Has anyone prepped a pie and then froze it to be baked at a later time?

[Chaze215]

I was wondering if any has done this and if so how did you go about it and how did the pie taste? Obviously it won't taste as good after being frozen, but did it hold up pretty well? Thanks in advance!

[CDNpielover]

I haven't, but I've bought frozen "parbaked" pizzas from a local mom n' pop before.  I put par baked in quotes, because its not just on a parbaked crust, but tho whole pizza was actually cooked about 30 % of the way IIRC

[Chicago Bob]

   I just recently mentioned somewhere here that this is commonly seen in the Chicago suburbs...mom & pop joints parbake the whole pizza and you will often see them for sale at grocery stores and quick marts freezer case.


Bob

[mkevenson]

I have not done it but I read somewhere that it will work much better if you can flash freeze, using a commercial freezing unit.

Mark

[The Dough Doctor]

Chaze;
Pretty easy to do with some limitations. Think DiGiorno (supermarket) pizza. Here we have a pizza made on a raw dough that is leavened with both yeast and fat encapsulated chemical leavening (you can get the fat encapsulated leavening from the Wright Group <tonyo@wenrich.com> the product is called "Wrise". It is used at 2 to 3% along with about 1% IDY. Another option is to go the Freschetta (another supermarket pizza) route. In this case you pre-proof the pizza skin before you dress it. For a thin crust allow the pizza skin to proof (rise) for about 20-minutes, then apply a very light coating of oil to the dough, sauce and dress as desired. For a thick crust, like the Freschetta product, allow the dough to proof for about 45-minutes, then dress as described above. Here are the limitations: Figure on no more than 10 to 15-day frozen shelf life when frozen in anything but a commercial blast freezer at -30F. It is best to use either canned or lightly sauteed vegetables because fresh vegetable toppings will break down during the freezing process only to release scads of water onto the pizza when it is finish baked. The commercial pizzas get around this in two ways, one by using moisture controlled vegetable toppings, and by blast freezing which is not as injurious to the vegetable toppings.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor

[Chaze215]

Thanks for the replies guys. As far a par baking goes, how far along should it bake? I do NY style with usually 6-7 minute bake. So do u think 2 minutes would be considered par baked?
What would be the best way to wrap the pies up before freezing them. I won't be using a commercial freezer so I would think they would need to be wrapped pretty well to prevent freezer burn.
Tom, for the Freshetta technique,  do u think a dressed skin with a 30minute rise would be good for a NY style would be ok?
Thanks again guys!

[CDNpielover]

I think the reason these mom n' pop shops pre-bake the pies is to keep all of the cheese and toppings from shifting in transit, although I haven't really considered how the pre-bake affects the crust.  maybe someone more experienced (like Tom) can comment on that.  

Also, if anyone is interested, here is the website of the mom n' pop that I bought frozen pies from.  http://www.carbonesonrandolph.com/carbonesonrandolph/HOME.html  Not sure if anything there can be of any use.

[Chicago Bob]

I think the reason these mom n' pop shops pre-bake the pies is to keep all of the cheese and toppings from shifting in transit, although I haven't really considered how the pre-bake affects the crust.  maybe someone more experienced (like Tom) can comment on that.  

Also, if anyone is interested, here is the website of the mom n' pop that I bought frozen pies from.  http://www.carbonesonrandolph.com/carbonesonrandolph/HOME.html  Not sure if anything there can be of any use.

I think your observation is pretty keen CDN...par-bake to set the toppings/ingredients...it probably also has something to do with jump startating the crust(avoid soggy syndrome) but like you said...Tom could clarify this...

Bob

[Pete-zza]

Thanks for the replies guys. As far a par baking goes, how far along should it bake? I do NY style with usually 6-7 minute bake. So do u think 2 minutes would be considered par baked?
What would be the best way to wrap the pies up before freezing them. I won't be using a commercial freezer so I would think they would need to be wrapped pretty well to prevent freezer burn.
Tom, for the Freshetta technique,  do u think a dressed skin with a 30minute rise would be good for a NY style would be ok?
Thanks again guys!

