Low Carb Pizza Dough

[Chris Cognac]

When I was at this years Pizza Expo (amazing if you can ever go) in Las Vegas I noticed several companies were touting "low carb" pizza dough....has anyone had some of this stuff, if so how does it taste...I wrote the Keto company and asked for a sample of the dough for a test....what are your thoughts on the subject...I think that if it works well, it would be a good seller and a nice way to cut carbs..

[mags]

I haven't tried the Keto dough, but I'm not generally a fan of their products (though their ice cream, which is about to roll out nationally, is pretty damn good). However, at an LC conference in January I had some LC pizza from a company called Low Carb Creations, and that was extraordinary. I've heard good things about the CarbSense/Mini Carb pizza dough mix. I have to say, though, that I have found homemade baked LC products to be significantly better than the packaged stuff, with the added advantage that one knows what's in them.

Okok, one exception: CarbRite makes a "chocolate sandwich cookie" that is such a dead-ringer for Oreos I won't keep them in the house. But that aside, I have yet to find a LC packaged product that I couldn't improve on in my own kitchen.

[beans]

The low carb stuff currently being offered by our purveyors are merely whole wheat doughs for the most part. I'll have to take another look tho' to be sure. So far with my family's pizza palace, it hasn't been requested despite I felt we should have a few of those dough balls stored away in the freezer just in case.

[chezcherie]

tried the trader joe's low carb dough. the family hated it---basically scraped the toppings off with their teeth and left the full cardboard wedges, with one little bite mark out of each. (the tj's regular dough is not half-bad, especially if you find yourself short on rise time, or yeastless.)

[NulloModo]

The problem with low-carb pizza dough is that there is a battle between taste/texture and actually being low-carb.

As beans said there are some low-carb doughs out there that are merely variations on a whole-wheat dough, these claim to be low-carb, but are wholely innapropriate for low-carb diets. First of all, the actual carb count is still quite high, approaching 10 grams or more per slice of dough in some cases (for reference many low-carb dieters try to stay under 20 grams of carbs for an entire day), and contain wheat flours which are high glycemic, and this innapropriate for the early stages of low-carb diets such as Atkins or as I am learning, Montignac. For a dough to be low-carb diet friendly it should ideally contain absolutely no wheat flour or corn starch of any variety, and instead focus on protein powders, protein isolates, flax meal and other low-glycemic flour substitutes, and have a high fibre to carb ratio. It is possible to make something like this at home, and I am always experimenting, and while taste is fairly easy to nail, texture is not (I can't seem to get that chewy and crispy duality thing going on).

That all being said, I have a box of the mini-carb dough in my pantry right now that I plan on trying out soon (I have been very impressed by some of their other products, notably the '0 carb baking mix') and will report back once I have used it if there is any interest.

[Malawry]

I simply don't eat pizza. Low-carb pizza dough just sounds wrong to me. I'll be stunned if somebody reports other experiences.

Sometimes I make English muffin pizzas for my girls for lunch, and I find that nibbling on the drips of cheese that fall on the pan satisfies any pizza cravings I may have. It's the browned cheese that I'm usually wanting most of all.

[chardgirl]

sorry, Malawry, I did try the TJ's low carb dough, and my family ate it without complaint. I'm not a low carb person in general, I find that lifestyle to be bizarre, but I am always trying to sneak whole grains and such into my children's diet and it worked this time! They loved helping shape the pizza dough, we cooked on a pizza stone, and it worked! disclosure: I'm not a chef and have no formal training, please do take anything I say with a grain of salt!!

-cg

[Malawry]

What did it taste like?

[chardgirl]

What did it taste like?

I wasn't paying a huge amount of attention, and I've had far better pizza when others are cooking. It was like a chewy, not pleasant, whole wheat kind of a pizza dough. I was paying more attention to the toppings: spicy sauce with sauteed fennel and young garlic.... ok, so my kids only had supermarket mozzarella....

-cg

[Chris Cognac]

Just got a hold of Keto and the stuff is on the way...I will have to take photo's and have a tasting....

[howard88]

A few months ago I purchased a low carb pizza from Papa Roni's in Lafayette NJ.

While their regular pizza is o.k., the low carb version looked great but tasted like cardboard.

A regular pepperoni pizza costs about 12 dollars, the low carb version was 18.95.

The cheese, sauce and pepperoni was fine, the dough had to go... in the garbage.

[mags]

I simply don't eat pizza. Low-carb pizza dough just sounds wrong to me. I'll be stunned if somebody reports other experiences.

Well, as I said, the Low Carb Creations pizza I had was pretty darn spiffy. Also, Rochelle, you might want to try making that flatbread recipe I sent you and using it as a pizza base. I haven't tried it, but I've heard it works well.

[artisanbaker]

how bout make a thinner crust folks!

[NulloModo]

how bout make a thinner crust folks!

The problem with making a thin crust out of regular ingredients as a means of cutting carbs is twofold.

First of all, such a crust would still have far too high of a carb content to be considered low-carb. Again we need carb counts in the low-single digits per slice for a product to be truly viable and universally accepted by those sticking to the fundamentals of low-carb plans.

The second issue is that low-carb diets are very much based upon the science of how our body processes food, more specifically glucose and insulin response. Ten grams of complex carbs such as those found in leafy green veggies, fibre rich grains, or cheeses will effect the body much differently than ten grams of wheat flour or sugar. The goal of a low-carb plan is to stabilize the body's glucose levels and insulin responses, and through doing such eliminate the spikes that cause rapid conversion of food to fat and false hunger pangs. So a thin what crust, while lower in carbs, still is made of the wrong type of carbs, which is why low-carb doughs containing any real wheat/rice/high glycemic flours are really not the answer we are looking for.

