Individual Yeast Raised Low Carb Pizza

This recipe is posted as a courtesy to those following a variety of low-carb diets (not necessarily Meal Plans designed by me). This recipe may or may not be appropriate for you.

Most have made “fathead pizza” — with it’s decadent cheese-rich crust and have tried their hand at it’s more virtuous cousin, “cauliflower pizza”, yet still wish there was such a thing as an authentic yeast-raised crust made with low carb-friendly ‘flour’. Now there is!

Don’t get me wrong. I really enjoy Crisp Keto Pizza, which is my yeasty adaptation of the familiar fathead dough, but I really find dough made from cheese just too rich. My Crispy Cauliflower Pizza is also very good, but I longed for regular pizza crust made from a low-carb friendly ‘flour’ that had a wonderful yeasty smell as it’s rising and baking and that had the taste and texture of real pizza.

This is real yeast-raised thin-crust pizza with the taste and texture I’d been missing!

   

Individual Yeast Raised Low Carb Pizza

Ingredients

1 -1/3 cup almond flour
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp traditional yeast
1/8 tsp sugar (required to feed the yeast)

6 tbsp psyllium husk powder*
4 egg whites
½ cup lukewarm water

Instructions

  1. *Place the whole psyllium husk in a clean, dry coffee grinder and pulse several times until it’s a fine powder. This is important as using regular psyllium husk will result in the wrong texture.
  2. Place the lukewarm water in a Pyrex measuring cup, add the little bit of sugar and sprinkle the yeast on top and let it ‘proof’ (multiply and foam) for 10 minutes.

3. In the bowl of a food processor, add the almond flour, powdered psyllium powder, baking powder and salt and pulse until well mixed.

4. Add the egg whites and then add the foamed yeast mixture and pulse the food processor until the dough begins to come together, then pulse the food processor a few more times until it forms a ball on the blade.

5. Remove the dough from the food processor and then knead it a few times until it forms a smooth ball. Place the dough on a clean work surface, cover it with a cotton tea towel and let it rest and rise for 15-20 minutes minutes before beginning to make the pizza. It should look slightly puffy and risen.

6. Preheat a stick proof skillet to a medium-high heat and cut the ball of dough in half and then each half in 1/4 so that there are eight sections.

7. Roll each section into a 1″ ball.

8. Lining a tortilla press with a piece of heavy plastic**, place one of the 1″ balls (it will continue to rise, so may be slightly larger at this point!) in the press and press well until it is about 5″ round, but not too thin.

**If you don’t have a tortilla press, it can be rolled out between sheets of heavy plastic or parchment paper until each piece of dough is 5-inches in diameter.

**Note: I cut open a large freezer weight zipper-style bag to use in the tortilla press when pressing the dough. By peeling one side open, it makes it easy to peel off the other side before transferring the dough to the preheated skillet

9. Immediately transfer the pressed dough onto the preheated non-stick skillet and bake for ~2-3 minutes then flip it over using a spatula and cook until “just” cooked (maybe another 10-15 seconds, maximum.

10. Set aside each of the pre-baked pizza crusts on a cooling rack.

11. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Have the top rack of the oven in the middle (not too close to the broiler element).

12. Dress and assemble your pizza to taste. I used homemade pizza sauce, grated mozzarella cheese, sliced turkey pepperoni and anchovy fillets (yes, I like them!) but toppings can be according to your imagination and what you have on hand.

13. When all the pizzas are assembled, change the setting on the stove to “broil” and place the two baking pans with the dressed pizzas in the oven and allow to broil until bubbly.  Keep an eye on them because they can go from perfect to burnt in no time.

14. Remove the baking pans and place on cooling racks for a few minutes, then serve.

15. Serve and enjoy!

Macros (per plain crust)

Energy: 255 kcals
Protein: 12.5 g
Total Carbs: 22.4 g – Fiber: 11.7 g = Net Carbs: 10.8 g*
Fat: 3.3 g

* if you need a much lower carb crust, please do check out my Crisp Keto Pizza and Crisp Cauliflower Crust. They are both very good.

You can follow me at:

         https://twitter.com/lchfRD

          https://www.facebook.com/lchfRD/

           https://plus.google.com/+JoyYKiddieMScRD

https://www.instagram.com/lchf_rd

 

Copyright ©2019 The LCHF-Dietitian (a division of BetterByDesign Nutrition Ltd.)

LEGAL NOTICE: The contents of this blog, including text, images and cited statistics as well as all other material contained here (the ”content”) are for information purposes only.  The content is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice, medical diagnosis and/or treatment and is not suitable for self-administration without the knowledge of your physician and regular monitoring by your physician. Do not disregard medical advice and always consult your physician with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or before implementing anything  you have read or heard in our content.

 

Crispy Cauliflower Pizza Crust

This recipe is posted as a courtesy to those following a variety of low-carb and ketogenic diets (not necessarily Meal Plans designed by me). This recipe may or may not be appropriate for you.

