Leftover Pizza Dough? Bake A Loaf Of Bread

If you're familiar with bread baking, you'll know that the basic ingredients — water, flour, yeast, and a little salt — can produce an incredible variety of shapes and textures when you combine them in different ways. You can get a crusty ciabatta or a loaf of Wonderbread-style white with a few tweaks to the ratio and technique. But that means that some doughs should stick to their intended purpose, right? Not necessarily. 

Take pizza dough, for example. Yes, pizza dough is different from your standard French boule. No, that doesn't mean you have to use your leftover pizza dough for more pizza. You can use it to bake bread, too. 

Plenty of people use leftover pizza dough for Italian-restaurant classics, like calzones or strombolis. You don't have to stick to pizza-adjacent dishes, though. While you'll never be able to get that delicate, fluffy Wonderbread texture from leftover pizza dough, you can use it to make a wide variety of loaves, rolls, and appetizers.

Pizza dough isn't like standard bread dough, as it tend to have a lower hydration level than most breads, which gives the crust a denser texture. Most recipes also include oil, which makes the dough stretchier, while pizza flour (00 flour) gives the bread extra strength so it keeps its shape when laden with toppings.

Pizza dough is perfect for restaurant-style breadsticks. According to internet rumor, that may be why so many Italian restaurants have them on the menu. Of course, pizza dough works well for flatbreads and focaccia, too. Breadsticks and flatbread aside, cooking blogs and internet how-tos consistently say that pizza dough is perfect for sandwich bread. After all, pizza dough is designed to hold its shape without getting soggy, just like the perfect sandwich roll. 

Pizza dough's not-too-absorbent nature also makes it a good choice for pull-apart breads. Pack lumps of pizza dough into a Bundt pan with cheese, herbs, and garlic; and bam, you've got an incredible appetizer. You don't have to stick to savory recipes, either. Turn pizza dough into a gooey monkey bread or roll it into twists with butter, cinnamon, and sugar for a churro-inspired snack.  

While it's possible to bake a full-sized loaf of bread from pizza dough, stick to simple projects until you've got the technique down. For flatbreads and breadsticks, you just need to shape the dough and add toppings or fillings. The 800 degree Fahrenheit temperatures used to cook Neapolitan-style pizzas will result in burnt or unevenly-cooked bread, so keep things (relatively) cool. A moderate 425 degrees will work fine for breadsticks. For flatbread, amp up the temperature to 500 degrees and check the oven after eight minutes. 

For bigger, puffier loaves and rolls, you'll need to let the dough proof. Proofing is the process of letting dough rise after you've shaped it so it's nice and airy by the time it hits the oven. Shape your dough, either by hand or by cutting it into squares, and let it proof for around an hour. No need for a fancy proofing machine; I proof bread in a cool oven with a bowl of hot, steamy water. Bake smaller loaves at 425 degrees for 13 to 15 minutes.

Both homemade pizza dough and the store-bought stuff will work, but be aware that some store-bought doughs include additives meant to change the texture. Feel free to experiment with different brands and recipes, but don't assume that a technique that works with homemade dough will get the same results with Pillsbury.