My New Favorite Pizza Has a Cottage Cheese Crust
This cottage cheese pizza crust is ridiculous. 4 ingredients, 20 minutes, and actually chewy, crispy, and delicious. The post My New Favorite Pizza Has a Cottage Cheese Crust appeared first on Pinch of Yum.
Watch Me Make This Pizza
It Has No Business Being This Good.
So, I’ve made it 4x already this week.
I saw a video for a cottage cheese pizza crust from our friends at Fit Foodie Finds last week and I thought, hmm. Interesting. Maybe I should try that.
I am always a little suspicious about recipes based around cottage cheese, but HERE IS THE THING.
It’s ACTUALLY SO GOOD!
It is not one of these gimmicky cottage cheese moves. I mean, honestly, forget that there’s even cottage cheese in the crust. I mean, yay protein, but all I care about is that that crust is still somehow is light and airy and bready, but still gets a bit of a golden brown crisp out the outside? It’s a 20 minute miracle. Every time I am shocked and amazed.
I’ve tried some variations of this and I’ll put my thoughts into the notes of the recipe. But for now, just know: this is worth trying. You can find the Fit Foodie gals recipe here – I made it almost exactly the same as theirs! I just bake it a bit hotter, to get more crispy and browned. I also triple the amounts to make a thicker / bigger crust to feed our whole family of 4.
I had lots of people asking me about the details of my changes on Instagram, so here it is in writing for ya.
I hope you love it!
1
Blend The Cottage Cheese.
I like the cottage cheese to be nice and smooth for the dough. This is not necessary, but I think this gives you the best texture!
2
Form The Dough.
Mix up the dough and dump it on a surface. It will be thick and a little sticky, but be patient and work it into a ball, then spread into a pizza shape.
3
Drizzle Olive Oil.
Drizzle the pizza with a little bit of olive oil before baking.
4
Pre-Bake The Crust.
Bake the crust in the oven on its own before adding toppings. This will help it get a little crispy and hold up your toppings!
5
Add Your Toppings.
Add your sauce and your cheese (and any other toppings you’d like) and pop it back in to bake a little more.
6
Bake and Eat!
Bake until melty and crispy and devour! This is so good.
Frequently Asked Questions About This Pizza
Yes, you could use Greek yogurt – I never have but the original recipe from Fit Foodie Finds recommends a number of options.
Yes, I would recommend it. When I tried it without blending it, it “turned out” fine but it was more gummy and I did not enjoy the texture as much. I think really blending / borderline whipping the cottage cheese works some air into the dough to make it pleasantly chewy and lighter.
I haven’t tried it but I would assume it will work!
Yes! Generally I find that less is more when it comes to pizza toppings, but it can for sure hold up to a few extras besides just the sauce and cheese.
I have a few options, and all of them are desserts that would pair nicely with this pizza! ????
– High-Protein Tiramisu
– Emergency Peach Cobbler
– Blueberry Pie Bowls
This yields a very sticky dough, so this won’t work in a pizza oven! Because of its stickiness, it should be baked on parchment paper, which should not be used in a pizza oven due to the high temps.
Yes, this can be made up to three days in advance.
Pizza with Cottage Cheese Crust
-
Total Time: 30 minutes -
Yield: 3-4 servings
Description
Pizza with a 4-ingredient cottage cheese crust. That actually tastes good. What is happening.
Ingredients
The amounts written below will yield a thinner crust. You can also 1.5x these amounts to get a thicker crust! When I make it to feed our entire family (2 adults + 2 kids), I do the 1.5x amounts. Just par-bake for closer to 10 minutes before adding sauce and cheese since it’s thicker.
For the crust:
- 1 cup cottage cheese
- 1 cup flour + a few tablespoons for dusting
- 1 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoons coarse kosher salt
- 1–2 tablespoons olive oil
For the pizza:
- 1/4 to 1/3 cup sauce (I’ve been using Rao’s marinara)
- 1/3 to 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- 1/4 to 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Preheat: Preheat the oven to 450 degrees and place a rack at the highest position, near the top.
- Prep Cottage Cheese: Blend the cottage cheese until smooth.
- Make Dough for Crust: Place blended cottage cheese in a bowl; mix with the flour, baking powder and salt until a dough starts to come together. It will start to get kind of shaggy, crumbly, and sticky – use your hands to really bring it together. I usually turn it out on the counter and give it a few squishes, coating with a bit of extra flour, to make it into a cohesive ball.
- Form The Crust: Place a sheet of parchment on a pizza pan or baking sheet. Place the dough on the parchment and press into a circle that is about 10-12 inches in diameter. It is a pretty bready crust, so you want to really press it out into a thinner, wider surface area.
- Prep The Crust: Rub the top of the crust with olive oil.
- Pre-Bake The Crust: Place in the oven; bake (no toppings) for 8 minutes.
- Add Sauce and Cheese: Remove from oven. Spread with sauce and top with the two cheeses. Bake on that same top rack for another 5 minutes to melt the cheeses.
- Broil and Finish: Finally, broil for 2-3 minutes until the cheese and crust edges are deeply golden, like the picture. I like to sprinkle the slices with red pepper flakes, drizzle with olive oil or hot honey, and dip into more sauce! It’s too good!
Notes
Technically you don’t need to blend the cottage cheese – it will work and the curds will melt, but it gives the crust a more gummy texture.
I use the Beast Mini Blender for blending the cottage cheese and it works so well. It gets the consistency nice and whipped and light, which I think yields a really amazing crust!
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
Category: Dinner
Method: Bake
Cuisine: American
Keywords: easy pizza crust, cottage cheese recipe, cottage cheese pizza crust
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The post My New Favorite Pizza Has a Cottage Cheese Crust appeared first on Pinch of Yum.
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