As they are saying, birds of a feather flock collectively, and on this staff, we’re all self-professed obsessives on the subject of all issues pizza. What’s to not love? Pizza is a love letter to the seasons, the last word entertaining recipe, and a heat hug on a Friday, pajama-clad film night time. And if you add one of the best store-bought pizza dough to the combination, effectively, issues solely get simpler (and in flip, higher).
Whereas I’ve my favourite pizza locations to order from and there’s nothing just like the tactile pleasure of constructing your individual pizza dough, a shortcut choice is all the time welcome. Don’t get me fallacious: On Saturday nights when I’ve on a regular basis on the earth, it’s splendidly satisfying to pinch dough between your fingers and prime swirls of sauce with all of the cheese and freshly-chopped components.
However once I’m in a pinch and wish to chop some corners, ready-made and easy-to-prep pizza dough from the shop is handy to have readily available. Whether or not it’s a field of dry combine to maintain within the pantry or contemporary dough that you may freeze and thaw as wanted, we tried ten completely different pizza doughs, ranked all of them, and topped one of the best store-bought pizza dough to maintain readily available when the craving strikes.
Featured picture by Michelle Nash.
Rating Tips
- Taste: For our style testing staff, we mentioned a great pizza crust ought to have that fermented yeasty taste that’s effectively salted so it doesn’t simply style like bland flour.
- Texture: Chewy over bready.
- Ease of Use: The entire level of a prepared made or simple to assemble crust ought to be that it’s prepared in a cinch and makes our life simpler.
- Good Pizza Check: Does the crust work effectively when topped with sauce and toppings.
Testing Course of
- This taste-off was barely completely different from earlier ones in that with pizza, we usually like contemporary and scorching pizza. Every crust was made contemporary and tasted immediately with preliminary notes taken, then tasted once more with all completed crusts.
- The opposite callout is that almost all pizza crusts normally include toppings. For this style off, we made half of the dough topped with sauce and cheese to check the dough’s potential to face as much as further moisture, in addition to baking half of the crust plain by itself to give attention to stand-alone taste and texture.
Maintain scrolling to seek out out the winners of this taste-off!
The Finest Retailer-Purchased Pizza Dough, Ranked
When it got here to the outcomes, one factor was clear: the contemporary dough and refrigerated dough choices tremendously outranked the dry mixes on each texture and taste. Whereas dry combine gave us the possibility to make a crust from scratch, there have been a whole lot of variables that would affect the ultimate product from a dry combined dough.
We didn’t love the marginally oily taste on this one, and the feel reminded us extra of a roll-out pie dough than a pizza crust. Our tasters thought this may be good to make a quiche with, however not a pizza.
- Texture: Pie dough
- The place to purchase: Walmart, Kroger, Sam’s Membership
- Common value: $3.50
This dry combine pizza dough ended up being extra bready in texture than a chewy dough. The flavour was additionally harking back to white bread greater than pizza. Effective for those who’re making bread, however alas, that’s for one more taste-off to return.
- Texture: Bready
- The place to purchase: Amazon, Kroger, Meijer
- Common value: $1.29
In full transparency, I grew up with the ready-made Boboli pizza crusts, so I knew what we had been stepping into. Most tasters didn’t benefit from the barely tangy and savory taste as they felt it was overpowering and too ahead when you think about extra delicate toppings. Nevertheless, if we toasted this one within the oven and slathered butter on it, we wouldn’t complain.
- Texture: Chewy, good air pockets
- The place to purchase: H-E-B, Walmart, Kroger, Jewel Osco
- Common value: $3.99
Whereas this ready-made refrigerated dough baked up positive, the feel was barely crispy and just a little chewy on the perimeters. The flavour felt like we had been consuming Pillsbury crescent rolls and bread dough fairly than pizza. I imply, we love the pop tube crescent rolls, however they’re not fairly pizza.
- Texture: Barely crispy, chewy edges
- The place to purchase: Goal, Jewel Osco, Walmart, Meijer
- Common value: $4.59
We had excessive hopes for this dough due to using beer instead of water in mixing collectively. Whereas this dry combine nonetheless had extra chew than among the others and a pleasant taste to it that leaned yeasty, it was nonetheless simply barely on the bready facet for us. Total good, however would possibly need to tweak the prep methodology to make sure chew.
- Texture: Chewy, however leaned bready
- The place to purchase: Entire Meals
- Common value: $5.49
Among the many dry mixes, Betty Crocker simply barely edged out the competitors based mostly on the crispy edges and chewy interiors. The dough had a couple of air bubbles that we preferred our slices, however what stored the dry mixes like this one from reaching the highest was once more leaning barely bready. We did have a number of tasters say they might preserve a pouch of this combine of their pantry for just-in-case pizza nights although!
- Texture: Crispy edges, chewy interiors, and good air bubbles. Barely bready.
- The place to purchase: H-E-B, Amazon, Jewel Osco, Meijer
- Common value: $1.54
2. Dealer Joe’s
It was an in depth name between our winner and TJ’s contemporary dough. The dough was very chewy with good air pockets like those you’d get at a restaurant pizza oven. Whereas the flavour was good, it wasn’t as yeasty and flavorful as our winner, however nonetheless an awesome choice to have readily available for pizza night time. This pizza dough held up properly to the sauce and toppings as effectively.
- Texture: Chewy, good air pockets, restaurant-quality.
- The place to purchase: Dealer Joe’s
- Common value: $4
This was a grand slam, everyone-on-the-same-page determination. Whereas there was just a little dialogue between the WF and TJ’s ready-made dough, what despatched Entire Meals over the sting was the flavour and texture. This dough had essentially the most fermented pizza dough taste that all of us loved whereas additionally having further texture from using entire grains. You could find it within the bakery part or ready-made meals space of your Entire Meals. It held up properly to the sauce and we cherished the chewy crust of every slice. In the event you’re going to have one pizza dough in your freezer for emergency pizza nights, make it this one.
- Texture: Chewy, with further crunch because of using entire grains.
- The place to purchase: Entire Meals
- Common value: $4.99
Pizza Recipes to Strive
In search of inspiration to your subsequent pizza night time? Listed below are a couple of favorites I’ll be making an attempt with our successful store-bought pizza dough:
Peach, Pesto, and Balsamic Pizza
Bacon, Apple, and Candy Potato Pizza
Caramelized Onion and Prosciutto Pizza
Butternut Squash and Arugula Pizza
This publish was initially printed on October 3, 2022, and has since been up to date.