My low carb pizza is super easy to make and tastes just like a real pizza. It has a crispy fathead crust and is ready in less than 20 minutes. Learn my hack how to make keto pizza without having to heat and melt the mozzarella!
Over the years, this keto pizza recipe has made many of my readers very happy! Here are a few reviews:
Louise: "Decided to give this a go as my kids were having a pizza night and I felt jealous. Honestly can't believe how good this base is. And no melting mozzarella dough to play with."
Hazel: "Just made this pizza for dinner for 2 of us and followed the recipe exactly and it came out perfect. Yet another keeper."
Melanie: "This is an amazing Pizza dough. Followed the recipe exactly just added some jalapeños on top. Will do this again!"
This recipe has been on my blog since 2018 and I still make this pizza often. Because, we love pizza in this house! Who doesn't?
It is simply wonderful to have a recipe to hand that tastes like an authentic pizza without piling on the carbs.
The crust is crispy, fluffy and sturdy enough to be able to lift a slice without it slopping down.
And even better, this recipe is gluten free, nut free, so simple and quick enough for a last-minute weekday dinner.
Love pizza? Also take a look at my almond flour pizza crust.
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The Best Thing About This Recipe
This is the ONLY low carb fathead pizza recipe you'll find that is not MESSY!
With my method, there is no need to melt the mozzarella. Also, you don't need to knead the dough. It's all done by your food processor.
Many people find it difficult to handle fathead dough. This is because you need to melt the mozzarella and then stir in the almond flour, cream cheese and egg.
It's almost impossible not to get your fingers sticky and there is that moment when you think it will never come together.
My recipe, on the other hand, is a truly easy low carb pizza!
Ingredients
Here are the ingredients I used:
- Coconut flour
- Shredded mozzarella
- Psyllium husk
- Sea salt
- Egg
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
It is essential that you use the low moisture shredded mozzarella. Some people swear that the part-skim version works best, but I have not found any difference between that and the full fat version.
The pre-shredded mozzzarella for pizza that you can buy in all supermarkets contain a small amount of starch. This is so low that it does not affect the total carb count. However, if you are sensitive to starch, use a mozzarella block instead and grate it yourself.
Do not use the soft white mozzarella for salads. It contains too much liquid and is not suitable for this recipe.
NOTE: I used whole psyllium husk and NOT psyllium husk powder. Psyllium powder is much finer and will absorb way more liquid, so if you want to use it instead I recommend to halve the amount.
Equipment
The one essential kitchen gadget to make this easy Keto pizza crust is a food processor or stand mixer. You simply put in all your ingredients and wait until the machine has turned them into a smooth dough. This can take a couple of minutes, so be patient!
What happens is that the blades of the food processor end up heating the mozzarella and make it very pliable.
You might be able to get the same result with an immersion blender plus attachment. In this case, you may have to mix the dough in two batches.
Instructions
Let me show you how easy it is to make a homemade low carb pizza. Here are the basic steps.
Scroll down to the recipe card for a detailed method with ingredient amounts, oven timings and nutrition information.
STEP 1
Blend the mozzarella cheese, coconut flour, egg, psyllium husk and salt in a food processor until a smooth dough forms.
STEP 2
Grease your hands with oil and form 2 dough balls.
STEP 3
Roll out the dough between 2 sheets of parchment paper. This prevents the dough from sticking to your rolling pin.
STEP 4
Bake the pizza crusts in the preheated oven until glden brown.
STEP 6
Return to the oven and continue baking until the toppings are melted and/or crisp.
Katrin's Top Tips
#1 Grease your hands with olive oil before handling the dough. It is sticky!
#2 Always add the tomato sauce and any additional toppings AFTER the crust has been baked. This ensures that the low carb pizza crust is nice and crisp and won't get soggy.
#3 Keep in mind that the pizza crust is mainly mozzarella. Therefore, there is no need to top the pizza with a lot of cheese.
Variations And Substitutions
Almond flour pizza: Use ½ cup or 50 grams of almond flour instead of the coconut flour. Reduce by 1 tablespoon if your almond flour is super-fine.
No psyllium husk: You can replace the psyllium husk with ground flaxseed.
Baking powder: If you want to crusts to puff up more, add ½ teaspoon of baking powder.
