I found out from 23andme that I have increased risk of developing celiac disease and that this was inherited from one of my parents. My dad gets his results in a few days so we will see who the culprit is, but my money is on him.
His mom went through a period of time where she said she couldn’t eat gluten and we all rolled our eyes at her assuming she had fallen prey to the gluten-free band wagon or was just trying to be trendy. But now I’m wondering if there wasn’t something more legitimate to her claim. I do think I feel better when I eat low carb or try to avoid gluten. But oh how I love all things gluten. And that’s the hardest thing for me in eating low carb or paleo — saying goodbye to gluten. As far as low-carb recreations of gluten-full dishes, I’ve tried them all. Fathead pizza? Been there; done that. Most low carb gluten-full recreations use some version of fathead pizza dough. And I have to tell you, I can’t really stomach it. At first you can’t tell the “dough” is made mainly of cheese but after you eat more than a small portion I feel like the taste and texture becomes obvious.
But then I came across the website gnom-gnom which is dedicated to keto and gluten free recipes and realized there’s more to the low-carb world than just cheese-based breads, rolls and pizza crusts. Paola taught me that you can make most gluten-full recipes with a combination of almond flour, coconut flour and xanthem gum. Happily I have all three on hand so I got to work making my way through some of Paola’s recipes, the first being 15-Minute Stovetop Pizza Crust though I skipped the stovetop part.
I ended up rolling the dough out onto a pan and par-baking it 10 minutes before baking it another 10 after adding the toppings but I’d love to try the pan-fried version found at gnom-gnom some other time. This crust doesn’t taste like the pizza crust you knew and loved as a child but it is a good option for gluten-free and keto. It’s sort of crisp and cracker-esque Next up for me is Paola’s yeast pizza crust, Good ‘N Proper Pizza Crust.
ingredients.
- 1 c. almond flour
- 3 T. coconut flour
- 2 tsp. xantham gum
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 2 tsp. apple cider vinegar
- 1 egg
directions.
- Add almond flour, coconut flour, xanthan gum, baking powder and salt to food processor and pulse until thoroughly combined.
- Pour in apple cider vinegar with the food processor running followed by the egg. I used an extra large egg and found that this was enough to get a dough to form together into a ball. If necessary, add enough water by the teaspoonful for the dough to come together into a ball. I found my dough was not sticky at all and came together really easily. Pat into a round disk and let chill in the refrigerator for about an hour.
- When you’re ready to bake your pizza, preheat oven to 350 degrees and oil a 12 or 14-inch nonstick pizza pan using olive oil. Take your disk of dough out and place in the middle of your pizza pan. Using your hands and a rolling pin, roll/press the dough out until it’s as thin as possible. My crust got to about 12 or 13 inches. The edges of the crust will be uneven so pinch it down to create a ridge all the way around.
- Prick the crust all over with the tines of a fork and then spread some olive oil evenly across the top. Bake the crust for 10 minutes and then remove and add toppings. I used pesto but you could do olive oil or even a sugar-free marinara sauce. Top with cheese and whatever toppings your using and pop back into the oven for another 5 to 10 minutes. I went for 10 and my mozzarella cheese started to brown round the edges.
- Remove from oven and let cool approximately 5 minutes before cutting and serving.
Recipe rating:
Food Snob 