Personally, I'd use YAML's LoadFile and DumpFile functions, unless you need to store objects.

For Data::Dumper, something like

# dump to file
local $Data::Dumper::Purity = 1;
open DATA,">","some/file" or die $!;
print DATA Dumper( $hashref );
close DATA;


# read from file
open DATA,"<","some/file" or die $!;
local $/;
my $hashref = eval(<DATA>) or die $@;
close DATA;

# or even
my $hashref = do("some/file") or die $!;
[download]

should work