I’m a food snob; I don’t know when it happened but “it is what it is”. In college a “older” man (he was a senior and I was a freshman) took me to a “fancy” steakhouse in Louisville, Kentucky and introduced me to “blood rare” beef… there was no turning back. Little by little over the years, I made it a point of buying and eating the highest quality foods I could afford. It didn’t matter what the type food it was, I wanted the ingredients to be the best. In 2011, while in Italy, I had Neapolitan pizza and a new world opened up for me. I thought I had been eating great pizza before… I was wrong.
I am not a baker and working with yeast can be tricky… at least for me. After trying various frozen and prepared pizza doughs and commercial chain pizzas, all of which were disappointing, a friend suggested that I might like the pizza dough sold at Publix. From her description, it sounded like the kind of dough used for the pizzas made in Italy. The closest Publix to me is in Anderson, South Carolina, about a half-hour from The Manse. Time for a road trip… (My list and rating of commercial pizzas and prepared
doughs I have tried are listed at the end of this article.)
Before driving to Anderson, I called and learned that Publix did indeed sell fresh pizza dough. After being assured the dough would freeze well, I ordered six. I had the choice of balls or rolled. I went with rolled to be picked up the next morning. When I arrived, my order was ready; however, it was balls and not rolled. The bakery clerk offered to roll the balls but I decided to take the balls rather than wait. Price $2.99 per ball.
The Man and I both love pizza but our taste in ingredients is vastly different. He likes tomato sauce; I don’t. He likes only pepperoni; I like sausage and a few fresh veggies plus jalapenos. We both like extra cheese. Luckily, making pizza at home makes it easy to accommodate both our tastes.
When making the first pizza, I coated the dough ball with EVOO and fresh chopped herbs from my garden – basil, oregano, rosemary and thyme – in a large bowl and covered it to raise until it doubled in size (a couple hours). I punched it down and then let it proof for a couple more hours. I stretched the dough to fit on my pizza stone. I added the toppings; baked at 500F for about 15 minutes and then let it cool on the counter for a few minutes… The Man swooned.
I froze the other five balls, hoping that they would indeed rise when thawed… they did and since that time we have had a couple more perfect pizzas.
Thank you Publix. Publix is an employee-owned grocery chain with stores in several Southern states including Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.
Other pizza doughs I have tried but fall short of the fresh Publix pizza dough include (rated 1 – 5; 5 being the best):
Wewalka Classic Pizza dough (in the hanging deli area with canned biscuits) – 3 1/2
Pillsbury Canned Pizza Dough – 3
Boboli Shelf Stable – 3
DiGiorno Frozen – 2
Molinaro’s Hand Stretched Pizza Kit (at Costco) – 1 – the crust tasted like cardboard. The worst of all I’ve tried.
Pizza restaurants:
Spago – 5
Barones (North Hollywood) – 4 1/2
California Pizza Kitchen – 4
Forget the rest…
In addition to being a member of theInternationale Guilde des Fromagers (Jura and Garde)and anAmerican Cheese Society Certified Cheese Professional, I am a Certified ServSafe Food Production Manager with certifications that alsoincludeServSafe Certified Instructor and Proctor. I am available for cheese events, cheese program development, cheese training, food safety training and 3rd party food safety auditing. See myAbout MeandResumepages for more details or call me at 360 921 9908 to discuss availability.
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The Man, aka Peter M. Wright, has written his first novel:Gold Fever, available atamazon.comas a kindle book for only $2.99.
Written in the flavor of one of our favorite movies,Romancing the Stone,Gold Feveris a romantic adventure that
brings together an archeologist looking to establish his name in his field and a rock star on the verge of burn-out.
InGOLD FEVERan Archeologist motivated by a newly discovered clue, searches for a fabled Native American Legend – the long ago lost Seven Golden Cities of Cibola. While the Archeologist seeks to prove the legend is actually true, he is constantly under attack by a second group seeking the treasure.
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FAQs
Cover end allow the dough to rim at room temperature overnight, or at least 12 hours and up to 24 hours. Divide the dough in half, shape each half into a ball, and place each into a lightly greased bowl. Cover and let rise for 45 minutes to an hour while your oven preheats.
How do you prove pizza dough from the grocery store? ›
Take it out of the refrigerator, remove from the bag, form into a ball, and place in a lightly oiled large bowl. Bring dough to room temperature, which will take about thirty minutes and then proof for an hour or so until doubled in volume. Punch down the dough by placing your fist in the center of the dough.
Does Publix make pizza dough? ›
Product details Made from scratch right in your local Publix. Our Italian pizza dough is a fresh way to make a family dinner.
How many times do you prove pizza dough? ›
If I'm making a Neapolitan-style dough, I do a 24-hour bulk ferment, divide it into doughballs, and them let them cold-ferment for another 48 hours. One rise with long fermentation times is a general rule. Pizzerias in Naples typically ferment their dough at room temp for 24 hours.
How long should I wait for my dough to rise? ›
As a guide, for a kitchen where the temperature is 20C and you added yeast at 1% of the flour weight (eg 5g dried yeast in 500g flour), you should still leave your dough to rise for around an hour and a half to two hours after kneading it.
What happens if you don't prove pizza dough? ›
If you don't proof the dough then you will get a crust which has very little rise and small air pockets. Some dough are like this though – think of flat bread and other unleavened bread which contains no yeast. The pizza will be quite dense and chewy if you make the crust thick.
How long does it take for store-bought pizza dough to rise? ›
Let The Dough Rest
Even store-bought pizza isn't ready to be baked straight out of the package. Instead, let your dough rest in a container for at least 4 hours before baking. You can also leave it out when you go to work, and when you get home will be te right time to bake your pizza dough.
Can you freeze Publix fresh pizza dough? ›
You can freeze any kind of pizza dough in any quantity — just let it fully rise before you freeze it and then divide it into pieces portioned for single pizzas. The dough can be frozen for up to three months and just needs to be thawed in the fridge overnight before you use it!
Does Publix bake from scratch? ›
Over a dozen scratch-made breads baked in-store.
Serve a loaf of scratch-made, hand-rounded Tutto Pugliese bread with dinner, or choose from rows of fresh-baked sandwich breads and rolls. Try our famous cakes, pies, pastries, tarts, and cookies.
What aisle is pizza dough in? ›
Usually can be found in 3 places. Premise in the Italian aisle near the marinara and pizza sauce, in the cooler next to the rolls of biscuits and also injn the freezer area near the bread doughs.
Yeast consumes sugars in the flour and produces alcohol and carbon dioxide. It is this gas which makes the dough filled with bubbles, and rises up. Fermentation also affects your dough in two other ways. Byproducts of the fermenting process adds a depth of flavour and the longer rest improves the texture.
Should pizza dough be covered or uncovered when proofing? ›
Fermentation in Bulk
The rationale for this is because yeast works better in a single, larger dough ball than in numerous, smaller dough balls. Simply set your dough in an airtight jar or a bowl covered with plastic wrap to bulk ferment. You want it to be airtight to keep the dough's surface from drying out.
What is the secret to making good pizza dough? ›
The secret to great dough isn't kneading or throwing . . .
It's good old-fashioned H20. “Water, water, water,” says Falco. “Pizza dough made at home should be 50 percent water. Pizza needs to cook longer in a home oven, which means the dough needs to be more hydrated.”
How long to let grocery store dough rise? ›
Prepping Store-Bought Pizza Dough
It could take up to three hours to double in size, so this certainly isn't a last-minute dinner idea, but it's faster than making the dough from scratch. Letting the dough rise is just the start of the process, so we have a few more tips for using pre-made dough for your pie.
How can I get dough to rise faster? ›
You can also put hot water in a heat-safe dish and place it on the floor of a cold oven (or on a lower shelf). The steam and heat from the water will help the temperature rise just enough that the yeast is active. The steam will also assist in keeping the surface of the dough moist so it will stretch as it rises.
How long can you let sourdough dough rise? ›
Sourdough bread, on the other hand, can easily be left in the fridge for 8-24 hours during the second rise. There is very little risk of the dough over proofing. Some claim that sourdough will over proof after 24 hours in the fridge.