Keto Pizza Fathead Crust
Unless you are brand new to the ketogenic low carb lifestyle, you have probably heard of Fathead Pizza. In fact, just hearing the words Fat Head Pizza probably triggers mild drooling and hunger pangs in some people. It’s that good! Why is this fathead crust so good? Well… because it is made up of mostly fat – cheese to be precise. The mozzarella along with the almond flour yield a dense, crispy pizza crust packed full of flavor. And this keto crust actually looks like real pizza crust! Even the texture of low carb pizza crust is similar.
Before fathead pizza, most low carb folks were making pizza crust out of cauliflower. Cauliflower pizza crust is a pain to make. You have get most of the moisture out of the cauliflower in order to create the ideal texture. On top of that, cauliflower pizza crust doesn’t taste that great. Most keto recipes can still have that off-putting cauliflower flavor.
Fathead Pizza Crust History
Where did this delicious fat filled goodness of keto pizza dough originate? Who invented Fathead Pizza Crust? You can find different variations of it plastered all over the internet. Lots of people credit the fathead recipe to comedian Tom Naughton as the original creator.
Tom Naughton directed and starred in his low carb documentary movie Fathead which follows him around as he attempts to lose weight on a fast food diet and refute the Super Size Me documentary. In his documentary, Naughton consumes less than 100 grams of carbohydrates a day and more than 100 grams of fat a day! He ends up losing weight, increasing energy levels, and decreasing his LDL cholesterol.
Naughton originally posted about the fathead pizza crust on his website in June 2013. But, if you read his post you will learn that he, nor his “older brother’s oldest son”, developed this fat fueled pizza recipe. The older brother’s son just found the crust recipe on another site.
Deep in the comments, Naughton credits the true author of the Fathead Pizza Crust to Cooky’s Creations. Cooky is a low carb blogger and keto foodie who is the creative mastermind behind this fat filled pizza crust. She blogged about this recipe a whole year earlier and called it “Holy Grail Pizza Crust.” The name Fat Head Pizza Crust was adopted by Naughton’s fans when he posted the recipe on his site and his movie had gained so much popularity.
3 Reasons Why Keto Pizza Is Amazing
First, it’s the fat. Fat is where the flavor is and this crust is pretty much all cheese. This fathead crust is comprised of 70% fat per serving! When you are on a ketogenic diet, you naturally navigate towards fatty foods because that’s your main source of energy. Dietary fat breaks down into ketones. Fat is fuel. Pizza is fuel.
The second reason why this pizza crust is a favorite among keto dieters is the texture and consistency. The fathead crust is a perfect balance of chewy, bread-like texture in the middle and a crispy underside and outer crust. It is a pizza that you can eat with your hands and not with a fork. Unlike cauliflower crust pizza, that tends to have a soft underbelly and will break apart when you pick up a slice of pizza.
Lastly, fathead pizza doesn’t take very long to prepare. The ingredient list is fairly short and you can be eating keto pizza in no time. It’s a perfect quick keto pizza option for busy weeknights or weekend movie nights. One of our family traditions is to make pizzas and watch videos on Friday nights with the boys. Each kid gets to add their own toppings to their own mini fat head pizza.
Besides pizza crust, the fathead dough is actually a universal pastry dough in the keto community. We have used it as the breading for bagel dogs, breadsticks, hamburger buns, biscuits, cinnamon rolls, and crackers.
Because we love pizza and use the fat head dough for other low carb foods, we always double, triple….even quadruple the batch when we make it. The dough freezes nicely in a ball or you can roll in out into a thin crust first, flash freeze it, then wrap with plastic wrap for long term freezer storage.
You can see that it is easy to have fat head pizza at your disposal, so there’s no excuse not to have pizza night at least once or twice a week on the ketogenic diet!
Keto Pizza Sauce
If you are making a keto pizza recipe, you have to use a low carb pizza sauce. You can’t use any jar of pizza sauce on the shelf. Many of those are full of sugars and excess carbs. It’s important to look at the nutrition label on the back of marinara sauce to make sure it is the lowest carb possible. My favorite keto pizza sauce brands are Yo Mama and Rao’s. If you are on a budget, you may consider making your own! Keto pizza sauce is easy to make and this recipe uses crushed tomatoes and a few seasoning along with olive oil to give it that authentic flavor.
