On Saturday nights my family loves having pizza, salads, and watching a movie. It's an easy dinner so I don't have to spend a lot of time cooking. I used to buy my pizza dough at the store. I noticed that I was paying as much as $3 just for the pizza dough. I figured I could make my own dough and save some money.

I came across a great recipe from cook's illustrated for pizza dough and altered the recipe a bit so the dough can be frozen. Now I can make up a big batch and freeze some of the dough. When I want to make a pizza, calzone, or Stromboli I just pull some dough out of the freezer and let it thaw. It's easy and it saves money.

If you like to make your own pizzas you will love this freezer pizza dough. It is simple to make and tastes great. I recommend wrapping the pizza dough in plastic wrap first and then storing in a freezer safe ziploc bag. You will want to label it with what is in the bag and the date when you made it.

To defrost the dough you can put it in the refrigerator the night before or let it defrost on the kitchen counter during the day. Once it is to room temperature you can shape it and make your own pizzas. This recipe also works great for Stromboli & calzones.

Freezer Pizza Dough

½ cup warm water
1 envelope yeast
1 ¼ cups room temperature water
2 tbsp. Vegetable oil
4  1/3 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Mix yeast and 1/2 cup warm water together in a bowl and let sit for 5 minutes.  Add the 1 1/4 cup room temperature water and vegetable oil to the yeast mixture and stir. Then mix the flour and salt together in a bowl.

Add the water mixture to the dry ingredients and mix at a low-speed with a dough hook. Allow the dough hook to knead the dough for about 5 minutes. Remove the dough and place in large greased bowl. Cover the bowl with a towel and allow to rise for about 1 1/2 hours or until doubled in size.

Punch down the dough and then divide the dough in half. Wrap each half of the dough in plastic wrap and place in a zip-lock in the freezer. To defrost dough leave it overnight in the refrigerator.

Shape the dough and cook at 475 for about 10-12 minutes for the pizza. Enjoy!