Why I Always Leave My Pizza Dough in the Fridge for Three Days

Making a pizzeria-quality pizza at home is completely achievable, but it does take a little bit of know-how to make this happen. You can read my nine tips to get started, but you should know that there’s one very special tip on that list. Doing this one thing makes a huge impact on your pizza, requires literally no work on your end, and costs no money.

In short: You should be aging your pizza dough. I do it every time I make pizza now and I haven’t looked back. 

Homemade pizza makes for a fun, shareable family dinner, but I actually love making personal pizzas for lunch. I’ll buy a pound of pizza dough from Trader Joe’s or Shoprite and cut it into four equal parts. I wrap the quadrants separately and start making personal pizzas for lunch—one small dough ball gets used each day, while the others sit in the fridge and wait for their turn. That's four days in a row of personal pizza. 

As the dough aged, I noticed a change. The first day’s crust would be more difficult to stretch out, the dough would feel more firm, and the finished pizza crust would be more dense, with tiny, close-set air bubbles. With each subsequent day, the texture of the crust would improve. By day four, the crust would have big, irregular bubbles, stretch easily, and bake with a more pizzeria-like quality. Plus, the crust would be more flavorful.

Great bubbling action happening here on my aged dough. Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

Why aging your pizza crust gives you better results

Whether you’re making your own homemade crust recipe or you're buying raw dough from the supermarket, pizza dough is a yeast-leavened bread, and yeast breads develop flavor as they ferment. That’s why many sourdough recipes suggest letting the dough cold-ferment in the fridge overnight, and why others suggest 72-hour fermentation periods for pizza dough. 

This extra time gives the yeast time to eat and release carbon dioxide to make those lovely air pockets. Additionally, the gluten in the dough gets time to relax, so you can actually stretch it without a fight. My favorite thing about pizzeria pizza is when those gigantic air bubbles blossom around the pie. The only way I’ve been able to duplicate that at home is after aging my pizza dough in the fridge for three or four days. 

How to age (ferment) your pizza dough

Aging your pizza dough is so easy you might have done it by accident a few times already. If you buy your dough frozen from the supermarket, simply pop it into the fridge for at least three days. The first day is to thaw the dough, so it’s more like Day 0. Add 48 to 72 hours of additional time in the fridge for the dough to ferment. 

Left: 72-hour aged dough. Right: Un-aged dough. Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

You can see the difference in the picture. The dough on the left has been fermenting for three days and the one on the right is just thawed—technically ready to use but unfermented. There are tons of air bubbles on the aged dough, visible against the plastic. You can also see a difference in the overall elasticity, the aged dough is much looser while the un-aged dough on the right still maintains a tight shape with a smooth, un-bubbled surface.

If you make your own pizza dough, mix the recipe as usual. After the dough is completely mixed, shape it into a smooth ball and put it into a plastic bag or in a lightly oiled large bowl and cover it with plastic wrap. Put it in the fridge for 48 to 72 hours.

Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

Once it’s finished fermenting, scrape the dough out onto a floured surface and stretch the dough like you normally would. Slather it with tomato sauce (or one of these adventurous pizza sauces), top it and bake it until bubbling and crispy. And keep in mind, if you like big bubbles, make sure you don’t pop them while you stretch the dough. You shall be rewarded.

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