Any hints or tips for prepping homemade frozen pizza dough for baking?

Thanks for all of the advice, everyone! I made pizza last night from dough that I had frozen a few months ago. The pizza toppings were delicious (I made the broccoli rabe, potato and rosemary pizza from this site), but the tough crust did not win any raves. I suspect that the dough had not completely returned to room temperature before I formed and baked it. It was completely defrosted but was definitely on the cool side when I rolled it out. It's also possible that the oven wasn't hot enough (425 degrees in an electric oven) and that the pizza baked for too long (15-20 minutes). I did not preheat for half an hour (will do that next time). I will also crank up the heat -- I think that my oven goes up to 550F.

Just a short time ( less than a half hour) on the counter top should defrost the pizza dough if you want quicker thawing action. And like Pierino says "crank it up"! Allthough my oven doesn't really heat much over 500F I have found that an hour long warm up with pizza stone in the oven works better than putting the pizza in the oven just as it comes up to temp.

Yes, the dough should be at room temperature before patting it out and adding toppings. I agree with the above advice on defrosting.

Frozen pizza dough is a wonderful thing to have on hand. But it does need to come back to room temperature and spring back into life. Roll it out on a floured surface while you crank up the oven as high as you can get it.

Pizza dough is not like frozen chicken. It's not going to spoil if you leave it wrapped on a counter top overnight.

I let it thaw in the fridge and then fine letting it warm near a low temp oven works best to get the consistancy back to what it was before freezing.

Hi cookinginvictoria,

In my experience letting it thaw in the fridge overnight is best. Trying to speed up the process in the microwave leaves a sticky mess that is really hard to work with. And, generally speaking I've not found that most dough needs to be punched down, but you can probably tell by the consistency when it's fully thawed. Here's a great article with some tips that might help you: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/foodwine/2002850608_dough08.html