Why do you need to keep a frozen pizza in the freezer before placing it in the oven while a take-an-bake pizza can go straight from being made at the restaurant to going inside your oven?

Question

If you decide to thaw out your frozen pizza before placing it in the oven it will usually cause the dough to turn flimsy and spill inside the oven. But when take a thawed out pizza from a take-and-bake restaurant and place it in your oven, it never turns flimsy and spills.

In: Chemistry

Answer 1

The cooking directions on frozen pizzas are based on the pizza being frozen when you put it in the oven. You can cook it from thawed/refrigerated but you’ll need to shorten the cooking time. Also, keep it frozen if you’re not going to be eating it soon, thawing and refreezing food can lead to bacteria growth, especially if it is thawed on the counter/not in the refrigerator.

Answer 2

take and bake pizzas are usually sold on a baking tray

frozen pizzas are intended to be cooked directly on the rack

Answer 3

The directions are developed according to the different frozen or fresh states. You could thaw a frozen pizza and then cook it, but the directions on the package will be inaccurate and you’ll burn your pizza.

Answer 4

I thaw out my frozen pizzas before cooking them all the time; I’m able to get a much crispier crust than cooking it straight from the freezer.

Answer 5

The directions for frozen pizza, including time and temperature are written with the fact that the pizza is frozen, specifically considered.

There’s no reason you *couldn’t* cook it in an unfrozen state, but it would probably be best to use a bit lower temperature and less time. The exact amount would really depend on the pizza and you’d have to do some experimenting. I’d say about 1/2 the stated cook time plus 1 minute.

Because few people are going to wait around for it to thaw before baking there’s really no point in putting instructions for thawed parts.

In addition frozen pizzas usually have a thin, parbaked crust, meaning the crust is fully cooked. So heating mainly serves to defrost, melt the cheese and toast the crust a bit, giving a nice toasted flavor. The recipe is designed that way.

Take-and-bake pizzas usually have a thicker crust than frozen ones. Again, cook time takes into account the fact that the pizza is neither frozen nor pre cooked. An unbaked crust has a higher moisture content than a parbaked one, so evaporating moisture slows down the process of toasting/browning.