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Who out there would say pizza is the number one item you miss the most on a ketogenic diet? If you’ve tried fathead pizza dough, you know you get pretty close to a good pizza. And, with my recipe, I think it might just be a toss up. But I’ll let you decide.

The Challenge of Baking without Gluten and Standard Flour
I think we all know baking without gluten and standard white flour poses its challenges. It doesn’t rise as well, and it just doesn’t get that chewy texture of a French baguette or a juicy garlic ball glazed with butter. Boy, doesn’t that sound pretty good about now?!

But when making a ketogenic pizza dough, we’re always looking for a way to get in fat (hopefully it’s mostly good fat), as well as make the actual bread part of the crust taste pretty good. Then, there’s the crust itself. We need to get at least a little bit of a crispy crust that will hold its shape. (Most of us still use our hands to eat pizza, right?) So, for these reasons, I began to experiment with adding a few extra ingredients in the dough mix.

Experimenting
My first modification to fathead pizza dough, which is an earlier post seen on my Instagram and Facebook page, includes adding a little bit of coconut flour to the dough mix, and that does help the crust keep its shape. It wasn’t as limp with all that cheese that kept the crust from actually drying out. But, I still didn’t feel like the bread part of the crust had much rise or flavor.

Then I tried adding pork rinds to the pizza crust, as I had seen other bloggers were beginning to add it to their recipes. It makes sense. We get the satiating effect with a little extra fat in the crust, and ultimately, we will have fewer carbs per serving when we add less almond flour and those 0-net-carb pork rinds. And, those little rinds will soak up any bit of moisture from the cheese that our previous crusts may have lacked. So, when I decided to experiment, it probably took me about three tries before I was fairly satisfied with the results.

If you want to lighten up the color of the pizza crust (shown), I suggest you not leave the dough in the oven as long as I did. Lol. I’ve since gone from 10 minutes in initial bake time for the dough alone to about 8 to 9 minutes, which will give you a lighter and softer outer crust.

However, the real test often comes with convincing my husband who doesn’t need to be on a strict ketogenic diet. Keto pizza was one thing he just has a hard time eating, even if us keto eaters have improved upon recipes with (full) fathead dough, adding pork rinds, or even incorporating ground chicken and parmesan cheese as a pizza dough base. He says that traditional pizza crust still doesn’t taste like cheese or seasoned with much else to hide the flavor of the almond flour base. He’s absolutely right, and that brings us back to our earlier thoughts on making this lifestyle change of removing grains from our diet. Going from a standard white flour or even gluten-free based crust (which by the way, only uses other fillers that don’t reduce the carbs by much) or any bread for that matter, makes the low-carb and keto switch a more difficult transition for some.

So, my latest experiment with making pizza includes actually reducing the amount of typical cheese used in fathead dough, as well as replacing the recommended mozzarella cheese with organic raw pasture-raised cheese, which is optional. I also add several ingredients that allow the dough to rise, and I prefer using just the egg white versus a whole egg to get a cleaner taste in the crust. Now, give this a try, and let me know what you think. My husband thinks this a far greater improvement over other keto pizza recipes we’ve tried.

Now, if you’re asking, “Why the raw cheese over regular mozzarella?” The answer is that the extra fat from the raw cheese will: 1.) keep what cheese that is briefly microwaved from scorching, and 2.) add more moisture to your dough. Standard mozzarella is oftentimes considered a low-fat cheese because it’s made of part skim milk and doesn’t leave grease all over your pizza as a topping. But, in the dough, especially if you’ve using coconut flour, I recommend leaving some of that fat in there. The coconut flour will soak it up.

Oh, and should you decide to make bread sticks, you can add up to two tablespoons of coconut flour to the dough mix, and bake it for roughly 15 minutes so that your bread sticks remain soft. (I’ll be sharing soon a different recipe for pretzels that is almost dairy free.) Then, pair it with some melted butter and garlic or more pizza sauce, and you’ve got a tasty appetizer to go along with your pizza!

If you get a chance to try my recipe, please leave a friendly comment or rating below. I’d love to hear your thoughts, and as always, I appreciate your support, as I provide this site nearly ad free!

Doughy Crust Pizza

5 from 2 votes

Recipe by J. Irish, Ketolicious Eats Course: DinnerCuisine: ItalianDifficulty: Easy

Servings

servings

Prep time

minutes

Baking time

minutes

Enjoy a more traditional style pizza made keto. This recipe makes a medium-sized pizza, using either a 13″ pizza stone or perforated pizza tin.

