The One Secret You Need to Know to Make the Best Frozen Pizza
No need for delivery with this trick!
If your upbringing was anything like mine, you most likely had parents who gravitated towards convenient food preparation. One of them was the quintessential frozen pizza. I'm talking about your DiGiorno, Red Baron, or Tostino's. After a quick 30 seconds to open the package, a toss into the preheated oven, and a watch of a Schitt's Creek episode, you have dinner!
Although the frozen pie innovation has changed the game for at-home pizza eating, it does of course have its downsides. Frozen pizza tends to lack pizzazz. The crust often turns out stale and cardboard-like. The cheese always tends to stay in its shredded shape and refuses to melt. The flavor can be lackluster. Last but not least, it always gets cold very quickly. Now there are ways to elevate frozen pizza, but this simple trick may just rise above the rest.
Defrost Your Frozen Pizza Before Baking for Better Results
Most instructions have you place your frozen pizza straight from the freezer into the oven. However, according to a Reddit user, completely thawing your pizza before baking is the trick to a better finished product. In addition to thawing it first, having your oven on a very high setting will also mimic real pizza making. Commercial pizza ovens can reach temperatures as high as 800-1000 degrees F. A standard home oven doesn't get that hot—but get it as close as you can.
Putting This Trick to the Test
I decided to do a test run. I bought two DiGiorno pepperoni and sausage pizzas. One was going to be thawed and cooked at a high temperature, and the other would be prepared according to the original instructions.
The unthawed pizza was baked at a temperature of 400 degrees F, completely frozen, right on the rack for 24 minutes. The other pizza was allowed to thaw for 30 minutes on the counter, then placed on a pizza tray. I baked this version at 550 degrees F for about 10 minutes. To my surprise, the thawed pizza had a crispier crust and offered a better texture than the frozen one. The frozen version still had its unmistakable cardboard texture.
If you aren't forward-thinking enough to remember to thaw ahead, many grocery outlets like Walmart and Aldi carry refrigerated, ready-to-bake pizzas. They already knew what was up!
Read the original article on All Recipes.
