As a food blogger there are times that you get really excited about writing a post because you know you’ve outdone yourself and come up with something awesome. This is one of those times!
After the dismal failure of the flax crackers earlier this week I was down, but not out. I knew that the low carb cracker recipe could work, but it needed some tweaking.
Meanwhile I’ve been thinking about how I could adapt it to make recipes for low carb bread, pizza dough, pie crust etc., and have literally lain awake at night mulling over different ideas.
Today my son had his first one-on-one play date here at our house, and it went great. Awww, such a big boy now! I promised the kids pizza for dinner and had picked up some traditional dough and a variety of toppings.
This was the perfect opportunity for me to try out my flax pizza crust recipe idea (since I am still eating low carb) so I got to work.
It came out even better than I’d hoped! First of all, the recipe has only got three ingredients, and is completely (net) carb free since the flax’s only carbs are from fiber.
It’s made with whole ingredients that are actually good for you, which isn’t always the case with low carb store bought products which usually have all kinds of chemicals and fillers in them to make them taste and feel authentic. Not this recipe!
Loaded with fiber and healthy fats, whether you are low carb, gluten free, or just want more Omega 3’s in your diet, this pizza recipe is for you. AND it tastes really great! I’m so excited about this! Could you tell? Seriously, it’s all I can do not to write this post IN ALL CAPS! Wow that would be really annoying to read. But funny. For me anyway. But I wouldn’t do that to you. I’ll just stick to overusing explanation marks instead!!!!!
Ok you’re thinking, it tastes good, it’s healthy, but can it really hold up to a saucy, cheesy, topping overload without getting soggy in the middle so that you can’t pick it up but have to eat it with a fork? I submit to you exhibit A below. It gets crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside like any good pizza dough should!
And with a nice stiffness to the finished product, there is no need to skimp on the toppings with this dough–it will hold up!!
For a low carber who is sick of either going without, or scraping the toppings off onto your plate and tossing the crust every time your family wants to order pizza, this is a dream come true!
I ate this tonight while everyone else ate the doughy, anemic looking white flour pizza and I thought they were the ones missing out! It’s that good people! I can’t wait for you to try it! And report back!
Oh yeah did I mention it was super easy to make? No rising, proofing, rolling and all that jazz – just mix all the ingredients together and press onto a greased cookie sheet. Pre-bake for a few minutes, then add your toppings and bake until bubbly and cooked through. Ridiculously easy.
Low Carb Flax & Parmesan Pizza Crust (Gluten Free)
- Yield: 4 1x
Ingredients
- 1 cup flax meal (ground flax seeds)
- 1/2 cup finely grated parmesan cheese
- 2 eggs
Instructions
- Mix the flax meal and Parmesan (or Romano) cheese in a medium bowl. Add the eggs and stir until a dough is formed. It will be sticky, let it sit for about 5 minutes or so until it’s easier to work with.
- Wet your hands with water to help keep the dough from sticking to them and press onto greased cookie sheet about 1/3 inch thick in a circle. You should get about a 10 inch crust out of it – if it’s a lot smaller than that you are making it too thick.
- Bake in a preheated 350 degree (F) oven for 8 minutes. Remove.
- Add toppings. Bake for another 15 minutes at 350. Remove.
- Cool. Eat. Swoon.
- Category: Entree
- Cuisine: Pizza
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/4 pizza (crust only)
- Calories: 239
- Fat: 18g
- Carbohydrates: 0.4
- Protein: 13g
Sample pizza recipe
- Yield: 4 1x
Ingredients
- 1 recipe Flax & Parmesan Pizza Crust
- 1/2 cup sugar free marinara sauce
- 1 Italian Sausage Link, cooked and chopped
- 1/2 cup broccoli florets, cooked
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
Instructions
- Par-bake the crust as described above.
- Add your toppings and bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees (F).
- Cut into 4 pieces. Each piece is considered one serving.
- Category: Entree
- Cuisine: Pizza
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 piece
- Calories: 381
- Fat: 19g
- Carbohydrates: 4g
- Protein: 24g
UPDATE: I’ve since made a new pizza crust recipe that I think is better than this one, it uses less flax and is even better tasting for it. So before you make this, check out my other Low Carb & Gluten Free Pizza Crust and see if you might want to try that one instead! Please note that the second recipe uses coconut flour and hemp seeds in addition to the flax – if you’re looking for something simple and with just a few ingredients, this one might be right for you after all.
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In other news, for a limited time I’m bundling my Amazon best-selling e-book The Gluten Free Low Carber with my first two issues of the IBIH ezine for only $9.99 – that’s a discount of over 50%!
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Anonymous says
I tried the recipe but had a tough time with how dense it was. For some reason I can’t get past that with ground flax. So I made another pizza using the same guidelines/measurements but a couple substitutions: I used 1 cup almond meal instead of the flax and finely grated marble cheddar in place of the parmesan. That sold me! I think the oilier cheese was the big help – I’m going to try using this cheese with the flax and see if that will convert me. :) Great, simple recipe – you made the Atkins diet so much more doable!!
Mellissa Sevigny (sevimel) says
Thanks for sharing your modifications! When I created this crust I was relatively new to low carb baking. Now that I’ve discovered the wonders of almond meal and coconut flour, I’m going to be improving on this recipe for the ebook because it IS very dense. Glad you made it work for you!