Macros: Per each 8 slices of pizza, with toppings shown: 327 calories | 5.5g net carbs | 25.7g fat | 17.9g protein

Ingredients

Pizza Crust (Updated 4/21)
5/8 cup 5/8 blanched almond flour
4 tablespoons 4 organic coconut flour
3/4 cup 3/4 organic mozarella or raw cheddar cheese–I like Rumiano or Organic Valley pasture-raised mozzarella or Organic Pastures or Organic Valley raw cheddar cheese brands. You can also use raw milk gruyere cheese, as well. It has a nice flavor.
1/2 tablespoon 1/2 pasture-raised butter or organic butter-flavored coconut oil
2 large 2 organic pasture-raised egg whites
1 tablespoon 1 organic raw apple cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon 1/2 baking soda
1/4 teaspoon 1/4 baking powder
1/4 teaspoon 1/4 Himalayan pink salt
Homemade Pizza Sauce
1/3-1/2 cup 1/3-1/2 organic bottled tomato paste
1 teaspoons 1 avocado oil
1 teaspoon 1 fresh organic minced garlic
1 – 1-1/2 teaspoon 1 – 1-1/2 organic dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon 1/2 organic dried basil, or 1/3 cup fresh chopped basil can be used
Toppings (Or, You May Use Your Own)
3/4 cup 3/4 organic pasture-raised mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/2 bag 1/2 Organic Valley pepperoni (found at Jimbo’s Naturally)
1/3 1/3 organic yellow or red bell pepper, diced
1/4 medium 1/4 medium organic onion, sliced
3 3 organic medium to large mushrooms
Baking Supplies
13″ 13″ pizza baking stone (This will help add the extra crispness to the crust.)
14″ 14″ perforated stainless steel pizza pan
2 sheets 2 unbleached parchment paper, cut to fit the size of your 13″ pizza stone. I actually like to use the pre-cut 12″x16″ sheets; they’re easier to use.
1 1 pizza cutter (dishwasher and non-stick bakeware safe)
1 1 microwave-safe 2-cup measuring cup or bowl

Directions

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees on convection bake.
Put the almond flour, coconut flour, baking soda, and garlic powder into a food processor or chopper, and pulse puree to blend ingredients. Note: The food processor isn’t at all necessary. You can completely mix the dough with a spatula in a medium-sized mixing bowl.
Add the eggs, and mix well.
Next, put the raw cheese and butter-flavored coconut oil into a two-cup, microwave-safe measuring cup or bowl, and microwave for about 45 seconds. You don’t want the cheese to scorch; it will get hard and make it difficult to mix with the other ingredients. Note: If you’re not keen on using the microwave to melt the cheese and coconut oil, I have been able to achieve the same results by just warming up the coconut oil so it is in liquid form by sitting it over a bowl of hot water (like using a double boiler) and skip microwaving the cheese. I just mix everything together and go to the next step.
Transfer the melted cheese mixture into the food processor or mixing bowl with the other ingredients, and continue to mix together until well combined. Then, add the apple cider vinegar.
Place one sheet of parchment paper on your pizza stone or pizza pan (a perforated pan is best if you’re using one). Remove the dough from the processor or mixing bowl, and put your ball of pizza dough into the center of the parchment paper. Add your second layer of parchment paper over the ball of dough. This will allow you to flatten the dough without it getting on your hands. The dough can be pretty sticky.
Flatten the dough, spreading it out evenly, using your hands or a small rolling pin. Leave a thicker area of dough at the perimeter for the crust, but do be careful NOT to make the inside dough area too thin. It’ll make it harder to hold your pizza, including the toppings, with your hands. I recommend using a minimum 1/8″ thickness in the center area of the pizza.
Once flattened over your pizza stone or pan, you can peel off and dispose of the top layer of parchment paper.
Now, you’re ready to put your pizza baking stone or pan onto the middle rack of the oven and quickly watch the dough rise!
Bake for about 8-9 minutes or until the crust starts to rise with small bubbles and gets only very lightly brown. You don’t want to bake it much more than that or your final result may come out dry during the second baking with toppings. That said, however, I have flipped and re-baked the dough when I felt the dough wasn’t getting crispy enough for a New York thin-style pizza crust.
Remove from the oven, and once the dough cools a little bit, remove the bottom layer of parchment paper. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve actually forgotten to remove the paper at this point, and then had to pop each slice into the toaster oven to make my preferred crispy crust center. (To make it easier, just quickly flip the dough over so the parchment is on top. Then peel the parchment away, flipping the dough back over after it has been removed.) Then place the baked crust back on the pizza stone.
Now you can begin making your homemade pizza sauce, which I just mix together on top of the pizza crust, being careful not to get any on the crust (it’ll burn), and add your toppings.
You’re almost there! Now, place your pizza back in the oven for about 10 minutes. The cheese should be melted and other toppings cooked enough to your liking.
Remove from the oven, cut into eight pieces, and serve.

Notes

Whenever possible, I recommend using organic ingredients.
Should you decide to make bread sticks, using the recipe for the doughy crust, you only need to bake it the one time so that your bread sticks remain soft. Then, pair it with some melted butter and garlic or more pizza sauce, and you’ve got a tasty appetizer to go along with your pizza!