In today’s generation, pizza is everyone’s favourite either it comes to hoteling, party or group meetings. Some people order it from some restaurant while some people make it at home for fresh pure taste. When we are making it at home then question rises how long can pizza dough sit out before cooking. So, in casual routine
Pizza’s dough can be left to rise for up to 1 hour or 3 days. Longer than 24 hours runs the risk of over rising the dough. The amount of time depends on actually how much you want to rise the pizza dough.
Another term used for rising dough is ‘Proofing’. Also it can be called as “resting” the pizza dough. These terms are used for all types of bread dough either that is pizza or anything else.
Rise times of pizza dough also depends on the recipe of the dough. More yeast and sugar in the dough will take longer time. Alongside the recipe, the times used for dough proofing varies between pizza chefs.
The good news about pizza dough is that it can be made much quicker than 24 hours which is not much too short but it’s quite good as compared to the dough which is bought from store.
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Finding the Best Rising Time for pizza dough:
The best rising time for best flavour is usually longer as compared to bad flavour, but the overall time is up to you. When do you want to make your Pizza with good flavour and you plan ahead you can prep everything in advance and allow for a slow rise.
If you are not having enough time that you can left dough for longer period of time and you want to make it instant then it can be made ready within two hours.
Rising timing of Pizza dough can vary from 1 hour up to 48 hours. The reason for such verification is solely because of method used by chef. Some left dough for longer while some likes slow rise.
Factors for rising timing:
Rise times mainly depend on two factors:
- Temperature
- How the dough is made
The temperature in which the dough is stored and the ingredients used in making dough will help you to determine how long to let your pizza rise.
Temperature is actually directly proportional to dough rise time. Cooler environment allows slower rise for dough while hot temperature rises it in less time.
Letting the prepared pizza dough rise for too long will start to ruin the quality of the dough. In this way, quality will be destroyed. For fresh taste, use it instantly.
Best Places to Let Pizza Dough Rise:
When you are up with making pizza dough then next phase is of rising the dough. The places like cool and hot affects the pizza dough rise. The best place for rising dough slowly is a refrigerator. The consistent temperature is perfect for a slow cool rise of dough.
Rising dough in under two hours or in minimum time gives you multiple choices. Most likely you will want a slightly warmer than room temperature place if you want to make pizza in evening to make rise dough instantly.
When the dough is warmed up it will help in the activation of the yeast. Temperature plays a key part in rising the dough because it affects yeast the most. Then, once it’s going just keep it above 65 degrees for getting rise dough in minimum time.
Placing dough on the counter will work just fine as long as your kitchen or house is not that much cold as compared to refrigerator.
The best places are ones where temperature remains stable. The consistent rise and fall in temperature will not lead to proper dough rising.
Best Places include:
Kitchen Sink: (Fast Rise)
- Place dough in a heavy bowl first
- Then Cover bowl with plastic sheet
- After covering properly, put bowl in the kitchen sink
- Fill sink and around the bowl with hot water to raise the temperature
- Let dough rise for 1 – 2 hours without interruption.
Oven: Faster Rise
- Preheat oven to 150 or 200 degrees
- Put dough in oven in safe bowl
- Cover bowl with plastic sheet
- Turn off oven to maintain consistent temperature
- Place bowl in the oven for up to one hour until the size is doubled
Refrigerator: Slow Rise
- Place dough in a bowl
- Cover bowl with lid or plastic sheet
- Place bowl in refrigerator
- Let stay it overnight in the refrigerator.
Instead of using plastic sheet or wrap in the bowl you can use a towel or paper towel. Plastic wrap will seal much better and help in trapping in moisture most effectively.
Other places for storing pizza dough include: Microwave oven, top of refrigerator and sunny counter top spot.
Some ovens have a warming drawer on the bottom available. There will be a warming button indicator over there. Put dough in a bowl or container and place in drawer. Let dough rise for more than one hour.
Combination of Warm and Cool temperature:
If you are having more time and you have availability then a best way to rise pizza dough is by using combination of both warm and cool temperatures.
Start rising the dough in warm temperature for 6-8 hours first then place it in refrigerator for next 6-8 hours.
The combination of both temperatures will help in best rise of dough but it’s only helpful when there is maximum time available.
