Top This Almond Crust Pizza

It is a well known fact that pizza is an absolute nightmare for most diabetics. It is also a well known fact that pizza is one of the best foods ever. Here is how to make it better. A crunchy, crispy pizza crust is right up there with my favorite foods and while you CAN eat it, you probably shouldn’t, or a least not a lot and please don’t feed it to my son right before bed. I came up with this almond flour pizza crust and while it is not ideal, its pretty good and and my family likes it and its only a fraction of the carbs (and I typically get to sleep through the night as well).

I am always adjusting this recipe and you might find yourself doing the same. In the meantime, here is a starting point and two versions of toppings that we love. You will need some kitchen items if you don’t already have them. I highly suggest a rectangular pizza stone, if you use a round you will have floppy triangles, mess, gross. Don’t forget to shop through Amazon Smile for Beyond Type 1! You’ll also want parchment paper, plastic wrap and a rolling pin (though a long glass or cup will work in a pinch).

rectangular pizza stone
parchment paper
plastic wrap
rolling pin
1 bag of almond flour
3 eggs
olive oil
salt and pepper
garlic powder
fresh herbs like rosemary (optional)
pizza sauce (I just buy it because I have other things to do)

TOPPINGS (these are two of our favorite combinations)
8 cubano peppers (sweet mild flavor)
dry salami 10-15 slices for 1/2 a pizza
shelled pistachios 1/2 cup chopped
mozzarella shredded 8 oz bag
goat cheese 8 oz
6 small summer squash (yellow and green)
2 onions and or 4 shallots sliced thinly
fresh basil
fresh lemon
olive oil
salt and pepper
Preheat the oven to 400 F.
This is the sticky part. In a large bowl put 3 cups of almond flour, add 2-3 eggs depending on size, 1 TB of olive oil and add 1 tsp of salt, 1 tsp pepper (fresh cracked), 1 tsp or more of garlic powder and any chopped fresh herbs you might think would go nicely with your toppings. In the case of my toppings here, garlic powder should be enough.
Hand mix. It’s going to get sticky pretty fast. Once it seems like its all incorporated leave that in a ball.
Next cut a piece of parchment to a little bit bigger than the pizza stone, its okay if it hangs over the edges. Place the ball in the middle. Now take 1-2 pieces of plastic wrap to fit the same size or more of the parchment below. So it should be stacked like parchment, pizza ball, plastic wrap. Now roll that out as evenly as you can. You can trim the edges and put extra piece in where it might look too thin. This wont be perfect but you still did an awesome job.
Remove the plastic wrap and place that naked rolled out dough in the oven until it feels dry to the touch but not too dry because you are going to put that back in. Meanwhile prep your toppings. In about 10 minutes check on it, remove it, turn the oven down to 325 F.

MY TOPPINGS
Heat a little bit of olive oil in a cast iron skillet, cook the shallots or onions until soft and a little sweet, remove and place in a bowl
Add more olive oil to the pan and cook the 1/8 inch rounds of summer squash until slightly soft, remove from heat and place in bowl with onions/shallots.
Slice the peppers into 1/4 inch rings and really cook these, you want them to blister a bit so its ok if they blacken slightly but please don’t set off any fire alarms, remove from heat and place in a bowl.
Coarsely chop the pistachios and set aside.
Now, spread the pizza sauce on only 1/4 the pizza.
Sprinkle a little mozzarella.
Cover entire side with salami.
Sprinkle the remainder of the cheese (or however much you want).
Add cooked peppers.
Sprinkle on the pistachios.

Other side
Scatter summer squash and onion/shallot mixture of the other half.
Next crumble the goat cheese all over.
Cracked black pepper and salt.
Next drizzle a little olive oil.

Place this back in the oven and watch to see when the mozzarella is melted.
Remove and let cool for a few minutes. Then add the chiffonade of basil and squeeze the juice from half a lemon all over the goat cheese side.
We usually get 16 hearty pieces out of this and the leftovers actually taste really nice in the kids lunch boxes the next day.

Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 10 minutes
Grams of carbohydrates per serving:
1/8 cup tomato sauce 3g
Almond flour per slice 4.5g
chopped pistachios 1g
goat cheese 0g
mozzarella cheese 0g
peppers 0g
onions/shallots 0g
basil 0g
lemon 0g
(please double check your pizza sauce nutritional information)