Pizza Toppings
If you are using this keto dough to make pizza, you will need to keep it low carb with some keto approved pizza toppings. Luckily most pizza toppings are keto friendly. The only one you may have to stay away from is pineapple as pineapple is higher in sugar content. Here are some pizza toppings you may consider on your low carb pizza!
- pepperoni
- salami
- sausage
- ground beef
- bell pepper
- mushroom
- olive
- onion
- anchovies
- tomato
- Canadian bacon
- bacon
- artichoke hearts
- spinach
- olive oil
Tips for Making Keto Pizza Crust
- Use a food processor – To make your keto dough, the fastest way to mix up all of the crust ingredient evenly is to use a food processor. It will combine all the ingredients in seconds for a uniform dough ball.
- Roll out dough between parchment paper – To keep your keto dough from sticking to the rolling pin, place the dough in between two sheets of parchment paper. This will give you an even thickness of crust and help you transfer the dough to your baking sheet or pizza stone. If you parchment paper slides around on the table too much, place a damp paper towel underneath the bottom parchment paper. This will keep the parchment paper from slipping and make it easy to roll out your keto pizza crust.
- Melting the mozzarella cheese – You have the option to melt your mozzarella cheese in the microwave at 60 second intervals until melted or you can melt the cheese on the stove top over low – medium heat in a non stick skillet.
No Cream Cheese Necessary
For the keto pizza recipe, you don’t need to add cream cheese to make the fathead dough. The texture and flavor is the same. The cream cheese in classic fathead dough recipes don’t add any purpose except they add calories and carbs! Yes, cream cheese as carbs so why add it in if it’s just not necessary?
Absolutely LOVE this dough! So versatile and quick to prepare! Quickly becoming a staple in my home!
Thank you! I’m glad you liked the keto pizza crust!
What is xanthan gum? Is it absolutely necessary in order to make this pizza?
It just helps for structure, but you can omit if you don’t have any.
My crust got stuck to the paper. Should I spray the paper with cooking spray next time?
Yes, try spraying the parchment paper next time.
Amazing! I’ve tried different doughs and this is the best.
Do you have the total carb count per serving?
I will be adding total carbs for each recipe. For now, 1/8 of this pizza is 5.8 grams total carbs.
Do you think I could pre-bake the crusts and freeze or refrigerate? Then pull out as needed, top and bake? I am trying to think of meal prep as I am trying to get my whole family on board with healthier eating. I need quick week night meals for my super picky 10 year old who only eats pizza and chicken nuggets.
Yes, you could do that. Or you can roll it out unbaked, flash freeze and stack them together. Then freeze again. That’s what I do.
Hi Annie,
Thank you for sharing all of your delicious recipes. I have never flash freeze any of my food so I am not sure how to do this can you share how you do this with your pizza dough. Also how to you store it in the freezer if freezing it rolled out?
Sure, there are two ways to store it. First, just place your dough ball in a plastic freezer safe bag, press out the air and put it in the freezer. The second, is to roll it out flat first. Store it flat with the bottom and top parchment paper attached the the flat dough. Place in a ziploc freezer bag and put in the freezer. You can stack multiple flat pizza crusts this way by stacking them on each other then putting them in the ziploc bag. As long as they have parchment paper in between them, they shouldn’t stick together.
Ok I actually made this today instead of the mummy dogs. But! I am going to cut strips out of the dough I rolled out and refrigerated then put some hot dogs inside with cheddar 😉
I’ll let you how it turns out. So far everything I make of your creations has been absolutely stellar. Best stuff I’ve found on the internet so far for keto heads!
That sounds delicious! I haven’t tried adding cheddar but I will next time I make them.
Yes they came out awesomeM I used a block of pollyO mozzarella and shredded it in a processor myself. I put two pieces of parchment sprayed with non stick spray and rolled it out into a pizza dough, then cut into eight strips after I refrigerated it for about an hour, wrapped the dogs in it added cheese and baked for the same time as the mummy dogs called for. Really filling and super delicious!
Easy to do too!
