The Only Dough You Should Make Pizza With!
As the Pizzacraft home chef probably knows by now: the magic is in the dough. A lot of the flavor of your pizza is dependent on how good your pizza dough tastes. Whether thick or thin crust, bad dough could ruin a whole pie no matter what you put on top.
To flesh out this theory (or roll it out) we tested three different kinds of premade pizza dough in the Pizzacraft kitchen to see how big of an impact a change in premade dough can really make. For this experiment, we bought all three kinds of Trader Joe’s premade pizza doughs – garlic & herb, whole wheat, and plain.
To put them to the test we made a pizza with each dough. Each pie consisting of the same amount of dough, sauce, and cheese. Next, we had some fellow employees taste each pizza and pick their favorite dough based on flavor and consistency. The results are as follows.
1. Plain Pizza Dough
In first place we had a clear winner of plain pizza dough. One participant exclaimed, “it’s not broken, don’t fix it”. The plain premade pizza dough was said to highlight the flavor of the cheese better than the two other doughs. In the end, the plain dough turned out to have a cult following much stronger than predicted, “don’t mess with my dough”.
2. Garlic & Herb
Trailing in with less than half the votes of plain, garlic & herb was survived by a few outliers with a love for rosemary. One advocate for the herb claimed, “If you don’t like rosemary you aren’t going to like this dough”. Some of the plain dough fans argued that the herb flavors overpowered the pizza. As an innocent bystander, I say it’s worth a taste and definitely does mix things up a bit.
3. Whole Wheat
You have to applaud whole wheat for trying, yet this dough received zero votes. During the chaos, I heard the classic insult “tastes like cardboard” yelled out more than once… The consistency was a bit too tough. With points in its favor for being slightly more healthy, it still seemed that no one was willing to sacrifice that much flavor for a little better (for you) bread.
Regardless of our results, I urge you to try each dough for yourself and see what you think. After all, no one complained about eating three different types of pizza. One participant asked, “are the toppings the same on each?” Yes, they were, but the dough had such an impact that it did seem like the cheese on the pizza tasted different with each variation. So, try it out yourself and let us know in the comments below.
Check out some of our other pizza tips:
- Store-Bought Dough: Who's Is Best
- Help, My Pizza Is Stuck To My Pizza Peel
- No Mixer? No Problem. No-Knead Pizza Dough Recipe
- How To Fix Sticking Pizza Dough
For more fun, follow our Instagram where we ask similarly controversial questions, give tips, and post a pizza a day. @_pizzacraft
3 comments
I’m with Kevin 00 flour makes the best new york style pizza I’ve Tryed a lot of different recipes I also was a pizza man in a few pizza parlors. Trader Joe’s is not that fresh at least what I’ve seen looks like it raised then fell. But anyways I enjoy making my own I have a kitchen aid but I do it by hand whole milk mozzarella with a bit of low moister mozzarella provolone cheese Romano Parmisiano cheese. Fugetabouit. Yup I’m from Brooklyn. New York. I’m picky about my pizza
Hi Kevin, the reason we chose to compare Trader Joe’s was upon request after our last blog on what store bought pizza dough is the best. Trader joe’s store bought pizza dough won so then we tested everything they had. I agree though, homemade is alwayssss better.
Here’s my problem with this experiment, Trader Joes? I would have rather read that Pizzacraft had 3 dough recipes, tried them and these were the results. Store bought just doesn’t cut it for me. I’ve searched high and low for the “best” pizza dough recipe and found many. My all time favorite is “00” flour, Yeast, salt, Olive Oil and water That’s it, traditional Italian or New York Style. I enjoy making Pizza’s from scratch, my wife says I missed my calling.