This easy Fathead Dough recipe makes the best keto pizza crust. It’s chewy and tender, just like the real thing. And it holds up to all of your favorite toppings!
Fathead dough is pretty remarkable stuff. And it’s an absolute game changer for anyone who loves pizza. It has all the elasticity and stretchiness of real pizza dough, but with a fraction of the carbs.
I never would have come up with using mozzarella cheese as a base for keto pizza crust on my own. And I am grateful to the Fathead creators, and Tom Naughton of the Fathead Movie for making it famous.
And it’s so versatile too! I’ve made everything from keto garlic knots to spinach artichoke calzones. You can even make it sweet for recipes like keto cinnamon rolls.
Of couse, one of the most oft-requested recipes for keto beginners is pizza. It’s really just the ultimate American comfort food. And fathead dough has filled the void like no other.
Why this recipe is the best
I have put my own unique spin on it, to make it a little sturdier for keto pizza crust. I use butter in place of cream cheese, a bit of coconut flour for added structure, and baking powder to help it rise and puff up nicely.
The resulting dough is buttery and rich, and even a little flaky. This stuff really is magic and can be used for so many different keto recipes, from savory to sweet.
But if you’re new to fathead dough, then pizza crust is a great place to start. It’s easy and you get a feel for how the process works. And it only takes about 20 minutes, start to finish.
Best of all, this recipe has only 3.3g net carbs per serving.
Reader Testimonials
“I have tried a lot of fat head dough, however this hands down is my favorite. I gave a slice to a friend of mine who cannot eat flour and yeast. She also thought it was amazing. Thanks so much!!” — Cheryl
“This is by far the most superior recipe for fathead dough that I’ve used yet! Using butter makes it so much better than using cream cheese, in my opinion. My pizza crust was flavorful and was not dry at all.” — Pam K
“WOWZERS with a capital W!! devoured by hubs and me – we are both very impressed! Shared widely. congrats on such a great adaptation – so light considering the ingredients and so easy to find in a regular supermarket. hooray!” — Alice
Ingredients you need
- Shredded mozzarella: Pre-shredded, part skim mozzarella works best for fathead dough. It usually has some added fillers but this actually helps the consistency of the dough. But it does not have to be full of extra starches. I usually purchase organic cheese that has vegetable cellulose as an anti-caking agent.
- Butter: Most fathead dough recipes use cream cheese, but butter makes it lighter and flakier. And more buttery!
- Blanched almond flour: You must use finely ground almond flour and NOT almond meal. Almond meal is more coarsely ground and often contains the brown skin of the almond. Those coarse particles don’t combine with the cheese and butter very well and don’t absorb enough of the oils leaving you with a dough that falls apart.
- Coconut flour: The addition of coconut flour adds more structure, making the dough sturdier and yet still flexible.
- Kitchen staples: Egg, baking powder, garlic powder and salt.
Step-by-step instructions
1. In a large saucepan, combine the cheese and butter over low heat. Stir until they are melted and can be mixed together.
2. Remove the pan from heat and add the almond flour, coconut flour, baking powder, garlic powder, and salt. Add the egg and stir everything together until a cohesive forms. Use a rubber spatula to really knead the dough together in the pan.
3. Turn the dough out onto a work surface dusted with almond flour and knead until uniform. This will only take a little kneading. If your dough is still very sticky, add a tablespoon or two more almond flour and work it in.
4. Roll the dough out between pieces of parchment paper to 12 inches (or use a silicone mat on the bottom). Transfer the parchment with the dough on it to a cookie sheet or pizza stone. Bake at 350ºF for 10 to 15 minutes, until starting to brown and firm up.
5. Remove and top with your favourite toppings and bake another 7 to 10 minutes, until the toppings are melted and bubbly.
Expert Tips and FAQs
Fathead dough is amazing, and it’s easy to make once you get the hang of it. Here are some added tips and tricks for getting it right.
Low heat: When melting the cheese and butter together, keep the pan over the lowest heat you can. If you have an electric stove, you may want to take the pan on and off the heat a few times to keep it from getting too hot.
Adding the egg: Add all of the dry ingredients before adding the egg, so that they protect it from the hot cheese. You don’t want the egg to cook before you have a chance to incorporate it into the dough.
Kneading the dough: Really work the ingredients together, both in the pan and out of the pan. If you do it right after you incorporate the dry ingredients and the egg, the dough will come together much better. I use a rubber spatula to knead it against the sides of the pan.
