Bake to rise?

[ac-t660]

I’ve been scouring the forum trying to find info on “bake to rise” Freschetta/ DiGiorno style pizza. From what I see it doesn’t look like an easy task for a layperson to reproduce. Don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy all the different traditional fresh pizza styles, but my wife especially likes these frozen ones and if I could pre-make some pizzas to be able to heat up anytime, that would be very convenient.

So my question is really twofold:

1) Has anybody had luck replicating this style in a pre-made frozen form? I’ve been looking over old posts where Pete-zza pointed to some PMQ articles and podcasts, but the links no longer work. I did browse around PMQ and found a bake-to-rise recipe (http://pmq.com/tt2/recipe/view/id_156/title_Bake-to-Rise-Pizza/). It contains Sodium Aluminum Phosphate (SALP) which I assume is important and doesn’t look like a common item I could get my hands on although I found different types of Wrise (http://www.modernistpantry.com/search.asp?keyword=wrise&search=GO) which according to this (http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,4123.0.html) contains SALP.

2) If not, has anyone replicated the style in a fresh form (i.e. looks / tastes similar, but rises like a typical home recipe)?

Thanks in advance,
eli

EDIT (3/22/13): For the updated link to the PMQ recipe, see http://www.pmq.com/Recipe-Bank/index.php/name/Bake-to-Rise-Pizza/record/57729/

[CDNpielover]

2) If not, has anyone replicated the style in a fresh form (i.e. looks / tastes similar, but rises like a typical home recipe)?

I might be wrong, but I don't think so...  The frozen pizza manufacturers try their best to make their frozen pizzas taste like fresh pizza (which explains the advent of the rising crust pizzas), and I find it hard to believe that anyone would want to make a fresh pizza taste like a frozen one!     I think from a convenience standpoint, your best option would be to make and then freeze dough, and then thaw it and assemble before making your pie.  That said, I'm interested to see what you find out about making your own frozen pizza.  good luck!

[Chicago Bob]

Isn't this what one would simply call a par-baked pizza? Not sure how it would turn out with a "rising crust" pie but back home in Chicagoland I know of a couple local mom an pop shops that sell their thin crust pizza's(par-baked)and frozen at local grocery stores, quick marts, etc.. They bake up pretty nice.

[CDNpielover]

^^no, I think he's looking for something that will rise during cooking.

[Chicago Bob]

^^no, I think he's looking for something that will rise during cooking.

That's what I was indicating I'm not familiar with...whether you can freeze, let's say a Lehmann dough, after cooking it part of the way. Will it finish rising when you cook it again from a frozen state?

[CDNpielover]

I don't think so, as most of the cooking would be done before freezing, and it would kill he yeast. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parbaking

I'm not saying that parbaking isn't a good way to freeze a pizza, but I don't think it's what the OP is after.  It seems he is really trying to replicate a frozen rising crust pizza at home.

[Chicago Bob]

It seems he is really trying to replicate a frozen rising crust pizza at home.

Oh..OK. Well that's not going to be doable in a home setting. Why not just stock up on the Freschetta/ DiGiorno's when they're on sale...

[Pete-zza]

eli,

You might want to recast your post and put it under the Ask the Dough Doctor board and hope that Tom Lehmann sees it. In parallel with that post, you might also want to register and post your questions at the PMQ Think Tank at http://thinktank.pmq.com/viewforum.php?f=6, where Tom also resides. Of all our members, Tom is the most knowledgeable about bake-to-rise and take-and-bake. I'd like to see you get answers to your particular questions, for whatever reason you seek them.

Regrettably, a lot of the old PMQTT posts, and even some of the old PMQ articles, are no longer available as PMQ went to a new forum (and didn't archive the old one) and to a digital format. I tried to find some of the old articles in the Wayback Machine (at http://archive.org/web/web.php) but could not fine them. A lot of the old Pizza Today articles have gone down the same rathole.

Peter