Topping Ideas
Most classic pizza toppings are naturally low in carbs. You probably know your favourites already. Here are a few ideas for mix-and-matching:
- Meat: Bacon, cooked ham, gound beef, chorizo, nduja
- Vegetables: sauteed mushrooms, peppers, grilled eggplant
- Flavor: Fresh garlic, fresh oregano, extra virgin olive oil, chili peppers, capers, anchovies, olives
- Fried egg
- Cheese: Parmesan, pecorino, buffalo mozzarella
Recipe FAQs
The original fathead dough is a low carb pizza dough made with mozzarella, cream cheese, almond flour and egg. It tastes surprisingly similar to wheat dough. I have adapted it to use in sweet and savoury dishes such as my keto pretzels and these Keto Cinnamon Rolls. I've also made Keto hot pockets with it, filled with ham and gooey cheese.
The original fathead dough recipe contains cream cheese. This makes the dough softer and the pizza slices floppy. With my version, the pizza crust is sturdier.
It's because of the type of parchment you used. Some parchment paper brands have a waffle texture that feels rough to the touch. I have found that the crust can stick to these. If your parchment paper is smooth, nothing will stick. If it is textured, brush it with oil first to prevent sticking.
Because the crusts contain only a small amount of coconut flour, you cannot detect it at all. My kids (who are not coconut flour lovers) enjoyed the "cheesy taste" of the pizza.
Meal Prep And Storage
Keto pizza dough is great for meal prep. You can prepare the dough for several pizzas and store the dough balls tightly wrapped in cling film in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Alternatively, freeze the unbaked dough for up to 3 months. Defrost overnight and let the dough come to room temperature before rolling it out and baking as per recipe.
Or, pre-bake the pizza crusts and then freeze them, layering parchment paper between the crusts so they do not stick together.
Storing: Store leftover low carb pizza in the refrigerator for up to 4 days or freeze it for up to 3 months.
Reheating: Reheat fridge-cold pizza in the oven (200C/400F) for 5-7 minutes. Reheat previously frozen pizza for 12-14 minutes.
You can also reheat pizza in a frying pan on the stove over low heat. This takes a few minutes. Don't forget to cover with a lid!
Note that heating leftover pizza in the microwave will make it warm, but it won't make it crispy. For crispy pizza, you must reheat it in the oven or in a pan.
Portion Size
This recipe makes 2 low carb pizzas with a diameter of 20 centimetres. Even though they are smaller than regular pizzas, they are much more filling.
An entire pizza is suitable for a hungry person (think your husband after a gym session or a teenager).
Other than that, half a pizza plus a crunchy green salad is a saftisfying lunch or dinner.
One entire pizza contains 8.8g net carbs. These carbs are mainly from the mozzarella. Don't be fooled by other keto pizza recipes that are apparently much lower in carbs. These often state one serving as being one slice!
More Keto Pizza Recipes
- Cottage Cheese Pizza Bowl20 Minutes
- Low Carb Keto Pizza Rolls45 Minutes
- Crispy Low Carb Keto Pizza Bites10 Minutes
- Almond Flour Pizza Crust40 Minutes
Tried this recipe? Give it a star rating below!
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Recipe
Low Carb Pizza (Easy, Crispy)
Ingredients
For the Dough
- 2 cups pre-shredded mozzarella 220g
- 2 tablespoon coconut flour 16g
- ½ tablespoon psyllium husk or ½ teaspoon psyllium husk powder
- 1 egg
- pinch of salt
For the Topping
- ⅓ cup Marinara Sauce 80ml
- 10 slices pepperoni 30g
- ¼ cup shredded mozzarella 28g
- handful of basil leaves
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200C / 400F (electric).
- Put the mozzarella, coconut flour, psyllium husk, egg and salt in a blender or food processor. Blend until you have a smooth dough. This takes around 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl in between if needed.
- Grease your hands with olive oil and form 2 dough balls (130g each).
- Roll out the dough between 2 sheets of baking paper to make 2 round pizza crusts (20 centimetres diameter). The top parchment prevents the dough from sticking to the rolling pin.
- Remove the top parchment paper and transfer the crusts on their bottom parchment onto a baking sheet. Bake the pizza crusts for 7 minutes until golden brown.