Kristi says
Hi Melissa– I adore your blog!! I’m somewhat new to the low-carb world, but am slowly getting used to it (and enjoying it, too). I have been incorporating the flax seed meal into a lot of things and love it. Did you use the golden or regular for this recipe? Would there be a big difference between the two? Also, regarding the freshness comment from above, can the flax meal be stored in the freezer? Thanks!! :)
Mellissa Sevigny (sevimel) says
Hi Kristi and thanks! For this particular batch I think I used a darker flax but I usually use golden now because I can buy a big bag of it at Costco. I don’t think there is a big difference in taste personally and I do store mine in the freezer and it keeps much longer that way!
Rhoadan says
I tried the pizza crust a few days ago. 1) I definitely need to use fresher flax meal. Gods only know how long that stuff had been sitting in my fridge. 2) it didn’t come out as crisp as I’d hoped and I can think of a couple possible explanations for that a) I didn’t give the oven enough time to pre-heat (it tends to run hot, but it takes a long time to come up to temperature). b) The eggs. Many recipes are calibrated for large eggs and using different sizes can affect how the recipe turns out. In this case, I used what I had to hand which, AFAICT, are jumbos, at any rate, bigger than large. So, what size eggs did you use in the original recipe?
Mellissa Sevigny (sevimel) says
Thanks for the feedback Rhoadan! Fresh flax meal is definitely key or it will have an off taste for sure. Also, it’s important to get it kind of crisp on the precook or once you add the toppings it just won’t happen. I used large eggs, so that could also have made the difference in it getting crisp enough. Hope you’ll try again and get better results next time!
Anonymous says
Tried this tonight. Soooo hungry for pizza since being on Atkins for 5 months. It was delicious. I must admit that I got my directions messed up and only used one egg. Realized it and instead of trying to mix in another egg, used a tablespoon of olive oil. Turned out great!!! Thanks so much for filling my pizza void.
Mellissa Sevigny (sevimel) says
I’ll have to try the olive oil trick, sounds good! Glad you liked it!
Mellissa Sevigny (sevimel) says
Thanks Kristina, I’m glad this worked out for you!
Kristina | thevagablond says
I made this for dinner last night. It was amazing! Next time I’ll pound out the crust a little thinner (mine was about 9 inches across, I should have listened to your directions better!) so that it gets a little more crispy. GREAT RECIPE, I’M IN LOVE! Thank you so much for sharing :)
Catherine says
Hello Melissa. Thank you so much for this fabulous recipe. Pizza has always been my downfall, but now I can eat it guilt free.
I was pretty impressed with the cauliflower crust, but this is something else. Your site is great, going to work my way through some more of your recipes soon. Truly, I can’t thank you enough.
Mellissa Sevigny (sevimel) says
Thanks Catherine, hope you like the other recipes as much. Still haven’t tried the cauliflower crust yet but it’s on my list of things to test out someday! :)
beatbeat says
hi melissa, i made the pizza last night and must say it was lovely AND so easy to make. i will be trying some of your other recipes too! think i will make a quiche with the flax/parmesan dough.
Mellissa Sevigny (sevimel) says
Thanks I’m so glad you liked it! I’ve been meaning to try a quiche too – hope yours comes out yummy and that you’ll share with us! :)
Erin says
this sounds great– but i’ve been searching for a flax crust as a replacement for eggs due to allergy. since flax meal works well with water, do you think it would work by just adding some water instead of the eggs?
Mellissa Sevigny (sevimel) says
Hi Erin, I do think that the flax and cheese would work as a binder even without the egg, though it may be a little stiffer and crunchier without it – not necessarily a bad thing! Might want to increase the water by a couple of tablespoons and let it sit for a couple of extra minutes so it will hold together nicely. I hope you try it and report back, I’m curious as to how it turns out!
Erin Ramsey says
Thank you soo much for all your amazing low carb recipes! I’m on day 2 of the Atkins diet, and I was looking for inspiration for meals… and boy did I find it! I’ve just barely scratched the surface on your website and I already have meals for a week! Can’t wait to make pizza!
Mellissa Sevigny (sevimel) says
Thanks Erin and I hope that you are still going strong on Atkins and enjoyed the pizza crust!
Anonymous says
I found you on Pintrest and I am doing the low carb thing, so your low carb recipes are great. First, let me just say that I tried your Buffalo Chicken meatballs…AMAZING!!! That’s going into my bag of tricks! Now, I tried this flax crust…it made a crust all right, but for me, the taste is less than desirable…it was very “Earthy” for me and left a strange aftertaste…is there any modifications that you could suggest to make it taste better? Maybe I’m just not a fan of the way flax meal tastes…
Mellissa Sevigny (sevimel) says
Glad you liked the buffalo balls and thanks for the feedback! Some people just don’t like the flax taste and texture. You can try substituting half the flax for almond or coconut flour as an experiment but I haven’t done it so not sure of the results. And it would add more carbs so be aware of that. I saw in some of the comments that people have seasoned the crust with garlic powder, oregano, italian spices, etc with good results to give it a better flavor and you could certainly try that too! Hope you can find a way to make it work for you! Of course there are always cauliflower or meat based crusts as well. Just google it and you’ll find a ton of options.