Hello LilyOnTheLam.com Readers:
The test kitchens at Lily On The Lam Global Headquarters have been happily buzzing away with low carb excitement. And by test kitchens, I mean my modest home kitchen. And by "buzzing away with ... excitement," I mean my freezer is utterly confused why there is a two pound bag of golden flax meal sitting next to the ice cube bin.
When I decided to try my hand at low carb cooking and baking, I did my research before I started buying ingredients that my cupboards had never seen before ... coconut flour, ground flax seed meal, almond meal and erythritol, to name just a few. If you read my review of 24-7 Low Carb Diner's Piccolo Panini Italian Slider recipe, you'll know that I considered my first low carb cooking experiment a success. So much so that I was ready to start playing with "the big boys." And by "the big boys," I mean scarier ingredients ... "scary" defined as ingredients that are unknown to me.
What exactly are flax seeds and flax meal? Why did people consider it zero carb- did the fiber content really zero out the carb count for low carb diets? And why did so many of flax recipes warn me to drink lots of water because of the "laxative properties." Am I making laxative brownies here?
But I had faith in a little blog (OK "little" meaning over 2 million page views in a year) called "I Breathe ... I'm Hungry," written by a woman named Mellissa. The blog is well-written with many creative low carb (and not low carb) recipes. When I saw Mellissa's blog post for Low Carb Flax & Parmesan Pizza Crust, I was intrigued.
I had read several blogs basically saying that flax crusts tasted like nasty death rolled in disgusting sauce, sprinkled with yucky bits. But Mellissa said that her Low Carb Flax & Parmesan Pizza Crust was tasty, a "whole food" (just 3 ingredients versus a store-bought processed food nightmare filled with chemicals I cannot pronounce) and held up well as a hearty pizza substitute. Would Mellissa lie to me? Would I be taking awesome pizza toppings and putting it on a bed of nastiness? Seeing all of Mellissa's awesome recipes with delightful narratives for each, I just felt like Mellissa and her "I Breathe ... I'm Hungry" blog would not steer me wrong.
(Side Note: Flaxseed supposedly may aggravate certain conditions - high triglycerides, bleeding disorders, etc. Check out this WebMD.com article on potential adverse effects of flaxseed and consult with your doctor if necessary before adding flaxseed meal to your diet.)
I had ordered a two pound bag of Bob's Red Mill organic golden flax meal from Netrition.com, but you can buy it from various sources. I must have been on some sort of golden flax meal high because I am not sure why I would order TWO POUNDS? Did I have that much faith in Mellissa's "I Breathe ... I'm Hungry" recipes? I can only plead "temporary insanity" on why I would order so much flax meal. If you're purchasing a large amount of flax meal, you would probably be better off buying flax seed and then grinding it yourself in a coffee grinder or other suitable device because once ground the "flax meal" can go rancid quite quickly. However I have never been a "do-it-yourselfer," I prefer convenience. So I store my ground flax meal in the freezer in a zip-lock style bag. I use it straight from the freezer, no thawing necessary.
The two pound bag of flax meal sat in my freezer for almost two weeks. It was mocking me. So many flax recipes online, but I was scared of the tales of flax meal being a bitter, bad-tasting, fiber-laden blechy combination. But eventually the tempting picture of pizza on Mellissa's "I Breathe ... I'm Hungry" blog won out.
I choose to not re-post other people's recipes on my blog because I believe it is their property and should be viewed on their website(s) versus mine, so please click on this link for the "I Breathe ... I'm Hungry" flax and parmesan pizza crust recipe. However this blog post is both my review of the low carb recipe as well as my own recipe for the toppings on the flax-parmesan pizza crust.
I decided that the flax meal crust might have a very strong flavor and as such I should probably use hearty toppings to offset the flax flavor. But what hearty toppings? My favorite pizza toppings are sausage, mushroom, green bell peppers, black olives and onions. But everything is better with center cut bacon ... so let's start there! For my first flax meal crust pizza, I wanted something with bacon. I decided to modify one of my recipes for this task. I'd add vegetables and bacon to my traditional barbecue chicken pizza recipe.
I had purchased a bottle of Guy's Award Winning Spicy BBQ Sauce - a sugar free spicy barbecue sauce from Netrition.com - and wanted to try it out.
I have a confession to make - I have recipe hubris - even though I have never used flax meal, I thought I could improve upon the recipe with additional spices and seasonings.
Reviewing Mellissa's 3 ingredient flax and parmesan pizza crust recipe, I (the flax meal novice) decided to add some basil puree to the ingredients. The picture below looks scary - like some Martian pooped in my flax meal. I include the picture here to prove once again that I am the world's worst food stylist.
I then for some reason decided to put in some chipotle pepper powder in the crust as well. Basil and chipotle? Yeah, I don't know what I was thinking ... recipe hubris again.
Then I decided-- hey basil, chipotle ... now let's add some GARLIC. Everything is better with garlic, right? That recipe hubris is working a doozy on me and this recipe!
