Rater Joe's Trader Joe's Pizza Dough

[derketchup]

Ok this stuff is awesome!

I made homemade pizzas last night, with the following items from TJs:

shredded mozarella
refrigerated pizza dough
bell peppers
mushrooms

and with the following items I had on hand:
spaghetti sauce
onions

I have pictures in my blog, here:
http://www.organicgrocerydeals.com/forums/blog.php?b=54

[jenjacobs]

Yum - I love their dough. I make a yummy pizza with garlic, cheese, tomoates, kalamata olives, and fresh basil.

[bexx09]

I haven't been able to find this at my Trader Joe's. :(

[derketchup]

You should ask -- in mine it is in the fridge unit with the ready-made meals, on the bottom. It's a bit difficult to find.

[bexx09]

Fridge unit? Hmm, maybe that's where I went wrong. I was looking in the frozen section. And now that I typed that out I realized that it doesn't sound right, lol.

[kristen.c]

I LOVE this stuff too! The herb dough is my favorite. In my store it's near the chilled lunchmeats and cheeses. I hope you can find it Bexx- it's delicious!

[bexx09]

Aww, now I feel dumb, cause I always just walk right by that section.

I'm going to stop by there this weekend and hunt that pizza dough down!

[derketchup]

I went today and all they had left were 2 herb doughs!!!! All the other kinds were sold out, I couldn't believe it!

[chitownmelli]

oh goodness, that looked fantastic! I am sooo going to trader joes and getting some of that dough!!!

[jujubee]

Originally Posted by derketchup

I went today and all they had left were 2 herb doughs!!!! All the other kinds were sold out, I couldn't believe it!

Think everyone read your blog then ran out and bought some...? I would have if we had a TJ's!

[bexx09]

Well, I'm a big pizza making failure. I bought some of the herb dough along with some pizza sauce and cheese and tried to make a cheese pizza last night. It was a disaster!! I've never worked with pizza dough before and it wouldn't do what I wanted it to, plus I wasn't even sure what temp. or how long to leave it in the oven. So I ditched the pizza idea and just did the breadstick thing instead, excpet that they turned out more like bread lumps and my cheese burned and the breadsticks didn't cook right... and I threw the whole thing away. =(

I need a pizza making tutorial. Otherwise I'm just gonig to stick with the Boboli ready-made crusts... I think they have whole-wheat ones now. *sigh*

[derketchup]

Pizza Making Tutorial:

Work with the dough on a clean, dry surface. Dust the surface and your hands with flour. Roll the dough into a ball, and then squish flat until it looks like a really thick pancake.

http://www.fabulousfoods.com/school/...rollpizza.html

Then follow the instructions on the website above. Or, instead of using a rolling pin, you can take the floppy dough and work it out into a bigger floppy pancake using your fists. I don't know really how to explain this. If you get an opportunity, go to a pizza restaurant where the chefs make dough in front of everyone. I know that Sbarro's in the mall usually does this -- when I worked there they encouraged their managers to throw the dough in the air to get everyone's attention.

A few things to remember when topping the pizza:

Cheese and sauce will float towards the center of the pizza as it cooks, so put less in the center and more around the edges.
Households oven will not get hot enough to properly cook vegetables, so sautee onions, bell peppers, and mushrooms in a frying pan before cooking.
If you're using pepperoni that's precooked, you don't have to put it on the pizza before it goes in the oven. When you remove the pizza from the oven, simply top it with the pepperoni and it will be perfect.

You'll want to cook your pizza at 350-400 F. Times vary depending on how thick you got the crust and how many toppings you have on it. I check it at 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes, and 25 minutes.

When you remove the pizza from the oven, let it rest for 10 minutes before cutting it. Otherwise it'll never look right.

[bexx09]

Thanks der! :)

I'll give it another try.

[kristen.c]

I'm sorry your pizza experience turned out so badly!

Der's post is full of great info!