How to Know Pizza Dough is Ready:
Making Pizza dough can be tricky for someone because it is a precision art to get the best desired resulting crust and taste.
The hard part in it is you might not know if it has been proofed properly until baking or not especially when someone is new in this field.
This happens most in the case of restaurants as they want to have a unique and perfect crust because they want to make their clients happy and attract for further deals.
When you are making pizza at home then you can have a great tasting crust without needing to adjust much because you don’t need much clarity only taste matters there. You still can tweak your methods over time and by repetition you can be an expert.
After making the pizza dough and allowing the pizza dough to rise either for a day or a couple of hours. You aren’t still sure that if it is ready or need more time.
A quick way to indicate the pizza dough is by checking that whether the dough has grown in the container. The size might not be doubled exactly but you don’t need to measure it to make sure the volume, weight or height has doubled.
This is actually the tricky part in the way that the carbon dioxide produced by the fermenting yeast expands the dough size. So, you want to let it rise just enough to expand but not enough where the gases escape and it collapses and tastes ruined.
So, you may need to use trial and error method until you get the desired rising times that work best for you and where you are comfortable. Since, you will not know until the dough has been baked and utilized.
Really the best way to tell about the pizza dough is by testing the texture of the pizza dough. Perform this test by using your finger. You are going to poke into the dough with your finger because it is most easy way to check instantly that dough is ready or not still.
Tip: The colour of the dough is another identification that it’s ready. The colour you most want is yellow, not white or grey.
When there a hole appears in the centre of the dough and it could be retreated easily this means that the dough has been proofed just enough and it is ready to use for further process.
The rise time discussed above actually worked best for the temperature where dough is placed and recipe which is used in making the dough.
A hole that stays completely in the dough means that the dough has been over-proofed. The gases has already mostly escaped and it will not expand the hole you just made.
On the other side, a hole you poked in the dough if disappears mean that it hasn’t risen long enough. The hole you made will retreat back itself and you won’t see it anymore.
How Long Can Pizza Dough Sit Out Before Cooking?
Pizza dough when it has been risen completely should not sit out for more than a 3 hours because if it exceeds more than that it will lose taste and it won’t be able to use in baking process.
If you aren’t going to start making the pizza instantly then dough right away then keep it in a refrigerator in order to cool and further process it later on.
Even at room or normal temperature the dough will begin to form skins on the surface when it dries. Late time in baking makes the dough harder to roll and will cook uneven while baking. If you have no other choice available then try that dough or multiple dough balls in a sealed container simultaneously for better taste.
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What Happens If You Don’t Let Pizza Dough Rise?
All pizza doughs will rise because it contains yeast in it which automatically doubles its size and raises its surface.
Even if you made the dough and skipped the proofing/rising period or forget to rise it. Then the dough once being baked or put in the oven will rapidly start to rise because of warm temperature there which is normally called an oven spring.
The expansion of gases from dough and fermentation process will begin but will not last very long because of less time.
A pizza dough that hasn’t been provided enough time to proof will be harder to work with because it will so harder to stretch and will tear or break easily.
Rolling it out continuously will be much easier which allows you to make a thin crust. Baking it in cold temperature will lead to a heavier crust, which is normally tougher to chew. The proper fermentation of the dough brings a lot of the desired flavour to a pizza crust. This actually happens because of certain bacteria in the yeast that produces flavourful acids. A quick fermentation or instant prepared dough will not allow for these bacteria to grow so that pizza will not be so much tasty.
FAQ’S:
Should I let my pizza dough rise twice or it’s ok to use instant dough?
In general routine, letting a pizza dough rise twice will result in a lighter and chewy crust which is liked by majority of the people. The second rise can be done at normal room temperature for up to one hour or refrigerated overnight by using combination. If you find that your pizza crusts are tough, hard and dense then a second rise might fix this issue.
After your first pizza dough rise, shape your dough before the second one. Then place the dough balls onto a plate or pan and cover with saran sheet. Covering up the bowl helps keep the dough rising evenly.
If you want to make more than one crust from the pizza dough at once. Then divide out the dough into even pieces and then shape each one before the second rise for better result.
It’s totally ok to use instant made dough in baking but that will not lead to better taste. Its only used when you are having less time.