Early prepping and storing pizza doughs

[leemc]

Hello everyone,

I have a quick question that I wondered if anyone has done this. I am planning a party and will be cooking pizza for potentially around 22 people. While this isn't the most people that I've cooked for at one time, it will be a bunch of pies to make. One of the things that I seem to spend the most time on when I'm cooking for a party is rolling out the dough. I am thinking about pre-rolling the doughs and storing them in a plastic bin in the refrigerator. I plan to use parchment paper to keep the doughs separated and a very slightly damp towel at the top of the stack. Does anyone think this will work or will it mess up my doughs?

Thanks

Lee

[kkgator]

Lee,

I never use a rolling pin on my dough as I always hand-stretch. While I believe that your idea would work, the potential issue is that they will shrink due to being chilled again and you should really use room temp dough when making pies so it doesn't (1)lower your overall deck temperature (2)potential bottom burning from being cold IMHO. Maybe a better idea would be to train 1-2 close friends to aid in the pizza making which I'm sure that they would enjoy doing. I average 25-30 pies an hour with myself stretching & making and an assistant cooking the pies. I find when I have parties the guests like to interact & watch the process.

[dakzaag]

Google the term "par bake"

[leemc]

Thanks for the replies. I was worried the dough flattened dough would shrink if I stored them in the refrigerator. It's been my experience also that if the dough is cold it wants to snap back and is hard to flatten. I have cooked for as many as 40 people before but I had help at that event from someone that kind of knew what to do - but it was still a lot of work. I suspect at this party, unless someone happens to have worked in a pizzeria or something while they were in school, I won't have anybody to help that will not need a fair amount of training. My party isn't until the middle of April so I might do a little experimenting on a much smaller and not refrigerate to see if I can make it work. I will report back how well it works out.