Also, some people just plain don't care for thin crust style pizza ;).

There is nothing magical about flour, nor bread, nor any baked goods that make them any different from any other kind of food. The tastes of the public will change and adapt over time in all things food related, and people will always want to experiment with new ways of doing things. If there is a way to make a product that gives all of the flavor and texture of the traditional variety, and is at the same time much healthier, then why not try for it?

[Blondelle]

I usually make pizza using a flour tortilla, and it comes out great if you don't require the standard crust. I mention that as on the Low Carb & Loving It show on Foodtv, there is a recipe listed for a low carb tortilla, you can use. The recipe is listed at FoodTV.com, under the show name. Low carbers also make pizza using a crust of ground beef, or using a large portabello mushroom cap as the crust.

[Chris Cognac]

Juan Carlos Cruz aka Calorie Commando on Food Network makes a nice little pizza using the mushroom cap as a base..

[beans]

I've had what was similar to a bruschetta on a porto mushroom cap. Seemed wonderful in concept however the resto didn't possibly broil or pre-roast any of the huge mushroom caps elsewise I think it would have worked a bit better. At any rate, it wasn't really considered as a low-carb pizza and more like an appetizer in a loaded portabello mushroom cap.

[scott123]

The problem with low-carb pizza dough is that there is a battle between taste/texture and actually being low-carb.

As beans said there are some low-carb doughs out there that are merely variations on a whole-wheat dough, these claim to be low-carb, but are wholely innapropriate for low-carb diets.  First of all, the actual carb count is still quite high, approaching 10 grams or more per slice of dough in some cases (for reference many low-carb dieters try to stay under 20 grams of carbs for an entire day), and contain wheat flours which are high glycemic, and this innapropriate for the early stages of low-carb diets such as Atkins or as I am learning, Montignac.  For a dough to be low-carb diet friendly it should ideally contain absolutely no wheat flour or corn starch of any variety, and instead focus on protein powders, protein isolates, flax meal and other low-glycemic flour substitutes, and have a high fibre to carb ratio.  It is possible to make something like this at home, and I am always experimenting, and while taste is fairly easy to nail, texture is not (I can't seem to get that chewy and crispy duality thing going on).

You raise some excellent points. I think the biggest obstacle to a decent commercial pizza crust is economics.

For anyone that cares about the taste of their food, soy flour is disgusting. Unfortunately, it's cheap. Almond flour makes a far superior baking mix base. Unfortunately it's just too expensive for commercial entities to use.

So, either you find mixes with forbidden ingredients like regular flour or corn starch or you find them heavily ladden with soy. That's the extent of it to date.

I am quite certain a decent lc pizza crust can be developed at home. I will be embarking on the endeavor soon. If I had to make a guess at the winning flour sub combo, I'd say almond flour, wheat protein isolate, and perhaps some whey protein isolate.

Now as far as the yeast is concerned, that might get tricky. You want enough sugar in the dough for the yeast to survive but not any excess for you to consume.

Unless, of course, you went with a baking powder leavened crust, which for me would be heresy.

[mags]

Scott, I have a couple of recipes for pizza crust that I haven't tried, but that were passed on to me by low-carb cooks whose tastebuds I generally trust. Do you want'em?

[WoodleyGrrl]

Scott, I have a couple of recipes for pizza crust that I haven't tried, but that were passed on to me by low-carb cooks whose tastebuds I generally trust. Do you want'em?

I would like them for sure.

I have tried Whole Foods low carb frozen pizza and I have to say that it was perhaps one of the worst things that I have ever put into my mouth. Ever.

Can you please share the receipies with all of us?

[Chris Cognac]

I took my sample of "keto" low carb dough to my fav pizza place this weekend. We made 2 exact same pizza's but one with the low carb dough. It was "ok" in taste but did not "crisp" like the regular crust.I will say that it might be do to the cooking and could be "tweaked"a bit with temp and time....I am going to try more experiments with calzones,breadsticks etc using low carb dough and see how it turns out...I will take some photos too...

[scott123]

Scott, I have a couple of recipes for pizza crust that I haven't tried, but that were passed on to me by low-carb cooks whose tastebuds I generally trust.  Do you want'em?

Mags, I'm not usually very trustful of normal recipes and low carb recipes tend to be even more hit and miss. But I do trust your taste buds and if you trust your sources, that's good enough for me. Please do share.

[ElfWorks]

well, when yall find the perfect lc pizza crust, do let me know! for now, i am more than content with my pizza-in-a-cup!

lisa

[dockhl]

OK, I know this isn't exactly what this thread is reffering to, but last night I made a pizza with CAULIFLOWER crust ! Basically you cook your cauliflower, mash it and add mozzarella cheese and an egg, spread it out on a pan and bake at 450' for about 15 minutes.

It gets brown and crispy; you then add your toppings and put it under the broiler to brown (I actually put mine back in the 450' oven)

Cauliflower Pizza Crust

for pix and full recipe.

I really liked it. It held up in the hand and tasted great. Two thoughts:

DO NOT spread it on a Silpat. I don't know what I was thinking but I had to pull it off the silpat and put it onto a baking sheet to get it crispy. D'oh!

Second, next time I'll spread it out a little thinner.

ETA: I'd take this over cardboard fake bread crust any day!

It is good cold, too ! (Breakfast.. )

Edited March 26, 2008 by dockhl (log)

[chappie]

I want to try this. What's the thought on flipping the crust midway through to get it crispy on both sides? I am skeptical just reading this, but I've just finished glancing at a ton of testimonials that have convinced me to try it ...