Some of the best things you can keep in your freezer don't come from a grocery store. Chef Erin's fresh frozen pizza dough is a four-ingredient, professionally scaled formula flour, ice water, instant yeast, and salt built specifically for high-temperature cooking. The simplicity is intentional: the sugars and fats found in more complex doughs scorch at the temperatures a great pizza requires, so everything unnecessary gets stripped out. What's left is a clean, extensible dough with serious gluten development, a tight crumb structure, and the kind of stretch that tells you something was made correctly.
What You'll Love About This Recipe
- Four ingredients, professional results. Flour, ice water, instant yeast, and salt the restraint is the point. Everything else scorches at high heat, so everything else stays out.
- Built on baker's percentages. No guessing, no volume measurements. Once you understand the ratio 66 to 76% water by flour weight you can scale this batch to any size and get the same result every time.
- Freezer-ready for up to 60 days. Make one batch and have four individual pizza dough balls ready to pull at any time. Thaw overnight in the fridge, rest an hour on the counter, stretch and cook.
- The ice water trick matters. Cold water slows the yeast down during mixing, giving you control over when fermentation starts rather than having it begin before you're ready.
Fresh Frozen Pizza Dough Recipe 4 Ingredients
Erin McNaught
Rated 5.0 stars by 1 users
Category
Pizza
Cuisine
Italian-American
Servings
4 Dough Balls (3 medium or 4 small pizzas)
Prep Time
15 minutes
Calories
245
Rest/Proof Time
40 minutes active rest + Freeze or same-day use
Four ingredients, one batch, up to 60 days in the freezer Chef Erin's fresh pizza dough is the weeknight dinner you prep once and reach for all month long.
Ingredients
-
535g Caputo flour, and a little extra for adjusting consistency
-
360g ice water
-
2g instant yeast
-
12g kosher salt
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Neutral oil, for greasing bowl and storage containers
Directions
Scaling Your Ingredients
Before anything else, get your scale out and keep it out for the entire recipe. Erin works exclusively by weight here, and for good reason volume measurements for flour are notoriously inconsistent depending on how the flour is scooped and settled. The formula is built on baker's percentages: 100% flour by weight, 66–76% of that weight in water. For this batch that means 535g Caputo flour and 360g ice water. The ice water is not optional cold water slows the yeast's activity during mixing so fermentation doesn't begin before you're ready for it. If you want to scale this batch up or down, use the same percentage math and the dough will behave identically at any size.
Activating the Yeast
Add the 535g of Caputo flour and 2g of instant yeast to your food processor and pulse briefly to distribute the yeast evenly throughout the flour. With the processor running, slowly stream in the 360g of ice water until the dough begins to come together. Stop the processor and let the mixture rest for 20 minutes. This rest period gives the yeast time to begin eating through the flour's proteins and build strength before the salt is added. This is not an optional step — salt and yeast are enemies. Salt draws moisture out of yeast cells and inhibits their activity; adding salt too early produces a weaker, less active dough. Let them work separately before you bring them together.
Adding the Salt & Final Mix
After the 20-minute rest, add the 12g of salt also measured by weight, at roughly 2.2% of flour weight, which is the standard professional ratio for pizza dough. Pulse the processor for another 10 seconds to incorporate. If the dough looks wetter than you'd like and isn't coming together into a ball, add a small amount of additional flour and pulse for another 10 seconds. You're looking for the dough to ball up inside the processor that's the visual cue that the gluten network has formed and the dough is ready to come out. Don't over-process at this stage; the dough has already been worked during the initial mix and rest.
First Proof
Transfer the dough to a lightly greased bowl. Tuck the edges under to create surface tension, then flip the dough so all the seams are on the bottom and the smooth side faces up. Cover and let rest at room temperature until doubled approximately 20 minutes depending on your kitchen temperature. You'll see the gluten structure developing as the dough expands. The stretch when you pull it from the bowl should feel alive and elastic that's the gluten and the yeast doing exactly what they're supposed to do.
Portioning & Balling
Turn the doubled dough out onto a lightly floured surface. This batch divides into 4 small pizza portions or 3 medium portions — Erin makes 4. To form each dough ball, fold the edges in toward the center like butterfly wings, repeating until the dough begins to tighten, then flip it seam-side down. Using the cup of your hand, drag the ball gently against the table in a circular motion — this action pulls the surface taut and closes the seam on the bottom into what Erin calls a "nice tight butt." That surface tension is what holds the ball's shape during proofing and freezing and gives you an even, consistent stretch when it comes time to make pizza. If the dough isn't pinching closed cleanly, you likely have too much flour on the surface — brush a little away and try again.
Storing & Freezing
Lightly oil your storage containers — individual lidded containers work best for single-pizza portions. Place each dough ball upside down in its container so the smooth side faces down and there is headspace above for any expansion that occurs before the dough fully freezes. Lightly oil the lids as well, then seal and stack. Place all containers in the freezer. The dough will proof slightly before freezing solid, which is expected and accounted for in the headspace.
NOTE
Per Erin's professional recommendation, these dough balls keep in the freezer for up to 60 days with no loss of quality. When you're ready to use one, transfer it to the refrigerator the night before. The following day, pull it from the refrigerator about an hour before you plan to cook and let it come to room temperature on a lightly oiled surface. Once it's relaxed and pliable roughly 45 minutes to an hour it's ready to stretch. Do not rush this step; cold dough tears rather than stretches.
