In our column Fake It or Make It we test a homemade dish against its prepackaged counterpart to find out what's really worth cooking from scratch.
Those frozen, pre-packaged pizza crusts hanging somewhere near the pitas in a supermarket's bakery aisle have long been a mystery to me. Who buys them? What do they taste like? And how long have they been hanging there, anyway? Since NYC baker Jim Lahey recently introduced his couldn't-be-simpler, no-knead pizza dough to Bon Appetit readers, the time seems right to test-drive those prefab pizza bases against Lahey's homemade version. But I had low expectations for the pre-made crusts, so I threw Whole Foods' store-brand frozen pizza dough into the ring as well for a special, three-way Fake It or Make It comparison.
The Contenders
Boboli 12" Original Pizza Crust vs. Whole Foods Frozen Pizza Dough vs. Jim Lahey's No-Knead Pizza Dough
What exactly constitutes "traditional" pizza has long been the subject of bitter arguments, but here's what my research shows that most people agree on: Simple flatbreads adorned with toppings and baked on hot stones have probably been consumed since the Stone Age. Pizza in its more-or-less current form (yeast-risen bread, tomatoes, and cheese) was around in Naples by the 17th Century; it migrated to the U.S. by the latter half of the 19th Century and steadily gained in popularity from then on, especially throughout the Northeast and in Chicago. Now America is home to a wide array of pizzas styles, from New York's traditional thin-crust brick oven varieties to Chicago's decadent deep-dish to whatever atrocity Pizza Hut happens to be promoting at any given time.
Relative Costs
Homemade is cheapest. I paid $4.69 for a 12-inch Boboli crust and $1.79 for two crusts worth of Whole Foods dough. But with from scratch, I made enough dough for six similarly sized pizzas with less than $3 worth of ingredients.
Relative Healthfulness
Homemade and Whole Foods are best. From-scratch crust is comprised of just four ingredients: flour, water, salt, and yeast. Whole Foods gets points for its use of Organic flour, but also includes ascorbic acid as a preservative. The Boboli crust contains a laundry list of additives including palm oil, sugar, monoglycerides, and artificial flavors and colors.
Time Commitment
It took me about twenty minutes of active time to make the homemade pizza dough, plus about twenty hours of waiting. The Whole Foods crust required a day in the refrigerator to thaw, 2-3 hours on the counter to warm to room temperature, then a few minutes of stretching and shaping before use.
Leftovers Potential
Boboli crusts are terrifyingly shelf-stable inside their plastic wrapping, but should be consumed immediately once opened. Homemade pizza dough can be stored in the fridge for 2-3 day before use, or frozen in plastic wrap for months -- ditto on the frozen Whole Foods version.
What The Testers Said
First let me introduce our panel.
THE HEALTH NUT
A delicate eater, the health nut is calorie conscious but also likes to eat well
