Keto Breakfast Pizza
Published June 5, 2020 • Updated July 20, 2026
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I presented this recipe at a low-carb conference several years ago. I made it live on stage, and every single person who cooked along with me wanted the recipe before I even finished plating. That’s when I knew this one was more than just another pizza recipe.
The base is a fathead crust: mozzarella, almond flour, egg, xanthan gum, baking powder. I’ve tested this dough dozens of times and stripped it down to just what it needs. No cream cheese in this dough. I tried it both ways, and the cream cheese adds carbs without doing anything for the texture. The crust puffs up, gets chewy in the middle, and crisps golden at the edges without it.
The sauce is dead simple. I mix full-fat ricotta with minced garlic and salt. No precooking. It melts into the cheese layer during baking and creates this creamy, garlicky base that pairs with bacon and eggs better than any red sauce would.
But the eggs are what make this breakfast pizza mine. I crack four of them right onto the pizza after the first 4 minutes of baking, then let them cook until the whites just set and the yolks stay runny. When you cut into a slice, that yellowy-orange yolk spills out and covers everything. You don’t need ranch. You don’t need marinara. The yolk does all the work.
I’ve made this with leftover steak on top, with crumbled sausage, with whatever protein was in the fridge from the night before. It adapts to what you have. If you’re looking for more low-carb breakfast ideas, my chaffle breakfast sandwich is another go-to, and I make my sausage breakfast casserole when I’m feeding more than four people. For something egg-forward without the crust, try my pizza eggs.
See the video below to watch me make it step by step.
How to make keto breakfast pizza
- Make the fathead crust. Melt mozzarella, then pulse it in a food processor with almond flour, egg, baking powder, xanthan gum, and salt until a dough ball forms. No cream cheese needed.
- Mix the garlic sauce. Combine ricotta cheese with minced garlic and salt. No cooking required.
- Top the crust. Sprinkle shredded mozzarella and crumbled bacon over the rolled-out dough. Add dollops of the garlic ricotta, red pepper flakes, and grated parmesan.
- Bake in two stages. First bake for 4 minutes. Then crack eggs right onto the pizza and bake 6-8 more minutes until the whites set but the yolks stay runny.
- Finish with fresh basil. Tear the leaves and scatter them on while it’s still hot.
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Keto Breakfast Pizza Crust Ingredients
3 cup shredded mozzarella cheese, plus ½ cup for topping -
1 1/4 cups almond flour
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1 egg
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1 teaspoon baking powder
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1 teaspoon xanthan gum
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½ teaspoon salt
Toppings Ingredients
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¼ cup full fat ricotta cheese
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1 teaspoon minced garlic
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1/4 teaspoon salt
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1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
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6 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled
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¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
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3 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
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4 eggs
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4 to 6 basil leaves, sliced
Step by Step Instructions
Step by Step Instructions
Preheat oven
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Melt the cheese
Place 3 cups of mozzarella in a microwave-safe glass bowl. Microwave until cheese is melted: about 2 minutes. Remove from microwave and let the mixture cool while combining the remaining ingredients. If you don’t want to melt the cheese in a microwave, you can add it to a non-stick skillet and melt over the stovetop over medium heat.
Pulse the dough
To a food processor, add almond flour, one egg, baking powder, xanthan gum, and salt. Scoop in melted mozzarella cheese. Pulse until a dough ball forms. If you don’t own a food processor, you can mix the ingredients using an electric mixer or knead by hand until a dough is formed.
Flatten it
Place the dough in between two pieces of parchment paper. Using a rolling pin, roll out dough to desired thickness: about 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick. Remove top parchment layer and place the pizza dough and bottom parchment paper on top of a baking sheet or pizza stone.
Make the garlic sauce
In a small bowl, combine ricotta cheese, garlic and 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Set aside.
Sprinkle evenly
Sprinkle 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese and crumbled bacon evenly over the rolled out pizza dough.
Dollop and bake
Add dollops of garlic ricotta cheese mixture evenly over the pizza. Sprinkle red pepper flakes and grated parmesan cheese over the pizza. Bake at 400 degrees for 4 minutes.
Create some divots
Remove from oven. Use the back of a large spoon to make 4 divots on the pizza and crack remaining eggs into each divot. Return pizza to oven and bake for an additional 6-8 minutes or until egg whites are almost set. Set oven to broil and broil pizza until eggs are cooked but yolks are still runny (about 30 seconds to 1 minute).