Luckily, my recipe hubris let go and I was done adding ingredients. I mixed the strange concoction together. The recipe said to let the mixture sit for a few minutes, so I went to preheat the oven while my adulterated version of the flax and parmesan crust did its resting thing!
I had purchased a BakerEze 8 piece non-stick toaster oven bakeware set from Walmart.com solely to get my hot little hands on two toaster oven-sized round pizza pans. Isn't this round pizza pan cute? The "I Breathe ... I'm Hungry" pizza crust recipe is for a 10 inch pizza. I was able to make two thin pizza crusts from the recipe using these toaster oven sized pans, which are around 6.5 inches in diameter.
When I make higher-carb barbecue chicken pizza, I use a spicy barbecue sauce from Williams Sonoma, fresh chicken, smoked gouda cheese and red onions on a store-bought pre-made Boboli crust. I wanted to do a similar, but low carb spin on my barbecue chicken pizza.
My local neighborhood grocery store (which I dubbed "The Soviet Publix" due to both its small size and that it always seems to be lacking in the ingredients I need) did not have smoked gouda cheese. No big surprise, Soviet Publix! Instead I found an aged gouda. I figured since I was using both a smoky barbecue sauce, smoky chipotle sauce and bacon in this recipe that I could get away with using regular aged gouda versus a smoked Gouda. (But smoked Gouda tastes better!)
While the flax crust was resting, I cooked two slices of center cut bacon.
I took 2/3 of a large raw chicken breast and cut it into smaller pieces. I sautéed the chicken in the bacon fat. Had the chicken breast been smaller, I would have used an entire chicken breast. I like a lot of protein on my pizzas.
While the chicken and bacon cooked, I divided the flax-parmesan crust mixture in half. I put one half of the crust mixture in a plastic bag in the refrigerator to use for another pizza on another day.
I took the other half of the very sticky flax meal-parmesan crust mixture and pressed it into the toaster oven size pizza pan. I started by putting a ball of raw crust in the center of the pan (that I had coated in spray oil) and used my fingers to push the wet mixture around until the crust was even in thickness and completely filled the pan (see picture below). You may be able to see the green flecks of basil (a.k.a. Martian Poop) in the crust. You may want to try putting greased parchment paper over the ball of raw crust and rolling it out that way to avoid getting the sticky dough on your fingers. Or spread the crust on a silicone baking sheet for a more free form pizza crust. You then pre bake the crust per the recipe's directions.
I tossed in a mixture of diced yellow, green and red bell peppers plus red onion rings into the sauté pan. I was concerned that if I put raw vegetables on the flax pizza crust, it could become soggy. I sautéed the vegetables to cook off some of their natural liquid.
Next, I turned to the barbecue sauce. I tasted a small drop of the sugar free barbecue sauce and I could definitely detect a sucralose after-taste. I didn't want these great pizza toppings to have a chemical aftertaste. I decided to make a sauce with a 2 to 1 ratio - 2 times the amount of Tabasco Smoked Chipotle Sauce to 1 times the amount of sugar free barbecue sauce to overcome the sucralose after-taste. The smoky chipotle sauce helped mask the after-taste.
I do not like a lot of sauce on my pizza, so I mixed 2 tablespoons of chipotle sauce and 1 tablespoon of sugar free barbecue sauce together. My intention was to only coat the chicken and bacon with the sauce versus putting the sauce on the pizza crust. However if you like sauce on your pizza, you could add your favorite low carb tomato sauce or in a subsequent trial of this pizza I did a 3-1 ratio of chipotle sauce to sugar free barbecue sauce and that made a nice base sauce for the crust as well.
I had taken the cooked chicken and bacon out of the sauté pan and crumbled the bacon.
I added 2 tablespoons of chipotle sauce and 1 tablespoon of barbecue sauce.
I then decided I wanted the sauce to be more spicy. I added a healthy dash of cayenne pepper, ground organic garlic, cumin and dried jalapeño flakes to the meat and sauce mixture. Then I mixed the ingredients well. You may want to add spices to the sauces before adding to the meat.
My toaster oven cooks a little slower than my oven. I pre-baked the crust for 10 minutes at 350 degrees instead of 8 minutes in the original recipe. After adding toppings, I cooked for 18 minutes versus the recommended 15 minutes.
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| The flax-Parmesan crust after an initial 10 minutes of pre-baking |
Because I was using aged Gouda cheese instead of Smoked Gouda, I decided to grate a mixture of both aged Gouda cheese and mozzarella cheese for my pizza. If I had Smoked Gouda, I would have only used grated or thinly sliced Smoked Gouda cheese. The mozzarella and the aged Gouda did make a nice combination on this pizza, but I still prefer Smoked Gouda for barbecue chicken pizzas.
I topped the pre-baked flax crust with the chicken, bacon and sauce mixture. As you can see in the picture below, my 3 tablespoons of sauce barely leaves any sauce on the crust itself after the chicken and bacon have been coated with the sauce. This was enough sauce for me, but you may wish to add more to yours.