Making adjustments: If it comes out of the pan very sticky to the touch, you simply need to sprinkle it with a little more almond flour and knead that in, adding more until it’s not longer sticking to your hands.
Nut-free variation: If you are allergic to almonds, use my keto bagel recipe for your pizza crust. A half recipe is enough for one 10 to 12 inch pizza and it is made entirely coconut flour.
Frequently Asked Questions
This fathead dough crust is completely gluten-free. It takes mozzarella, butter, almond flour, coconut flour, baking powder, garlic powder, salt, and an egg.
This keto pizza crust recipe has 6g of carbs and 2.7g of fiber per serving. That comes to 3.3g net carbs per slice.
This fathead dough is a delicious alternative for keto pizza, calzones, and even pastries. It is rich and buttery, with a mild flavor. You can add Italian herbs or spices for added flavor.
Fathead dough loses elasticity as it cools. Thus, I recommend shaping it into a pizza crust, and then freezing it. Wrap it up tightly to avoid freezer burn, and let it thaw completely before baking.
More recipes that use fathead dough
- Keto Spanakopita
- Keto Cinnamon Twists
- Chocolate Walnut Swirls
- Keto Turkey Pot Pie
- Air Fryer Pretzel Bites
Keto Pizza Crust Recipe
Ingredients
- 6 ounces (170.1 g) pre-shredded part skim mozzarella
- 5 tbsp butter
- 1/2 cup (56 g) blanched almond flour
- 1/4 cup (30 g) coconut flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp (0.5 tsp) garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp (0.25 tsp) salt
- 1 large egg
Instructions
Dough
- Sprinkle a clean counter or a large silicone baking mat with almond flour.
- In a large saucepan, melt the cheese and butter together over low heat until they are melted and can be stirred together.
- Remove the pan from over the heat and add the almond flour, coconut flour, baking powder, garlic powder, and salt. Add the egg and stir everything together until a cohesive dough forms. Use a rubber spatula to really knead the dough together in the pan. It may still contain some streaks of cheese.
- Turn the dough out onto the prepared work surface and knead until uniform. This will only take a little kneading. If your dough is still very sticky, add a tablespoon or two more almond flour and work it in.
Pizza Crust
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF and place an oven rack in the middle position.
- Roll the dough out between pieces of parchment paper to a 12 inch circle. Remove the top piece of parchment and roll up the edge a little to create a crust.
- Transfer the bottom parchment with the dough on it to a cookie sheet or pizza stone. Bake 10 to 15 minutes until starting to brown and firm up.
- Remove the crust from the oven and top with your favourite toppings. Bake again until the toppings are melted and bubbly.
Notes
Sweet Fathead Dough Variation
Leave out the garlic powder and add ¼ cup powdered sweetener and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract along with the almond flour. Storage Information: Store leftover pizza in a covered container for up to 5 days. The shaped crust can also be frozen, tightly wrapped, for up to 2 months.Nutrition
Nutritional Disclaimer
Please note that I am not a medical or nutritional professional. I am simply recounting and sharing my own experiences on this blog. Nothing I express here should be taken as medical advice and you should consult with your doctor before starting any diet or exercise program. I provide nutritional information for my recipes simply as a courtesy to my readers. It is calculated using MacGourmet software and I remove erythritol from the final carb count and net carb count, as it does not affect my own blood glucose levels. I do my best to be as accurate as possible but you should independently calculate nutritional information on your own before relying on them. I expressly disclaim any and all liability of any kind with respect to any act or omission wholly or in part in reliance on anything contained in this website.
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SO I am dairy free, would goat cheese and ghee work in this recipe?
No, i don’t believe that would work.
I found a goat mozzarella that should work and the ghee is just clarified butter.
Please let me know how it works out.
Unless I scrolled too fast I didn’t see what temp to set oven or how long to bake. Pre-bake before toppings? Then again after topping?
This is just a recipe for the dough itself. Search my blog for “Jalapeño Popper Pizza” and it will walk you through what to do for pizza.
When making pizza in an outdoor pizza oven, do you need to prebake the dough and bake again with toppings?
I think that would probably be best but I haven’t tried it in an outdoor pizza oven. Experiment and get back to me! 😉
350
Perfect for our make-your-own pizza nights!
Tree Nut allergy here, any suggestions on substitutions for almond flour?
You can try sunflower seed flour but I am not sure how it will fare.
Looks like flour on the board. I follow a grain free woe and this would be a no no. Or is coconut flour being used?
