork or a pizza docker. You’re perforating the surface of the dough with little holes that allow the air to flow through it while it bakes and prevents the dough from puffing up making giant air bubbles.
You don’t cook the dough all the way, just about 6 minutes at 550F. At 6 minutes you’re able to use a pizza peel and pull the ‘dough shell’ right off the screen without it sticking. You don’t want to cook this fully.
Once the shells are cooled, just top with your favorite sauce, cheese and toppings. I would caution you on using fresh veggies that have a high water content (mushrooms, zucchini, squash, etc) as they could make the pizza soggy when you finish baking it. In that case I would either saute them up first and put them on the pizza OR when you’re ready to bake the pizza to eat, add them then.
After you have them all ready, pop them into the freezer uncovered for about an hour or until they are frozen (they may not be frozen solid yet but an hour is good enough to wrap them up tightly. To wrap, give them a double wrapping of plastic wrap and then another wrapping of aluminum foil. Since Mr. Fantabulous is baking these I put the instructions on a label on the pizza this way if I’m sleeping he can truly fend for himself… I hope!
Making frozen homemade pizzas is a great weekend project as it doesn’t take long to make a batch of these and it’s a great way to get the kids involved. Plus if you have kids that live away and are home visiting you for the holidays, make a bunch of these for them to take home and store in their freezer.
PrintCountdown to Christmas 2015 Day 6: Homemade Frozen Pizzas
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Instructions
- Follow the instructions on making the Best Pizza Dough.
- Thirty minutes before baking (and the dough is ready), place a Pizza Stone on the lower third rack or invert a metal pan and place on the rack.
- Preheat the oven at 550F for 30 minutes. *if using a Pizza Screen , do not preheat the screen but place the oven rack on the lower third rung.
- If using the pizza stone or inverted pan, stretch out the dough and place on a flour dusted paddle. If you don’t have a paddle stretch out on a flour/corn meal dusted parchment paper.
- Stretch the dough into a 12″ round, thin crust, leaving the outer edge slightly thicker.
- Using a fork, dock the pizza dough. Docking the dough is where you take a fork and prick hole all round the edge of the dough and in the middle (avoid the thin spots) to allow air to vent up through the dough while it bakes. This will help prevent bubbles.
- Bake the dough for 6 minutes and remove the shell from the oven and place on a cooling rack.
- Once the shell is cooled put the shell on a 12″ Cardboard Cake Round , top with sauce, cheese and toppings.
- Place the prepared pizzas on a cookie pan and place in the freezer uncovered. You want to flash freeze the pizza. It’ll make it easier to wrap later.
- Freeze for one hour, remove from the freezer and double wrap in plastic wrap and foil.
- To bake – preheat the oven to 450F, unwrap the pizza and place the pizza on a screen (do not bake the cardboard round!) or baking stone.
- Bake for 10-15 minutes or until the crust is golden brown and the cheese is bubbly.
Notes
Certain fresh vegetables do not freeze well raw – mushrooms, zucchini and squash as they have a high water content. I would either saute up the vegetables first, let them cool and then place on the parbaked pizza shell OR when you’re ready to bake, add them fresh raw veggies then.
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