Refrigerator Pizza Dough - The Stay At Home Chef

There is no reason to order out! Just keep shredded mozzarella and pepperoni in your freezer, a jar of sauce in your pantry, and, of course, some dough in your fridge. It’s easy and it only takes 5 minutes of hands-on work to put the dough together. Forget about it for an hour or two while it rises, and then toss it in the fridge.

Need pizza dough for tonight? Try our easy pizza dough. For an authentic experience, you have to try our Italian-style pizza dough.

Why Our Recipe

Dough comes together in 5 minutes, no mixer required! Mix it right in the container.
Store in the fridge for up to 2 weeks so you can have dough ready to go anytime!
Makes enough for four large pizzas, but can easily be doubled or tripled.

An overhead view of 4 pieces of dough on a wooden cutting board.

It’s a rare day that you won’t find pizza dough in our fridge. Sometimes we need a last-minute meal, and pizza is our favorite go-to. You can put almost anything on a pizza and make it good. This dough is great because you can make a batch (or double batch), toss it in the fridge, and then know that you’re covered for dinner emergencies for the next two weeks. You can pull it out of the fridge and have dinner ready within 15 minutes. We showed this trick once for a group cooking lesson, and everyone was amazed.

Ingredient Notes

An overhead view of the ingredients needed to make refrigerator pizza dough.

Water: Use lukewarm water (100-110℉) to help activate the yeast. We like to say it should be warm to the touch, like a baby’s bath water.
Olive Oil: Extra virgin olive oil is preferred for better taste, but any olive oil will work.
Brown Sugar: Light or dark brown sugar can be used. You could even use granulated sugar in a pinch.
Salt: Use regular table salt or kosher salt.
Instant Dry Yeast: Make sure your yeast is fresh for the best results. Active dry yeast can also be used interchangeably in this recipe.
All-Purpose Flour: You can substitute with bread flour for a slightly different texture if desired.

The Container

For this refrigerator pizza dough, you’ll want a large Tupperware-type container, also known as a food storage container or food prep container. You can see examples using our affiliate link on Amazon, but you can find these types of containers at many stores. They come in various shapes like circular, square and tall, or rectangular and shorter. Ideally, you’ll need a 6 to 8-quart container to give your dough plenty of room to rise. Pick one that fits best in your fridge.

An overhead view of a large 6-qart food storage container with refrigerator pizza dough in it.

Vent Your Dough

It’s important to vent your container because the dough produces gases as it rises. Yes, your dough continues to rise in the fridge, albeit slowly. These gases need to escape otherwise the lid pops off. Use a container with a lid that fits securely but isn’t airtight, or leave the lid slightly ajar. You can also cover the container with plastic wrap, poking a small hole for ventilation.