I’d heard of cauliflower crust pizza but had also heard that it gets notoriously soggy shortly after coming out of the oven. Recently, a few people were remarking how much they like the taste but wish there was something that could be done about the texture – which I took it as a challenge. With a little thought and a fair amount of experience, I created a light, crisp cauliflower pizza crust that is a lovely change from “fathead-style” pizzas.

I started with a few basic cauliflower recipes and took the best of each and then added low-carb ingredients that would both improve the nutrient profile and solve the texture issue. Boom! Done.

For those looking for a crisp and light cauliflower pizza crust, the recipe is below.

Note: I had a hard time deciding between the crisp cauliflower crust and the Crisp Keto Pizza that I created last winter. You may need to do as I did last week and make both, to decide.

   

Ingredients

Crispy Cauliflower Pizza Crust – makes 8 slices

1 medium head cauliflower, cut into flowerettes
1/4 cup Parmesan, grated
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 egg, large
1 cups mozzarella, grated
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp whey protein isolate powder
1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup garlic and herb pizza sauce
1 cups mozzarella, grated

[optional: additional toppings of your choice]

Directions

  1. wash the cauliflower, break into flowerettes and pulse in a food processor or industrial blender until a fine powder (like rice).
  2. place ‘riced’ cauliflower in a microwave-safe bowl, cover and microwave for 3 minutes on high, then let sit for 3 minutes.
  3. transfer cooked cauliflower to a clean, linen tea-towel and allow to cool.
  4. preheat the oven to 425 F.
  5. once the cauliflower is cooled, gather up the tea-towel and wring out as much of the water as possible, being careful not to mash the cauliflower (only wring the water out).
  6. place the wrung out cauliflower in a non-metallic bowl, with the beaten egg, salt, Parmesan, mozzarella, whey protein powder and baking powder and mix by hand until well combined.
  7. transfer the mixture to a non-stick pizza pan and pat down with your hand until it fills the pan
  8. bake for 10-15 minutes until golden brown.
  9. if using immediately, add the tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese (and any additional toppings of your choice) and bake for 10 minutes more, until the cheese is nicely melted and bubbly. Enjoy!

Macros (per slice)

Protein: 30.6 g
Net Carbs: 8.7 g
Fat: 17.7 g
Energy: 336 kcal

a turkey pepperoni version of Crispy Crust Cauliflower Pizza

You can follow me at:

 https://twitter.com/lchfRD

  https://www.facebook.com/lchfRD/

Crisp Keto Pizza

This recipe is posted as a courtesy to those following a variety of low-carb and ketogenic diets (not necessarily Meal Plans designed by me). This recipe may or may not be appropriate for you.

I tried a few existing recipes for low carb pizza and was quite disappointed, as they were either more like omelettes, or gritty with coconut or almond flour.  The biggest strike against them was that they were limp – definitely not the crisp, yeasty finger food I was wanting!

I decided to invent one. I knew basically what ingredients I wanted to use (based loosely on my tempura batter) and that it had to have a yeasty ‘bread’ taste. I also knew it would have some cheese in the crust (like the infamous ‘fat head pizza’) and that it had to be so overwhelmingly ‘legit’ that someone who wasn’t eating low carb or keto would enjoy it. Finally, it had to be good cold, too – after all, who doesn’t like cold pizza?

To my delight, I practically nailed it on the first try.

If you’re like me and love pizza, I hope you will enjoy this one.

   

Ingredients

  • ½ cup (125 ml) + 2 Tbsp (50 ml) unflavored whey isolate powder
  • ½ tsp. (2.5 ml) baking powder, sifted
  • ½ tsp. (2.5 ml) salt
  • 3 oz. (100 g) Parmesan cheese, finely grated
  • 3 oz. (100 g) three cheese mixture (mozzarella, provolone, Parmesan), finely grated
  • 2 oz. (30 gm) full fat cream cheese, softened
  • 1/2 tsp instant yeast, dissolved in 2 Tbsp warm water
  • 4 Tbsp. olive oil
  • 1 egg + 1 egg yolk

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 375 °F (190 °C).
  2. Combine the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.
  3. In a smaller bowl, beat the egg and egg yolk and add the softened cream cheese. Drizzle in the olive oil as if making a salad dressing (so it is suspended in the egg / cream cheese mixture. Once the yeast has proofed (foamed), mix it into the liquid. Stir well.
  4. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ones.

    Note: The dough will a thick batter.

  5. Using a non-stick pizza pan (or a regular baking sheet lined with parchment paper), use the back of a spoon to smooth the dough into a 10-inch circle.
  6. Place a piece of wax paper or parchment paper on top and gently roll with a rolling pin.  When you remove the wax (or parchment paper), scrape any batter sticking to it onto the dough.
  7. Bake the crust for 10 minutes or until golden brown. Don’t overcook.
  8. Remove the crust from the oven and top with your favourite pizza sauce and toppings.
  9. Once the pizza is topped, return it to the oven to bake until the  cheese is melted and it is just beginning to brown.
  10. Allow to cool a few minutes, then slide the crispy pizza to a serving board, cut, serve and enjoy!