What’s the Optimal Temperature for Pizza Dough before Cooking?
If you were to ask ten different restaurant owners how they prepare their pizza dough for cooking, you’d probably get ten different answers. Some think that you need to bring your commercial pizza dough up to room temperature, while others think that it’s best to place it in the fridge to defrost, and then pull out to once again, bring to room temperature. Some think that you can even take dough right from the freezer and put it into your oven. So what’s the real answer?
We don’t know where the myth came from that dough needs to be brought to room temperature before it’s baked, but it’s simply not true. Defrosting dough first can be useful when you need to reshape the dough for certain menu items, such as calzones, but other than that, there is no need for the dough to be pliable, or defrosted before putting it into the oven to bake. And yes, freezer to oven dough is made specifically so that restaurant owners aren’t left waiting around for their dough to thaw before using it.
We assume that just like most things that come out of the kitchen, the myth surrounding the temperature of dough before being cooked simply came from one chef’s preference. Rest assured though that when you use your dough, especially when you buy it from DeIorios, it will be ready for you whenever you need it to be – no matter what the temperature of it is.