There’s nothing like a steamy, cheesy slice of pizza for dinner at the end of a long, hard day at work. Handmade pizza is an especially tasty suppertime treat if you have the time and energy to make it. When you don’t have the energy to make pizza dough or the time to wait for it to rise, you may be tempted to cut corners by using unrisen pizza dough.
Making pizza crust isn’t any more complicated than making other kinds of baked goods. For many of us (myself included), the main drag in making pizza dough is waiting for the dough to rise. This can take several hours–up to a whole 24 hours–before the dough has fully risen.
When I want a quick dinner, waiting even an hour seems like an eternity. Planning to make pizza ruins the joy of spontaneously making homemade pizza on a whim.
Before you give up on your dreams of making pizza in a time crunch, we’ve got the answers to whether you can make pizza dough without letting it rise.
Can You Make Pizza Dough Without Letting It Rise?
A quick google search will show that there are plenty of recipes for pizza dough that are specifically designed to avoid the wait time of rising. In ohsodelicioso.com’s recipe for “No Rise Pizza Dough,” The website lists the recipe as follows:
“Start by adding all your dry ingredients to your stand mixer. You will not want to use ALL the flour right at first. Start with 1.5 cups of flour…Mix your dry ingredients together and while the mixer is mixing slowly add in your hot water. Let your dough knead for about a minute
You will need to add in a little more flour, about .5 cup-1 cup.”
The reason why none of the ingredient measurements are listed is that the ingredient amounts for bread, including pizza dough, depend largely on your altitude. Experiment with different ingredient measurements and add a little more moisture or a little more flour as needed.
When in doubt, consult neighbors who bake bread or doughs often–they’ll probably have a better idea of how to adjust measurements based on altitude than even the web.
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Of course, this is just one of many recipes for making pizza dough without letting it rise. If a pizza dough recipe requires letting the dough rise, you probably won’t be able to get away with making it without letting it rise. Unfortunately, it won’t turn out the same and it might end up dense and chewy.
Although your stomach might be telling you to hurry the pizza-making process along, a dense slice of pizza will resemble cake more than the fluffy pizza with little pockets of air that we all know and love.
One way to have pizza dough without waiting for the rise time is planning. Uncooked pizza dough can be stored in the refrigerator for up to five days in an airtight container before use.
If you know that you want pizza later in the week and also know that you will not have time to make the dough the night you want to cook it, prepared pizza dough is a great solution. You’ll have all the goodness of pizza with all the convenience of delivery.
All you have to do after pulling it out of the fridge is flour a surface to spread it, spread it using your fingers onto a pizza stone or greased baking sheet, spoon sauce onto the pizza, sprinkle cheese, and add whatever toppings your heart (and taste buds) desire.
For a super quick homemade pizza, you can also buy a premade crust. Different types of premade pizza crust include a prebaked pizza crust where you just add whatever toppings you want and heat until the toppings are thoroughly cooked through.
You can also get raw pizza crust in canisters in the cold section of the grocery store. Usually, raw pizza crust canisters are located near the biscuits and other raw baked goods. Some companies are also manufacturing frozen pizza crusts that you can top with any kind of topping.
Certain frozen premade crusts are not only convenient, but they also meet specific nutritional needs or dietary preferences. Cauliflower pizza crusts and chickpea pizza crusts are on the rise as convenient, healthy pizza crust options.
If it’s completely premade, you definitely won’t have to worry about letting it rise. All you have to do as the home cook is layering on the sauce, cheese, and toppings, toss it in the oven for the recommended time and enjoy the fruits of your minimal efforts.
If you want to buy premade raw pizza dough that has all the authentic goodness of New York pizza crust, opt for frozen raw pizza dough. These pizza doughs are usually made fresh and frozen only for the purpose of transporting them from the manufacturer to your front doorstep.
Do You Have To Let the Dough Rise for Pizza?
Technically, the world will not end if you do not let the dough rise for pizza. However, you may not like the results of the pizza if you don’t follow the recipe’s recommendation to let the dough rise. Unrisen pizza dough can be dense and chewy in texture. This is not the ideal texture for pizza dough and may leave you or anyone enjoying your pizza with you disappointed.
If you don’t let pizza dough rise long enough, you might also run into problems. Sitting your pizza dough in the refrigerator or on the counter for thirty minutes or even a few hours is not enough to let the dough properly rise.
As mama-cucina.com explains, “The 24-hour period of resting the pizza dough is a good rule to follow. It ensures that the dough is completely rested and yeast fermentation, giving you a better tasting crust in ordinary circumstances.”
What Happens if You Don’t Let Pizza Dough Rise?
You might be curious about what happens if you don’t let pizza dough rise. So that you don’t ruin a perfectly good pizza dough, we’ve scoured the internet for someone who tried this out, so you don’t need to do it.
As crustkingdom.com shares in their article about what happens when you don’t let pizza dough rise, “If you don’t let dough rise long enough then the bread will be dense, rubbery, and less flavorful.
As the yeast ferments, it fills the dough with gas and gives the bread its airy texture. The flavors also come as byproducts of fermentation.”
In other words, unrisen pizza dough won’t harm you but it can make your pizza-eating experience less enjoyable. If you don’t let your pizza dough rise, you might end up ordering out to wash the taste of terrible pizza crust out of your mouth. This defeats the whole purpose of eating in and making your own pizza crust from scratch.