Chaz,

Many years ago, when I was wallowing in ignorance, I played around a bit making par-baked crusts, just to see how well they would do. One of the things I learned is that once a par-baked crust has been made, there is nothing more that you can do with it. That is, it is fixed and won't rise any more. And when you later finish the pizza by adding cheese and toppings and finish baking the pizza, the par-baked crust will have a tendency to become overly dry. These days, in the commercial sphere, there are now gums that can be added to park-baked crusts to keep them more moist. See, for example, the PMQ Think Tank thread, including Tom Lehmann's post, at http://thinktank.pmq.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=9044&hilit=#p61696.

In my case, you can read about one of my early experiments with par-baking of crusts, at Reply 129 at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,576.msg10061/topicseen.html#msg10061. Unfortunately, the source of the information from Tom Lehmann that I used to make the par-baked crust went into the ethers when PMQ changed the Think Tank software and did not archive the posts from the PMQTT forum when the switchover was made. However, this morning, I did manage to find this PMQTT post by Tom Lehmann: http://thinktank.pmq.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=13238&hilit=#p81347.

In Reply 129 referenced above, I also mentioned the advice of John Correll on par-baking of crusts as given in his magnum opus, Encyclopizza. I managed to find that information this morning at http://web.archive.org/web/20040623201210/http://www.correllconcepts.com/Encyclopizza/05_Dough-making/_05_dough-making.htm#_Toc533730428.

Peter

[flyboy4ual]

I freeze my wood fired pizza's all the time.  Then I reheat them in the toaster oven.  They taste just as good as they do straight out of the WFO except the crust gets a little crunchy and is not as tender.   

Scott D.

[Chaze215]

Pete, thanks for taking the time to track down that info and links! I guess I'm just going to have to do some experimenting. I have read in a few places that double wrapping in plastic wrap and then aluminum foil is the best way to wrap the pies up. With Toms Freshetta method, I can see the skins sticking to the plastic wrap. Would I have to spritz the plastic wrap with some cooking spray?

Chaz

[Chicago Bob]

Cardboard pizza round Chaz...no sticky. 
And as long as it's par-baked you won't have any sticking to your rim.
Don't know what size you have in mind but vac-seal bags are pretty stout.

[norma427]

Chaz,

I was trying to make a take and bake pizza at Reply 393 and did bake the pizza part way.  http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,9908.msg95104.html#msg95104  I didn’t freeze it, but took it home to finish baking the next day.  In my next post it showed what happened.  I also tried to make a take and bake NY style pizza later in that thread and for some reason the sauce changed in taste and not for the better.

Norma

[pete zappie]

i do it all the time with a lou malnatis style, i cook them about 95% of the way- i just dont let the crust or cheese get too brown but other than that its a fully cooked pie.according to a lot of people it tastes even better the second bake. i used to wrap in plastic, then vac sealed for a while but now just use foil, it makes it much easer to reheat.look at the lous frozen that are shipped in the mail, they are just in those pie tins with the cardboard top, not much to that either. lately i have been freezing detroit style too , people say there really good but i feel it still needs some work.  the four round pies in the back are gluten free and those have turned out fine as well according to my gluten free freinds.

[Chicago Bob]

i do it all the time with a lou malnatis style, i cook them about 95% of the way- i just dont let the crust or cheese get too brown but other than that its a fully cooked pie.according to a lot of people it tastes even better the second bake. i used to wrap in plastic, then vac sealed for a while but now just use foil, it makes it much easer to reheat.look at the lous frozen that are shipped in the mail, they are just in those pie tins with the cardboard top, not much to that either. lately i have been freezing detroit style too , people say there really good but i feel it still needs some work.  the four round pies in the back are gluten free and those have turned out fine as well according to my gluten free freinds.

That's great  pete zappie , I assume you have a shop and folks already know your product. The foil wrap would not work if trying to sell at an outside location such as I mentioned earlier. I like the sound of your Lou's to go pie tin mention, could probably just put a clear topper on it, no?
Great looking pies there man! Glad you're doing well...

[Pete-zza]

With Toms Freshetta method, I can see the skins sticking to the plastic wrap. Would I have to spritz the plastic wrap with some cooking spray?

Chaz,

I don't know if the Freschetta pizzas are completely fresh when packaged, but maybe Tom Lehmann can give you the answer to that question, and also how you might proceed if you decide to try your own version of that style of pizza in a home setting.

Peter