11/5/08 | Pillsbury Frozen Pizza Crust
[ Currently Eating: leftover pseudo-pizza ]
Hello from Pseudo-Pizza land!
Let me tell you - I’m like very familiar with the Doughboy. I’m like, tight, with the guy. We’re old friends. I go “heehee” if you stick a finger into my lately increasing beer belly fat. Even though I don’t have a poofy hat. Yet.
But actually, I haven’t really had anything from Pillsbury in quite awhile. So I was happy when a whole load of rolled canisters came in for review the other day. I got several varieties of their instant frozen stuff, but I decided to start off with the Pillsbury Thin Crust Pizza Dough.
I haven’t cracked one of these suckers open in awhile, so I sort of botched opening it up. There’s a tab you pull and it’s supposed to break the seal, allowing you to extract the rolled up dough. For some reason, mine didn’t open so I had to really wrangle it. I would have included a photos of me trying to open it, but you don’t want to see a grown man struggling mightily with a frozen tin can full of dough. I think I need to work out more.
Anyhow, I got the durned thing open and pulled out the dough. I was sort of wondering if it would be very difficult to unroll, but it wasn’t too bad until I got to the end of the roll. It actually wouldn’t unroll at the end without tearing - so I just left it like that, figuring I could just cut it off.
Pillsbury is definitely going for convenience with this Thin Crust Pizza dough. No rolling pin necessary, just lay it out on a cookie sheet, add toppings, and bake at 400 degrees. I haven’t really had too much experience with frozen pizza crust, rollable or not. I’ve often bought Boboli or other pre-baked pseudo-pizza dough circles, but I didn’t really know what to expect with frozen dough.
I heated up the oven, sprayed a cookie sheet with some cooking spray, and laid out the dough. It started to get rather flimsy the moment I got it out flat. They actually say for a crispier crust, you want to pre-bake the dough and THEN put the toppings on. I think if I ever made this again, I’d probably do that. I slathered on about 3/4 cup of spaghetti sauce, some shredded mozzarella cheese and leftover sliced cremini mushrooms. They sent me literature with a whole ton of “suggested” fancy recipes. But I figured I’d make a really basic one to start with.
The end result after baking for 18 minutes is above. You’ll notice the large non-sauced edge about an inch wide on the left. That’s actually the section of dough that I couldn’t unroll because it was frozen. When heated, it unrolled of it’s own accord and baked fairly normally. The only issue is there’s no way to get sauce or toppings on that unrolled portion. But it turned out OK, and I was going to cut it off anyhow. Unless you’re a pizza crust monster (like my mom) and you think that the crust is the best part of pizza.
So the overall result was - interesting, to put it kindly. It definitely fell into the category of the Pseudo-Pizza product for me. The look of the pizza is fairly appetizing, and the crust did get browned somewhat. As mentioned above, I think it would be greatly improved if you baked the crust alone first. I might also jack up the cooking time a little. I suspect not having an old school thousand degree wood-fired brick oven might also be a downside.
Oh, also, remember when you unroll the dough, it’s a big rectangle and not a circle. I’m actually cool with that, but traditionalists may not be pleased. Squares and circles: can’t we all get along?
The dough itself was sorta wet, spongy and tasted absolutely nothing like pizza dough. The best part of the pizza was the toppings, and I’m 100% responsible for those. Perhaps I put too much sauce, or the cooking time wasn’t long enough, but the center of the pizza dough was very soft. To me, the dough tastes more like a spongy wet bread, much too doughy, and certainly not like thin crust pizza.
I’m pondering how it would have turned out if I didn’t use any sauce and made a sort of foccacia out of it, like they suggest in some of the recipes. But, hey, the product DOES say Thin Pizza Crust so I expected it to taste at least a little like it.
I wonder how it compares to pizza dough you buy and then roll out yourself. But I have to say that overall my inner doughboy was unsatisfied - the convenience is there, but the tasty result isn’t. I would give it a lower score, but I’m going to take into account that I didn’t pre-bake the crust (pre-baking is only an option in the directions and not the default method of cooking). I’m sorry, but no “heehee” from me on this one.
Price: MSRP: $2.50 for 11 oz crust
Found At: Various Stores
Cheap Eats Score: 4/10
November 5th, 2008 at 10:59 am
Thanks for this review. I have a coupon for this stuff, but I now know that I don’t have to bother trying it. I am what you would call a “pizza crust monster” (I didn’t know there was a term for this!), so I probably won’t be satisfied by this product. Great review & helpful information!
