Making pizza dough fresh every day is a big selling point for many successful pizzerias. But it’s not feasible for everyone, and sometimes frozen pizza dough balls are the way to go. So what can you do to give your frozen pizza dough a flavor boost?
Frozen pizza dough does present some challenges in this regard as you can’t do much with the dough itself. But you can try a few tricks to “personalize” the finished crust and make it wholly yours.
Related: How to improve your pizza crust’s flavor with minimal effort
After thawing the frozen pizza dough in your cooler overnight, allow it to warm up to room temperature for an hour or so. Now the dough is ready to be shaped. Once shaped, brush the dough skins with a flavored oil, such as a commercial garlic oil, butter-flavored oil, actually butter or even sesame oil. The skins will then be ready to dress and bake as needed, and they’ll have a little character as well.
Another option is to brush or spray the dough skins with a little water and then sprinkle sesame seeds onto the rim of the skins. The seeds will bake to a nice golden-brown and impart a very rich and pleasant flavor to the finished crust. If you’re making a pan-style pizza, you can sprinkle some sesame seeds in the pan just before you shape the dough to the pan. The seeds will be baked onto the bottom of the crust, giving it a unique flavor.
In addition to these steps, you could also sprinkle the crusts with an Italian herb mixture. Finally, think about putting an application of finely grated Parmesan cheese over the edge of the dough skin as a last step before baking the pizza. This will enhance both flavor and appearance and make the finished crust uniquely yours!
The late Tom “The Dough Doctor” Lehmann was a longtime contributor to PMQ Pizza and served as the director of bakery assistance at the American Institute of Baking prior to his retirement. This article was originally published on PMQ in December 2019.