Another thing that really helps too is to let the dough rest for awhile (30 minutes or so) at room temperature. If you try to work with it when it's too cold it will shrink back up when you try to roll it out or it will get holes in it that you'll have to try and patch up. If you don't want any big dough bubbles in your cooked crust you can also dock the dough with a fork- that's just poking some holes in the dough with the tines before you put on the sauce and cheese.

Also check the bag that the pizza comes in. I think somewhere in small print on the TJ's bag it has a suggested cooking temp & time but I'm not sure.

[derketchup]

Oh yeah, forgot about letting it come to room temperature. Otherwise it's too hard and it fights back!

I worked at Sbarros for a year in High School, so I have lots of "hands on" experience with pizza...

[derketchup]

I'm not the only one who liked this!

Between Bites: Trader Joe's dough, how I love thee - Folsom

[kristen.c]

That's a cute article!

[jtjohns]

I think that the pizza dough is my new favorite thing from Trader Joe's

I had good results after reading a foccacia recipe that I got from Real Simple's web site. It's the same basic idea as the pizza recipe, but the difference is baking the dough plain (just brushed with a little olive oil) at 400 degrees for 5 minutes, the pulling it out of the oven, adding your toppings and then baking for another 8 to 10 minutes.

Pulling it from the oven at the 5 minute mark gives you a chance to pop any bubbles, and it gives the dough a chance to set up and not get too soggy from any toppings you may add. I've also been rolling my dough out pretty thin (I've been using an 11" x 17" pan), and keeping the toppings light.

Pesto (thinned out with extra olive oil) and thin slices of fresh tomato with a little cheese on top is really good (it made for a yummy lunch today!).

JJ

[ocean_brez]

I have looked for this pizza dough several times at Trader Joe's and still keep missing it. Can anyone give me an idea of what it could be next to? It is in the frozen section right? What does it look like package-wise??? I am clueless!

[kristen.c]

Originally Posted by ocean_brez

I have looked for this pizza dough several times at Trader Joe's and still keep missing it. Can anyone give me an idea of what it could be next to? It is in the frozen section right? What does it look like package-wise??? I am clueless!

They can be easy to miss!

Where I shop they are in the refrigerated section at the far side of the store near where they keep the meat/cheeses, sushi, and prepared sandwiches. The dough comes formed into a ball inside of a mostly-clear plastic bag (sort of like a bread bag) with a twisty clip on it. Hope that helps!

[ocean_brez]

Originally Posted by kristen.c

They can be easy to miss!

Where I shop they are in the refrigerated section at the far side of the store near where they keep the meat/cheeses, sushi, and prepared sandwiches. The dough comes formed into a ball inside of a mostly-clear plastic bag (sort of like a bread bag) with a twisty clip on it. Hope that helps!

Thanks! I never even thought to look in the refrigerated section. Since I am headed that way today, I will definitely look again and post if I find it. *fingers crossed*

[ocean_brez]

I finally found the pizza dough. Thanks kristen for the heads up. After coming back to this thread, I realized I should have backed up a few posts because the same question had already been answered a few posts back. Doh! (we really nead a Homer Simpson smilie here!)

Anyway, I thought they were out of the plain pizza dough until I found another location off of the frozen section facing the meat area. Too cool! So I have one wheat and one regular dough to try out tonight. Woohoo! Can't wait!

[kristen.c]

Glad you found it! (And don't worry about asking- sometimes questions get buried!) I hope you enjoy it as much as the rest of us!

[ocean_brez]

My family and I finally got to try out the TJ's pizza dough last night. Can we say AWESOME stuff! DH is "mister boring pants" and so he insisted that he had to have the white dough with cheese and homemade pizza sauce. As for the kids and I, we like pretty much everything and so we happily went for the wheat dough and substituted salami for the usual pepperoni. Good stuff I tell ya! The kids didn't even notice the wheat dough and neither did I. Too cool! So a thumbs up from all of us for this terrific find ladies!

[kristen.c]

So glad you liked it! The wheat dough makes good breadsticks too. Just roll out, brush with a little oil, sprinkle on some garlic flakes or whatever seasonings you like and bake off for a few minutes.