November 5th, 2008 at 11:30 am
The stuff in the refridgerated section of the supermarket is WAY better. It’s totally idiot proof and you don’t have to deal with all of frozen PITA part that doesn’t thaw. Ours runs $2 per crust but I’ve also bougth the bread dough in a tube and have had similar results.
November 6th, 2008 at 5:58 am
I love reading your blog. I am having a laugh at your *opening* and *unrolling* the dough problems. After you pull the paper off, you have to WHACK it on the counter to pop open the tube. Also, it’s not meant to be used frozen. Why didn’t you just let it thaw out and press out the edge with your fingers? 3/4 cup of sauce is way too much for that skinny little crust.
Actually, I don’t think it would have been any good no matter what you did with it.
November 6th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
@catherine - actually, is it a free coupon? If so, I would just get it anyhow to try it. If it’s just 25 cents off, I might pass…
@jen - I’ve been pondering trying those, is it pre-made crusts or do they also sell like a big chunk of dough that you roll out?
@beth - re: “why didn’t you just let it thaw…” That would be because I’m an idiot guy, sorta like the guy in the Carl’s Jr. commercials who tries to make guacamole by blending a whole avocado. =) I was sorta afraid to touch the dough with my hands too much - because it might explode in my face. I’m a bumbling baker…
November 7th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
Great blog!
You can’t beat the convenience of that- though, with a bread machine, pizza crust is just as easy to make. Throw in the ingredients and a little over an hour later, dough!
November 7th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
In my experience, the pre-made crusts at the grocery store are usually terrible, unless it’s some kind of upscale grocery store. The cheap stuff is bad.
But the big chunks of dough that you roll out yourself are usually really good. I always use that when I make pizza, and it almost always turns out really well.
November 10th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
I’ve been waiting for the refrigerated Pillsbury Pizza Crust to go on sale so I can buy up a bunch. I like to unroll it, from it as best as I can into my 12″ cast iron skillet (cooking spray is essential), top it, and cook it at the hottest temperature my oven gets to until done. You get a few pieces with huge thick chewy crusts, but overall it comes out delicious.
November 11th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
I actually had great luck with this crust - I just popped it out and laid it in a 9×13 glass baking dish. Then again I wasn’t making a pizza, but another recipie that called for a homemade pizza crust…. so maybe that was the secret. The crust was delicious though.
November 12th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
I also tried this. My packaging said only to refrigerate it, and that helped the freezing part.
As far as the cooking goes, I’m the opposite. I was afraid to top it beforehand so I’ve only ever baked it part of the way (6-8 minutes, lean towards
and then topped and done an extra 10.
I also use the dark pan instructions because that’s what we have that can fit these things on it.
I was overall pleased. All by itself it’s sort of “there” and not tasty, but it’s nothing offensive at all, not in the least. As a fix I sprinkle what will be the outer crust with seasoned breadcrumbs at that halfway point.
Wal-Mart’s Great Value version is 60 cents less right now too, and rises more fully and bakes more evenly. Worth a shot as well. Don’t think I’ll ever go back.
November 15th, 2008 at 8:14 am
I use the refrigerated pillsbury dough. The “soggy” or doughy problem you have experienced can be solved by doing this:
1. I use a cookie sheet.
2. put a generous amount of corn meal on the cookie sheet
3. I unroll the dough and place it on the corn meal then spread it out as much as possible.
4. Use a basting brush and spread some olive oil on it and bake it for 5 minutes or so.
For sauce, if you use a thinner sauce like the spaghetti sauce you mentioned, you will get soggy pizza. Ragu makes pizza sauce. I mix one can of tomato paste with a 14 oz jar of that pizza sauce. This makes it more consistent with restaurant sauce.
Also, stay away from “low moisture part skim” cheeses. They do not melt right or taste right.
November 20th, 2008 at 9:06 am
My sons love making pizza using pillboury… we do the pre-bake & roll the dough into a circle, lol
February 13th, 2009 at 6:39 pm
Well you need to make sure the dough is not frozen when you make it. if you make a pizza when all the dough is soft it will turn out better. also precook the dough 5-6 minutes before adding the topping and it will make for a great pizza.
what also works as pizza dough is take 1 or 2 cans of biscuits cut them up and put in a baking dish. then put sauce , toppings on it. its called a lumpy pizza but it works! you dont need to mush the dough together, the chunks need to just tought lightly. and i think biscuits at aldis discount grocery is like 25 cents. here is a recipe.