**Many rising-crust frozen pizzas use raw dough that is frozen before baking.** Your reasoning about par-baking is sound: once baking has set the dough’s structure, it has much less capacity to expand. “Pre-proofed” dough—dough allowed to rise before freezing—is still raw. Commercial frozen-pizza processes include both pre-proofed dough and dough formulated to rise directly from frozen. [Frozen-dough manufacturing patent](https://patents.google.com/patent/US20070218167A1/en)

The rise can come from a combination of mechanisms:

- **Yeast fermentation:** it produces carbon dioxide before freezing, if the dough is proofed.
- **Chemical leavening:** baking soda paired with a suitable acid produces carbon dioxide as the dough warms. Commercial formulations can use slow-acting or encapsulated ingredients to delay that reaction until baking.
- **Oven spring:** gas already trapped in the dough expands as it heats, and water contributes vapor. The dough stretches until heat sets its structure.

One [self-rising pizza-dough patent](https://patents.google.com/patent/US20030049359A1/en) explicitly describes shaping and freezing unbaked dough containing yeast and chemical leaveners, then baking directly from frozen. In that formulation, the inventors chiefly attribute the rise to chemical leavening and use yeast for flavor. That illustrates a manufacturing method; it does not establish the recipe used by every brand.

For a concrete supermarket example, [DiGiorno’s rising-crust pepperoni ingredient list](https://www.goodnes.com/digiorno/products/rising-crust-pepperoni-pizza-24-oz/) includes yeast, baking soda, added wheat gluten, and dough conditioners. The label alone cannot tell us its exact proofing process or how much each ingredient contributes.

**To make a similar texture at home, start with a moderately thick, well-proofed pizza dough.** Height and density are separate: a tall crust with plenty of gas cells can feel light and chewy. Bread flour helps the dough retain those cells and supports a puffy rim. [King Arthur’s pizza guide](https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/learn/pizza)

Here is a practical starting formula for one 12-inch/30-cm pizza; it is a home approximation:

- 250 g bread flour
- 160 g water
- 5 g salt
- 5 g sugar
- 8 g oil
- 2 g instant yeast

1. Mix and knead until smooth and elastic. Cover and let rise until roughly doubled.
2. Gently stretch onto a lightly oiled pizza pan. Leave the outer ¾ inch/2 cm thicker, and preserve the bubbles there.
3. Cover and let the shaped dough become noticeably puffy, roughly 30–60 minutes depending on temperature.
4. Add a moderate amount of sauce and toppings. Bake in a fully preheated oven at 450°F/230°C, starting your checks around 15 minutes. The bottom should be browned and the dough beneath the toppings cooked through.

Adjust the dough quantity and final proof to tune the height. For a taller crust across the whole pizza, use a smaller pan; for a tall rim with a thinner middle, concentrate on shaping. King Arthur’s [pizza-crust recipe](https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/pizza-crust-recipe) demonstrates how the same dough produces several thicknesses through pan size and proofing.

Duplicating the **freezer-to-oven performance** is a separate challenge involving leavener timing, dough strength, and freezing conditions. For freshly made pizza, ordinary yeast dough gives you a useful route to the texture you describe.