Do not freeze pizza dough issue

calleyw

on saturday my partner bought two lots of fresh rolled up pizza dough we only needed one.  It says not to freeze. I assume this is due to being frozen before.  Its on todays date as due to various issues not wanted to/able to make a another pizza in the last few days.  Do I throw caught to the wind and freeze it.  Or do I bake it with no toppings and then pop it in the freezer?

Penguin_

I freeze our left over pizza dough. I usually put a bit of oil over it so it doesn't get freezer burn.

calleyw

Penguin_ said:

I freeze our left over pizza dough. I usually put a bit of oil over it so it doesn't get freezer burn.

I do when making my own.  But one base went a bit wrong so need some dough and rather than just buy one my partner bought two.  These are rolled up and in plastic and then a box.

joedenise

I'd just freeze it.  I'm sure it'll be OK.  Manufacturers just say it to cover their backsides!

calleyw

joedenise said:

I'd just freeze it.  I'm sure it'll be OK.  Manufacturers just say it to cover their backsides!

I freeze pepperoni as we only use about 10 slices each time time we make a pizza, and I am not wasting the rest of the packet.  I guess it was to with being frozen before.

DullGreyGuy

calleyw said:

on saturday my partner bought two lots of fresh rolled up pizza dough we only needed one.  It says not to freeze. I assume this is due to being frozen before.  Its on todays date as due to various issues not wanted to/able to make an another pizza in the last few days.  Do I throw caught to the wind and freeze it.  Or do I bake it with no toppings and then pop it in the freezer?

This is one of many areas where the UK and US disagree... UK generally says dont refreeze thawed raw items but it's probably ok if they've been cooked properly. US on the otherhand says if you've defrosted it in the fridge it's perfectly fine to freeze it again without cooking. 

The reality is that freezing doesn't kill most bacteria just stopped their growth. The problem comes where you defrost something leaving it on the sideboard (so the bacteria outside start having a field day whilst the you wait for the middle to defrost), then change your mind so have it sitting about for a bit, then chuck it back in the freezer, then take it out again a few weeks later and have it hanging about on the sideboard again defrosting and forget you really need to add the two time periods together when deciding if tis good to eat or not. 

Dry things like bread or cookies are lower risk than wet things like sauces or meats as the lack of moisture retards bacterial growth anyway which is why we store bread on the work surface for a few days but the meat has to be kept in the fridge. 

Really, common sense should prevail, but we live in a bit of a nanny state so manufacturers have to be overly cautious as they cannot rely on assuming the customer has common sense. 

The other consideration is texture, some products are perfectly safe to eat after being frozen and defrosted but may develop an unpleasant texture, particularly in the relatively slow freezing of a domestic freezer. Certain veg becomes mushy because large ice crystals form within the cells of the veg breaking its structure. You can get commercially frozen versions because they use blast freezers that freeze in a fraction of the time so the ice crystals are much smaller and the texture survives better.