As they are saying, birds of a feather flock collectively, and on this crew, we’re self-professed obsessives in the case of all issues pizza. Significantly, what’s to not love? Pizza is a love letter to the seasons, the final word entertaining recipe, and a heat hug on a Friday, pajama-clad film evening. And while you add the most effective pre-made pizza dough to the combination, issues solely get simpler. (And in flip, higher.)
Whereas I’ve my favourite pizza locations to order from, and there’s nothing just like the tactile pleasure of creating your individual pizza dough, a shortcut possibility is all the time welcome. Don’t get me incorrect: On Saturday nights when I’ve on a regular basis on this planet, it’s splendidly satisfying to pinch dough between your fingers and high swirls of sauce with all of the cheese and freshly chopped substances. However once I want to chop some corners, ready-made and easy-to-prep pizza dough from the shop is handy to have available.
Whether or not it’s a field of dry combine to maintain within the pantry or recent dough that you would be able to freeze and thaw as wanted, we tried eight completely different pizza doughs, ranked all of them, and topped the most effective pre-made pizza dough to maintain available when the craving strikes.
Rating Tips
- Taste. For our taste-testing crew, we mentioned an excellent pizza crust ought to have that fermented, yeasty, and well-salted taste so it doesn’t simply style like bland flour.
- Texture. Chewy over bready.
- Ease of Use. The entire level of a ready-made or easy-to-assemble crust must be that it’s prepared in a cinch and makes our lives simpler.
- Good Pizza Take a look at. Does the crust maintain as much as sauce and toppings?
Testing Course of
- For different taste-offs, the timing between baking/cooking and the precise tasting isn’t all that vital. However with pizza, we typically prefer it recent and scorching. Due to that, every crust was made recent and tasted immediately with preliminary notes taken, then tasted once more with all of the completed crusts.
- The opposite callout is that the majority pizza crusts normally include toppings. For this taste-off, we made half of the dough topped with sauce and cheese to check the dough’s skill to face as much as extra moisture, in addition to baking half of the crust plain to concentrate on stand-alone taste and texture.
The Greatest Premade Pizza Dough, Ranked
When it got here to the outcomes, one factor was clear: the recent dough and refrigerated dough choices vastly outranked the dry mixes on each texture and taste. Whereas dry combine gave us the possibility to make a crust from scratch, there have been lots of variables that would impression the ultimate product from a dry blended dough.
We didn’t love the marginally oily taste on this one, and the feel reminded us extra of a roll-out pie dough than a pizza crust. Our tasters thought this could be good to make a quiche with, however not a pizza.
- Texture: Pie dough
- The place to purchase: Walmart, Kroger, Sam’s Membership
- Common value: $3.50
This dry combine pizza dough ended up having a extra bready texture than a chewy dough. The flavour was additionally extra paying homage to white bread versus pizza. Effective for those who’re making bread, however alas, that’s for one more taste-off to return.
- Texture: Bready
- The place to purchase: Amazon, Kroger, Meijer, H-E-B
- Common value: $1.29
In full transparency, I grew up with the ready-made Boboli pizza crusts, so I knew what we had been entering into. Most tasters didn’t benefit from the barely tangy and savory taste as they felt it was overpowering and too ahead when you think about extra delicate toppings. Nevertheless, if we toasted this one within the oven and slathered butter on it, we wouldn’t complain.
- Texture: Chewy, with good air pockets.
- The place to purchase: H-E-B, Walmart, Kroger, Jewel Osco, Randalls
- Common value: $3.99
Whereas this ready-made refrigerated dough baked up advantageous, the feel was barely crispy and slightly chewy on the perimeters. The flavour felt like we had been consuming Pillsbury crescent rolls and bread dough quite than pizza. I imply, we love the pop tube crescent rolls, however they’re not fairly pizza.
- Texture: Barely crispy, chewy edges.
- The place to purchase: Goal, Jewel Osco, Walmart, Meijer
- Common value: $4.59
We had excessive hopes for this dough due to the usage of beer rather than water in mixing collectively. Whereas this dry combine nonetheless had extra chew than a few of the others and a pleasant taste to it that leaned yeasty, it was nonetheless simply barely on the bready aspect for us. General good—however would possibly wish to tweak the prep methodology to make sure chew.
- Texture: Chewy, however leaned bready.
- The place to purchase: Complete Meals
- Common value: $5.49
Among the many dry mixes, Betty Crocker edged out the competitors based mostly on the crispy edges and chewy interiors. The dough had a number of air bubbles that we favored in our slices. However what saved the dry mixes like this one from reaching the highest was once more leaning barely bready. Nevertheless, we did have a number of tasters say they might maintain a pouch of this combine of their pantry for just-in-case pizza nights.
- Texture: Crispy edges, chewy interiors, and good air bubbles. Barely bready.
- The place to purchase: H-E-B, Amazon, Jewel Osco, Meijer
- Common value: $1.54
2. Dealer Joe’s
It was a detailed name between our winner and TJ’s recent dough. The dough was very chewy with good air pockets like those you’d get from a restaurant’s pizza oven. Whereas the flavour was good, it wasn’t as yeasty and flavorful as our winner, however nonetheless an awesome possibility for an impromptu pizza evening. This dough held up properly to the sauce and toppings as effectively.
- Texture: Chewy, good air pockets, restaurant-quality.
- The place to purchase: Dealer Joe’s
- Common value: $4
1. Complete Meals (Refrigerated Bakery Dough)
This was a grand slam, everyone-on-the-same-page determination. Whereas there was slightly dialogue between the WF and TJ’s ready-made dough, the flavour and texture despatched Complete Meals over the sting. This dough had essentially the most fermented pizza dough taste that all of us loved whereas additionally having additional texture from the usage of complete grains. Yow will discover it within the bakery part or ready-made meals space of your Complete Meals. It held up properly to the sauce and we beloved the chewy crust of every slice. For those who’re going to have one pizza dough in your freezer for emergency pizza nights, make it this one.
- Texture: Chewy, with extra crunch due to the usage of complete grains.
- The place to purchase: Complete Meals
- Common value: $4.99
Pizza Recipes to Strive
In search of inspiration in your subsequent pizza evening? Listed here are a number of favorites I’ll be attempting with our profitable store-bought pizza dough: