As they are saying, birds of a feather flock collectively, and on this staff, we’re all self-professed obsessives relating to all issues pizza. What’s to not love? Pizza is a love letter to the seasons, the final word entertaining recipe, and a heat hug on a Friday, pajama-clad film evening. And whenever you add the most effective store-bought pizza dough to the combo, nicely, 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 creating your personal pizza dough, a shortcut choice is all the time welcome. Don’t get me flawed: On Saturday nights when I’ve on a regular basis on this planet, it’s splendidly satisfying to pinch dough between your fingers and high swirls of sauce with all of the cheese and freshly-chopped substances.

However after 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 available. Whether or not it’s a field of dry combine to maintain within the pantry or contemporary dough you can freeze and thaw as wanted, we tried ten totally different pizza doughs, ranked all of them, and topped the most effective store-bought pizza dough to maintain available when the craving strikes.

Featured picture by Michelle Nash.

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Rating Tips

• Taste: For our style testing staff, we mentioned a superb pizza crust ought to have that fermented yeasty taste that’s nicely 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 needs to be that it’s prepared in a cinch and makes our life simpler.
• Good Pizza Take a look at: Does the crust work nicely when topped with sauce and toppings.

Testing Course of

1. This taste-off was barely totally 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.
2. The opposite callout is that almost all pizza crusts often include toppings. For this style off, we made half of the dough topped with sauce and cheese to check the dough’s capability 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.

Hold scrolling to seek out out the winners of this taste-off!

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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 drastically 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 lots of variables that might influence 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 is perhaps good to make a quiche with, however not a pizza.

• Texture: Pie dough
• The place to purchase: Walmart, Kroger, Sam’s Membership
• Common worth: $3.50

This dry combine pizza dough ended up being extra bready in texture than a chewy dough. The flavour was additionally paying homage to white bread greater than pizza. Wonderful if you happen to’re making bread, however alas, that’s for one more taste-off to return.

• Texture: Bready
• The place to purchase: Amazon, Kroger, Meijer
• Common worth: $1.29

In full transparency, I grew up with the ready-made Boboli pizza crusts, so I knew what we had been entering 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 worth: $3.99

Whereas this ready-made refrigerated dough baked up effective, the feel was barely crispy and a bit of chewy on the sides. The flavour felt like we had been consuming Pillsbury crescent rolls and bread dough quite 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 worth: $4.59

We had excessive hopes for this dough due to using beer rather than 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 aspect 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 worth: $5.49

Among the many dry mixes, Betty Crocker simply barely edged out the competitors primarily based 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’d maintain 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 worth: $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 important choice to have available for pizza evening. This pizza dough held up properly to the sauce and toppings as nicely.

• Texture: Chewy, good air pockets, restaurant-quality.
• The place to purchase: Dealer Joe’s
• Common worth: $4

This was a grand slam, everyone-on-the-same-page resolution. Whereas there was a bit of 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 additional texture from using entire grains. Yow will discover it within the bakery part or ready-made meals space of your Entire Meals. It held up properly to the sauce and we beloved the chewy crust of every slice. For those who’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 worth: $4.99

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Pizza Recipes to Attempt

On the lookout for inspiration in your subsequent pizza evening? Listed below are a couple of favorites I’ll be attempting with our profitable 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 submit was initially printed on October 3, 2022, and has since been up to date.