No…it’s almond flour. I am grain-free too, I don’t use flour in ANYTHING. I don’t even have any in my house.
If you’re grain-free, you’re going to love Carolyn’s recipes. ?
Amazing dough! Great recipe! Thank you for the idea!
I just adore experimenting with Fathead/mozzarella dough. I always use whole milk pre-shredded mozzarella (from Smart & Final). In my side-by-side comparisons, part-skim dough was drier, denser, harder to manipulate and less pleasant in texture than the whole-milk dough. In recipes that call for both mozzarella and butter, I reduce the amount of butter slightly to compensate for the extra fat from the cheese (solely for the purpose of mostly maintaining the recipe’s original proportions).
Love this recipe! Thanks for sharing!
Love this dough and all your recipes. .My husband likes stuffed crust pizza so I take the outer edge and cut it into sections and seal in pieces of simi frozen mozzarella sticks around the rim. It makes the pizza smaller but so good. You need to seal it well seal it well so the cheese doesn’t ooz out.
Forgot to add that every recipe in your cookbook, starting with this one, has been delicious! Now my daughter-in-law loves it, too!
Kathy Jo
Carolyn,
I have made both the cinnamon rolls and a sausage mushroom pizza with the Magic mozzarella dough, and I agree, it truly is magic. Both items were hands-down the best low-carb version ever! The only problem I have with it is that I can’t make something from it every. single. day.
Thanks again for all of your fabulous recipes and for making “real people” recipes that include easy to find ingredients!
Kathy Jo
Thank you so much!
We are new to the Keto lifestyle. In this recipe and many other recipes I notice a combination of different flour. We don’t use tree nuts in this family so could I use all coconut flour and would I need to adjust the amount of flour, eggs and liquid? Thanks!
No, I’ve tried all coconut in this recipe and it’s too tough.
What can be used instead of almond flour ?
This recipe has been designed and tested only with almond flour. sorry.
I did the recipe using sunflower seed flour instead of almond flour this evening and it worked fine.
Thank you! I’ve developed an allergy to tree nuts since starting the keto diet.
Ashley – you could try using sunflower seed flower. I haven’t but know it functions similar to almond flour. Or try the original fathead recipe using coconut flour. I prefer THIS recipe but we always liked fathead until I recently changed to Carolyn’s. Good luck!
Flour… darn auto correct! LOL! ????
Hi Carolyn, This looks really good. Do you have a cinnamon roll recipe that incorporates this fathead mozzarella dough? I looked throughout your blog and your cinnamon roll recipe did not use mozzarella– just the almond flour and other gluten free / sugar free ingredients. I see you the twists- could we just take that recipe and make those twists into a flat shape to get a more traditional cinnamon roll look?
Hi Olga. That recipe is my book, The Everyday Ketogenic Kitchen.
Hi! I was wondering if you had a tortilla recipe made with mozzarella cheese. I thought I saved it off of FB but apparently I didn’t. I’m sure it was from a Keto a few years back. Thanks
I do not. sorry.
Thebigmansworld.com does. I have made it and we enjoyed. Experiment with different spices to make them different.
I am new at making Keto reciepes. Tried the cinnamon twists but is is always sticky. Is powered swerve and confectioners swerve the same or different?
It’s the same. It could be the brand(s) of flours you are using. Try adding another little bit of coconut flour.
This is truly a magic dough! I love it for pizza, calzones, and flatbread! Adding a little sweetener and it works just like that stuff in a tube! It is my family’s favorite crust for pizza!
This makes me so happy! I was just telling my husband how I was really craving pizza! I’m going to have to try this. BTW, do you have a recipe for cinnamon rolls made out of this dough?
I do have one and it’s in my cookbook: http://amzn.to/2FhlENQ
She did give the alternative for a sweet dough. As a guess, I imagine after it is rolled out it’s like regular cinnamon rolls: spread butter on top, spread a cinnamon/erythritol mixture on top of that, roll the dough into a log, cut slices, lay the slices on your pan and cook until golden brown. Havent tried it yet so… 🙂
Actually, a cupcake tray would probably be better than just in the pan as I imagine they will just spread out too much.
What can i substitute for the coconut flour?
You can try oat fibre but this is much better with coconut flour.
What if I don’t have the pre-shredded mozzarella? Can I just add some kind of “flour” to it?
You can’t add a flour. You can try a tablespoon of arrowroot or corn starch.
What temo for cooking into bagels?