Recipe Note
Recipe FAQ
Why does this dough only have four ingredients when most pizza dough recipes include oil and sugar?
Oil and sugar are common additions in pizza dough recipes designed for home ovens running at 450–500°F the fat from oil creates a softer, more tender crumb, and the sugar contributes browning at lower temperatures. At the high temperatures a great pizza crust actually requires 700°F and above in a proper pizza oven both of those additions scorch before the crust has finished cooking.
What are baker's percentages and why does Erin use them instead of cups?
Baker's percentages express every ingredient as a percentage of the total flour weight, with flour always representing 100%. In this recipe, 360g of water divided by 535g of flour equals 67.3% a hydration level within the 66–76% range Erin specifies for this style of dough. The practical advantage over volume measurements is consistency and scalability: a cup of flour can vary by 20–30 grams depending on how it's scooped, which meaningfully changes the dough's hydration and behavior.
Why does the salt get added 20 minutes after the yeast rather than all at once?
Salt and yeast have a directly antagonistic relationship salt draws moisture out of yeast cells through osmosis and inhibits their enzymatic activity. Added simultaneously, the salt begins suppressing the yeast before it has had time to activate and build strength. The 20-minute rest after the initial flour-yeast-water mix gives the yeast time to hydrate, activate, and begin developing gas production before the salt arrives. The result is a stronger, more active culture that produces better fermentation and a lighter, more airy dough than a same-time addition would.
How do I thaw and use a frozen dough ball correctly?
The night before you plan to make pizza, transfer the dough ball from the freezer to the refrigerator. The slow, cold thaw over 8–12 hours allows the dough to relax gradually without over-proofing. The following day, pull the dough ball from the refrigerator approximately one hour before you plan to stretch it and let it rest at room temperature on a lightly oiled surface. Cold dough is tight and inelastic it will tear rather than stretch if you try to work it straight from the fridge. After about 45 minutes to an hour at room temperature the dough will be pliable, relaxed, and ready to stretch into a pizza base. Per Erin's professional recommendation, frozen dough balls keep their quality for up to 60 days in the freezer.
Why does the dough ball need a "tight butt" and what does that actually mean?
The balling technique Erin demonstrates folding the dough edges inward, flipping it seam-side down, and dragging it against the table in a circular motion creates surface tension across the smooth top of the ball. That tension is what holds the ball's shape during the proofing and freezing process and gives the dough an even, consistent structure when it comes time to stretch.
Can I cook this Indoors?
We rate this a 5 out of 5 for cooking indoors. This recipe is entirely a kitchen preparation a food processor, a mixing bowl, a scale, and a freezer are the only equipment required. No grill, no outdoor cooking, no heat source of any kind is involved in making the dough itself.
Recipe Highlights & Insights
Caputo is an Italian flour mill founded in Naples in 1924 and is widely considered the standard for Neapolitan-style pizza flour. Their flours are milled from soft wheat to a fine, consistent grind and are available in several protein levels suited to different pizza styles the most commonly used for high-temperature pizza is their Tipo 00, which has a protein content of approximately 12.5% and produces a dough with excellent extensibility and a light, slightly chewy finished crust. The fine grind also means the flour hydrates more evenly and quickly than coarser American bread flours, which is why it behaves predictably at the 67% hydration level this recipe uses. ATBBQ stocks Caputo flour specifically because it is the right tool for serious pizza at high temperatures.
The ice water technique is one of those professional details that home bakers often overlook because it seems minor. Yeast activity is directly temperature-dependent warmer water accelerates fermentation, cooler water slows it down. In a dough that will be mixed in a food processor, the friction of the blade generates heat that raises the dough's temperature during mixing. Starting with ice water counteracts that friction heat, keeping the dough temperature in the range where fermentation is controlled rather than runaway. A dough that gets too warm during mixing begins proofing unevenly before it's been shaped, which produces inconsistent results in both texture and rise. The ice water gives you control over the timeline from the very first step.
Storing the dough balls upside down in oiled containers with headspace is a detail worth understanding rather than just following. The smooth, tight surface of the properly shaped ball faces down in the container, and the slight headspace above it accommodates the minor proofing that occurs between shaping and full freezing. If the container is packed too tightly with no headspace and the lid is touching the dough before it freezes, the dough expands against the lid and the surface tension of the ball is disrupted the dough arrives at cooking time with an uneven structure. The oil on the container walls and lid prevents sticking during that expansion phase. These are small details that collectively determine whether the frozen dough thaws and stretches like fresh dough or fights you at the counter.
This dough formula is deliberately versatile beyond pizza. Erin mentions calzones and stuffed pockets as natural applications for the same dough, and the stripped-down four-ingredient formula is exactly what makes that versatility work there are no flavor additions that would make the dough feel out of place in a non-pizza application. A single batch of four dough balls can cover pizza one night, calzones another, and a flatbread or stuffed pocket a third. For households where weeknight dinner decisions get made at the last minute, having multiple pre-portioned, labeled dough balls in the freezer is one of the most practical things a home cook can maintain.
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Nutrition
Nutrition
- Nutrition Serving Size
- 1 Dough Ball
- per serving
- Calories
- 245
- Fat
- 1 grams
- Saturated Fat
- 0 grams
- Cholesterol
- 0 milligrams
- Sodium
- 480 milligrams
- Carbs
- 50 grams
- Fiber
- 2 grams
- Sugar
- 0 grams
- Protein
- 8 grams