In your notes you say “The combination of mozzarella and cream cheese along with the almond flour yield a dense, crispy pizza crust packed full of flavor.”. However, cream cheese is not listed in the ingredients nor in the instructions. Is it supposed to be part of this recipe?
Ah… it does not include cream cheese. I don’t know why I said that :). I have updated and removed.
Thanks for confirming no cream cheese : )
I ended up making this tonight, and it is by far the best Keto pizza crust recipe I’ve tried! I had some issues getting the dough rolled out evenly, so I par baked it for 10 minutes on a pizza stone before adding my toppings. It came out great; thanks for sharing this recipe!
Can I make the dough a couple hours ahead of time and put in the fridge before rolling out? This is our first week on keto, so want to make sure I do things correctly 🙂
Yes you can! You can store it in the fridge for up to 5 days and you can freeze it too!
This pizza dough was amazing! Pizza is my most favorite food to eat. I was able to top my pizza with several ingredients. I used additional spices, such as; Italian seasoning, garlic powder, and onion powder. I hope that you will continue to shower us with additional recipes. I can’t wait !!! Thank you
I tried this last night, it was great! When I used to make pizza I would put cornmeal on the parchment before putting the crust down, I used Parmesan cheese instead, worked great. I also brushed the top of the pizza with garlic butter before topping.
The recipe calls for something called “1 teaspoon xanthan gum”, but that item is not included in the video which only has 4 ingredients. What is xanthan gum and it it optional?
Thanks
I changed the recipe a little bit after that video was made. I felt like the xanthan gum helps to hold the crust together better.
We use your recipe all the time. It’s the best! Would you happen to know what the “MyFitnessPal” “personal pizza keto focus” portion is?
That is probably a recipe of mine that someone added. It’s probably this dough recipe but I’m not sure what toppings there are.
What if you do not have a microwave?
You can melt the cheese on a non-stick skillet over the stove top
I made this yesterday and followed the guidelines that were provided and sprayed parchment paper with oil. I added Italian seasoning to the dough and forgot to put holes in the dough before putting the topping on it but the pizza turned out perfect. The Pizza was fantastic. I sauced the dough, added cheese’s, a pound of cooked Italian seasoned ground beef, onions, green and black olives, mushroom’s and topped with more cheese. It was awesome.
I have used the same recipe on the dough with other ingredients making sweet rolls, cup cakes, cookies and dough to wrapped hotdogs in. Its very versatile.
I’ve made this several times and its PERFECTION!! I share this recipe link with all my keto friends. Thank you so much for sharing it! It comes together so quickly and it is really on point. So happy!!! <3
Annie, This is my first time to make Fathead dough. I used this recipe to make pretzels for Super Bowl party. They were a hit. Using your protein Lasagna for main course. Thank you for your hard work bringing us these recipes & ideas. 😊
Hi Annie, I have been shying away from making fathead pizza dough for the 7 months I’ve been eating keto (42 lbs gone so far!). Tonight I made it for my hubby and I and added some Italian seasonings, then topped it with Rao’s marinara sauce, mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, and onions. We both LOVE IT! Thank you! It will definitely be a staple in our home going forward! Also many thanks for the warning about the mess when using a mixer to combine the wet and dry ingredients. It really helped keep this non-cook keto cook calm and moving forward with the process!
Should you bake the dough first before adding your sauce and toppings?
You can if you want a crispier crust.
Is the dough on its own 3.5g net carbs total or per slice? I made it yesterday from 3 ingredient recipe and loved it and my 12 year old son said he prefers it to normal pizza.xx
Per slice
Is there a sub for xanthum gum?
You can omit it if you would like. It’s just there for added support but the pizza still holds up without it.
I noticed on this pizza recipe is said 3.5 cups of mozzarella but in parentheses it has 10oz? That would only be about 1 cup and 1/4 is this recipe for more that one crust? Just curious I want to make it but I don’t know how much geese I would need.
Is the nutritional value per slice (serving) or for the entire pizza of 8 servings?
Macros for the keto pizza are per serving.
What would you substitute cheese for dairy free?
There is dairy free cheese, but I’m not sure how well that will work. I need to work on a dairy free crust recipe.
I made this Saturday & stored it in the fridge for pizza today. It was AWESOME! Thank you!!