Finish with basil
Remove pizza from oven. Sprinkle basil over pizza.
Nutrition disclaimer
The nutrition information provided is an estimate and is for informational purposes only. I am a Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.); however, this content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult your physician or other qualified health provider before making any lifestyle changes or beginning a new nutrition program.
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Get My Macros + Recipes →Frequently Asked Questions
What can I use instead of ricotta cheese?
I've tested three substitutes here. Cream cheese works if you soften it first (microwave for 15-20 seconds). It creates a thicker, richer sauce. My reader Valerie asked about this swap and I confirmed it holds up well. Cottage cheese is another option. Rebecca uses it every week and says it's fantastic. Mascarpone is the closest in texture to ricotta but pricier. I still prefer ricotta for this recipe because it melts into the pizza better than the others, but all three work.
Can I freeze this for meal prep?
I freeze this all the time. Bake the pizza fully, let it cool completely, then wrap individual slices in plastic wrap and store in a freezer bag. They keep for about 2 months. To reheat, I go straight from frozen into a 375-degree oven for 12-15 minutes. The crust holds up surprisingly well from frozen. The eggs firm up completely after freezing (no more runny yolk), but the flavor is still solid. I also freeze extra dough by itself so I can make a fresh one whenever I want.
Can I use sausage instead of bacon?
I've done this more times than I can count. Crumbled breakfast sausage with Italian seasoning is my favorite swap. Brown it in a skillet first and drain the grease so the crust doesn't get soggy. I've also used sliced kielbasa, which gets these crispy edges when it bakes. Both work as well as bacon on this recipe.
How do I keep the crust from getting soggy?
Two things I always do. First, I pre-bake the crust by itself at 400 degrees for about 3-4 minutes before adding any toppings. This sets the bottom and gives it structure. Second, I don't overload the sauce. A thin layer of the garlic ricotta is all you need. If the ricotta is pooling, you've used too much. I spread it in dollops, not a solid layer, and that keeps everything crispy underneath.
Can I use coconut flour instead of almond flour?
I've tested this and it changes the dough significantly. Coconut flour absorbs way more liquid than almond flour, so you'd need roughly 1/3 cup of coconut flour to replace 1 1/4 cups of almond flour. The texture comes out denser and a bit more crumbly. It works if you have a nut allergy, but I prefer the almond flour version for this recipe. The chew is closer to real pizza dough with almond flour.
Can I make this dairy-free?
This is a tough one because the fathead crust depends on mozzarella for its structure. I've tried dairy-free mozzarella shreds and they melt differently. The dough doesn't come together as smoothly and the stretch isn't the same. For the sauce, you can swap the ricotta for dairy-free cream cheese (I've tested Kite Hill and it works). If dairy-free is a priority for you, my almond flour pancakes are a better dairy-free breakfast option to try.
Is bacon keto friendly?
Bacon is mostly protein and fat with almost zero carbs, so yes. Some brands cure their bacon with sugar, but the amount is tiny and won't affect your daily count. I buy whatever thick-cut bacon is on sale. The one thing I avoid is maple-flavored bacon, since that actually contains maple syrup and adds real sugar. For this recipe, I like thick-cut because the pieces hold up better as a topping and the texture contrast with the eggs is worth it. My reader Connor uses thick-cut too and says it's what gets his kids to the table before he even calls them.
Making this for a brunch next weekend, about 10 people so I'll need to double it. Does the dough scale straight across or does a bigger batch need any tweaking? Also the eggs cracked on top. Harder to time those when you're running two pizzas at once?
Made this expecting to miss tomato sauce. Garlic ricotta doesn't pool under the egg the way tomato would. Better base, actually. Wouldn't have thought to use it.
Tomato has too much water, it pools and steams right under the egg white. Ricotta holds because it doesn't. Good catch, Hannah.
Bacon and garlic, before the oven was even open, and my first thought was that something had gone wrong because the smell was too good for what I was attempting. First time with fathead dough and I'd spent the whole bake expecting the crust to fall apart when I sliced it. It didn't. Crisp on the outside, held up under the toppings. The garlic ricotta was better than I had any right to expect. Four stars because I rolled the crust too thick and I know that's on me, but everything else landed right on my first try.
Waiting for the crust to fall apart and it doesn't. That's the whole first-time fathead experience. Quarter inch next time, it looks almost too thin when you're rolling it but that's where the crisp comes from.