- Remove the crusts from the oven and spread with toppings of your choice. I used marinara sauce, salami slices, mozzarella cheese and fresh basil.
- Return to the oven for a further 6 minutes or until the cheese has melted and the toppings have crisped up.
Notes
Nutrition
First published in April 2018. Republished in June 2024 with more details and information.
Jimmy James
Try half cup of almond flour with the 2 cups of cheese along with 2 tbsp of cream cheese for the crust. Much more like a wheat flour based crust.
Katrin Nürnberger
Hi Jimmy, that's the original fathead recipe - it's great. This is a coconut flour version 🙂
Deepthi
I made this today and the taste was awesome. However I did not get a much crunchy pizza as I had expected. I had baked the crust for extra minutes before I put any sauce and toppings (half cheese and half vege) and took out from the oven when I saw brown color on the crust, still ended up with not so crunchy pizza. Any idea what could have gone wrong?
Katrin
Hi Deepthi, it could have had something to do with the thickness of the dough. It's crispier if it's thinner. However, you won't get the same super-crispiness with this dough you'll get with wheat 🙂
Beccy Stokes
great site, thank you
Two questions if I may, first, does this work with almond flour and
question two, I saw a recipe on another site where the author banged on about the amount of starch in pre grated mozzarella, what are your thoughts?
Katrin
Hi Beccy, you could try using twice as much almond flour as coconut flour, maybe even a little more if your almond flour is quite coarse. That’s the conversion I normally use. As for the starch, it’s not much - it’s still a low carb product. Basically, it’s a call you have to make for yourself. I’m not sensitive to it, so it’s fine for me.
Claire
Hi Katrin,
So when is your restaurant opening? You have created another amazing recipe and are my most trusted go to chef on the internet. Perhaps you could open your first restaurant in Newbury (where I live) lol and add more restaurants around the U.K. as they take off. It would certainly shake things up for the competition!
Thank you for sharing.
Claire xo
Katrin
Oh Claire, how much do I love reading your comments!! You've made my day 🙂
Katie White
Looks great. What food processor do you use?
Katrin
Hi, I have a cheapie by Philips. Here’s the link: https://amzn.to/2KPFL5y
Katie White
Thank you for replying.
Alison
I'm a bit confused according to the list of ingredients there's no cream cheese. But I noticed one the comments stated they didn't put cream cheese in and it turned out very well you then said I'm surprised it held together? Do I need to add cream cheese and if so how much?
Regards
Alison
Katrin
Just make it exactly as per recipe and you'll be just fine 🙂 The reader said they used cream cheese INSTEAD of the mozzarella and it held together.
Emma
Glad to have pizza on keto! It came out delicious! I used foil but my crust stuck to the foil both times. First try, I didn't grease it. Second try, I did. I couldn't lift it up without the foiling sticking or tearing it apart. I used all the same ingredients listed expect I used almond flour instead of coconut flour. Where did I go wrong? Was it he foil or the almond flour?
Katrin
Hi Emma, did you use twice the amount of almond flour? Almond flour and coconut flour cannot be replaced 1:1. That might have been the problem.
Laura Kannard
super simple and super delicious
Aisling Collins
Best recipe ever. Easy to make, freezes incredibly well and tastes better than the *real thing*.
Thank you so much for your time and effort in creating these recipes.
Kris
Loved the taste of it, better than the versions high on almond flour. However, while the sides were really crispy, towards the center the pizza was soggy. I couldn't get it on a plate without tearing it apart...
Any suggestions?
Katrin
You can try to roll out the dough so the middle is thinner. If your sides are thinner than the centre, this could result in the pizza base being browned on the edges but not ready on the inside.
If your dough was rolled out evenly yet you had the problem you described, I'd recommend you put aluminium foil on top of the pizza and bake it a few more minutes. This way the top does not brown more, yet the middle has time to bake properly. Maybe even put a ring of aluminium foil around the edge, leaving the centre. I did this for my sugar free pumpkin pie
Alternatively, put the tray with the pizza lower in the oven, to give the dough longer to bake without burning. Ovens can be temperamental and temperatures can vary. I hope this helps!
Last idea - if you made 4 small pizzas instead of 2 larger ones, you could probably also solve your problem that way!