Keep Your Cool

Your ability to refreeze previously frozen dough depends greatly on how much it was allowed to rise before and after the first freeze. Pizza dough rises when yeast in the dough consumes the carbohydrates in the flour, producing carbon dioxide gas bubbles that "inflate" it. It will remain viable only if the yeast haven't been exhausted before you freeze it again. Ideally, the dough was first frozen before being allowed to rise much, or at all, and either remained refrigerated or allowed only a brief rise at room temperature while thawed.

Fab or Flab?

You'll know your dough is refreezable if it still has a little spunk -- it retains some elasticity and seems to want to spring back when you stretch it gently. Dough that has overproofed -- risen too much to remain viable through another spell in the freezer -- will have puffed up and then softened as the yeast gorged themselves and then fatigued. The dough will feel goopy or flabby, and fail to bounce back or hold its shape well. You can still freeze overproofed dough and attempt to bake it later, but the dough will be difficult to work with and will produce a flat, tough, dry crust.

Special Handling

The quality of your refrozen pizza dough will also depend on how much you handled it while it was thawed. Did you pat it into rounds or attempt to stretch it into a crust? Did you dust it with additional flour? If so, even viable dough may produce drier, lumpier pizza crust when you eventually bake it. Once you decide you want to refreeze the dough, try to handle it as little as possible.

Pack for Convenience

If possible, refreeze the dough in individual pizza-size portions rather than in bulk. Cut a large batch of dough into smaller segments using a large, sharp knife. To store, place each portion into a zip-top plastic bag dusted inside with flour. Use your freezer's rapid-freeze function, if it has one, to quickly arrest the yeast action. To thaw the dough later, invert the bags and place the individual dough portions on a flour-dusted bread board or counter. They'll take about two hours to come to room temperature, after which you can shape them and supervise any additional rising.