28 grams of protein at breakfast sounded like wishful thinking. Expected either a gummy almond flour situation or eggs sliding right off, but neither. The garlic ricotta keeps the crust from getting soggy and the whites actually set up clean. Didn't see that coming.
The protein count surprised me too the first time I ran the numbers. Three cups of mozzarella before the eggs even go on.
Crispy crust every time, still can't nail the egg. Batch six.
The two-sheet parchment sandwich is not actually optional. Learned that the hard way, spent more time scraping dough off the counter than making the pizza. Once you get it right though, the crust rolls and transfers in under a minute.
I did the same thing the first time I made fathead dough. Two sheets of parchment is the only way it works. Once you have that part down, the transfer takes less time than figuring out the toppings.
Eight rounds in. Added red pepper flakes to the ricotta somewhere around batch five and now I can't go back. The heat plays really well against the yolk.
Adding it to my next batch, I've been putting flakes on top, not into the sauce, and now I'm thinking I got it wrong.
Tried at least four other keto breakfast pizza recipes before landing on this one, and I can finally stop looking. The ricotta garlic sauce is what the others were missing. Every version I made before had this flat, mozzarella-only base that tasted like it was trying to be pizza and knew it wasn't. The runny yolk when you cut into it changes how the whole slice tastes, not just how it looks. This is the one.
Took four or five sauce iterations to land on that ricotta base. Straight ricotta was too bland, the garlic is what actually makes it taste like something.
My dad used to make us scrambled eggs on toast every Sunday morning, and I never thought anything would come close to that Sunday feeling. Made this last weekend and when I cut into that first slice and the yolk ran over the ricotta, I just sat there for a second. It's not the same thing obviously, but it hit that same note. Going in the Sunday rotation.
The yolk running over the ricotta - that's the part I kept going back to when I was testing this. Good Sunday call.
My husband stood at the counter eating this for like ten minutes without saying a word, which never happens. Finally looked up and said the garlic ricotta tastes like something from an actual brunch spot. High praise from a guy who thinks breakfast is just coffee.
Standing at the counter for ten minutes without saying a word is about the best reaction a recipe can get. My kids do the same thing when something actually lands. The ricotta base is what makes this feel like more than egg pizza. Good brunch spots use quality ricotta and real garlic, and that's basically all that sauce is. Tell him I'll take it.
The runny yolk as the sauce is a genuinely clever idea, and it worked exactly as described. One thing worth knowing: my eggs needed closer to 6 extra minutes before the whites set, so I'd check them earlier rather than pulling at the listed time. The garlic ricotta base is what I keep coming back to in my head though. Simple and really good. Making this again Sunday.
Egg timing is the one thing I can never pin down to an exact minute. Cold eggs from the fridge take longer to set, and every oven's different. The ricotta base had me from the first batch.
My son, who normally pushes eggs around the plate, stopped mid-bite and asked why the pizza was 'bleeding.' Watching him figure out that the yolk was the sauce was worth every step of this recipe.
Ha, 'bleeding pizza.' That's exactly why I crack the eggs whole - the yolk IS the sauce. Once he figures out the dipping part you're done for.
Made two crusts Sunday, kept them in the fridge. Crack an egg on top each morning, throw it in the oven. Breakfast is actually something I look forward to now.
Crust holds up fine in the fridge for 3-4 days. Nice not to have to think about it before coffee.
Added Italian sausage under the eggs and it changed the whole thing. The fat renders out while it bakes and basically bastes the egg whites, so you get a fully set white with a still-runny yolk without having to fuss with timing. Also figured out that pre-baking the crust 7-8 minutes before adding toppings keeps the center from going soft under all that egg white and ricotta. Both changes worth it.
The sausage-under-egg thing is smart. Never thought about the fat basting the whites but that's exactly what happens. I pre-bake mine 3-4 minutes, but 7-8 makes sense with all that ricotta sitting on top.
Tried a handful of keto breakfast pizzas before landing here and most of them had crusts that either crumbled or tasted like cardboard. The mozzarella base on this one actually holds together, and the garlic ricotta sauce is something I hadn't seen in any of the other versions I'd made. When I cut into it and the egg yolk ran over everything, I finally got what made this one different. Pulling it out a minute or two earlier next time so the yolks stay runny (mine set a bit more than I'd like), but this is the one I'll use from here on.
Crack them on with 6-7 minutes left instead of 8. That extra minute is the difference between jammy and fully set.