I then added the pre-cooked onions and bell peppers. However it didn't look like as many vegetables as I would like, so I added additional raw diced bell peppers and some sliced raw green onions on top of the pizza as well.
Last but not least, I sprinkled Parmesan cheese, the Gouda-mozzarella shredded cheese mixture, and then a healthy sprinkle of dried oregano and dried red peppers.
I baked the pizza (that I am calling "Low Carb Hickory Barbecue Chicken and Bacon Pizza") in my toaster oven for approximately 18 minutes until the cheese was melty and the pizza was fragrant. You can see in the picture below that the crust started to shrink away from the sides of the pan. The crust had crisp edges and was very easy to remove from the pan with a spatula.
This makes a hearty, rich pizza (and yes, those are my toes in the lower left-hand corner of the photo below ... did I happen to mention I am the world's worst food stylist? Pizza and feet - together at last!)
I cut the pizza into eight slices. The crust edges were crisp and easy to cut. I was relieved to see that the crust was not soggy from the addition of the additional raw vegetables. In fact the crust is very dry. A drizzle of seasoned olive oil on the edges of the crust might add some additional moisture and flavor to the pizza crust.
This is one good-looking pizza!
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| Pizza Picture with Flash |
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| Pizza Picture without Flash! |
I have to say that this pizza crust made me a flax meal believer. I'm not sure what recipes other bloggers have used when they proclaim flax as awful. Eating this pizza definitely made me think that as long as I have hearty pizza toppings, I really don't miss a regular pizza crust. Just as Mellissa on "I Breathe ... I'm Hungry" says - this is indeed a hearty, dense, filling crust. It was sturdy and able to hold up the heavy toppings. I appreciated being able to eat a loaded slice of pizza without having the slice fall apart and/or toppings end up on my plate.
However, the flax crust was definitely different than any other pizza crust I had ever had. I am not going to tell you that flax crust tastes like a white flour pizza crust. It doesn't. You will never say "I can't believe this isn't a white flour pizza crust!" The flax crust is dense, nutty-flavored ... it's almost like having pizza on a very heavy, very dense whole wheat thin bar-type crust. It is dry - I wonder if some flavored oil or a higher fat cheese would change that? But the crust added a nice whole wheat (even though there is no whole wheat in the crust!), nutty (even though there is no nuts in the crust!) complement to the chicken and bacon. I really enjoyed the mix of flavors.
The chipotle-sugar free barbecue sauce with added jalapeño flakes added a full-bodied, smoky, spicy heat to the ingredients. I felt that this robust sauce, savory chicken and bacon and mix of crisp vegetables against the softer pre-cooked vegetables made a great companion to the dense hearty crust. I liked having both the pre-cooked red onions and raw green onions on this pizza. The additional raw vegetables I added did not make the crust soggy.
(Note: However in a subsequent pizza experiment, I loaded the pizza with all raw vegetables. The additional water made the crust crumbly and the slices did not hold together as well. So I would either pre-cook all your vegetables or do a mixture of mostly pre-cooked vegetables with a sprinkle of raw vegetables.)
Rule number one when considering low-carb recipes is that "Low-carb does not mean low-calorie." The original recipe says 1/2 the crust recipe (which would be my entire crust for this toaster oven size pizza) is 477 calories, however with the nutritional info for my ingredients, I calculated that my pizza crust was around 415 calories - so make sure you read the labels on the ingredients you use.
With my toppings, my entire 8 slice toaster-oven sized pizza is around 900 calories. Sure, I could have used less bacon, less cheese and less chicken. But also eating less slices of the pizza works too! This is a good pizza for sharing with another person or two. Supplement your slices of pizza with a side salad or some vegetables (a cider vinegar based broccoli slaw, perhaps? Check out a lemon-broccoli slaw recipe from JustJennRecipes.com).
I very much enjoyed Mellisa's I Breathe ... I'm Hungry's low carb flax and parmesan pizza crust. It was extremely quick and easy to make. I would make this pizza crust again and again with a variety of hearty pizza toppings. I could easily serve this pizza to family and friends without it tasting like low carb/no sugar added fare.
Overall, I felt like I was eating healthy when I had this flax crust pizza, I didn't get the bloaty "wheat belly" feeling that I get after eating a white flour crust pizza. It is incredibly filling though, so eat slow. If you wolf down several slices of this pizza without letting your stomach process, you may feel very full very fast!
And now comes the disclaimer ... It is extremely important to note that flax meal is fiber-heavy - some blogs refer to it as basically pure fiber - insoluble and soluble. You want to make sure you drink lots of water whenever you're eating any flax meal product - as lack of water could cause severe constipation. (Sorry, I know pizza and constipation together are not an appetizing sentence!) If you are not used to eating a high fiber diet, you may want to slowly ramp up your flax consumption. (In other words, don't eat the entire pizza in one sitting if you're not used to high fiber!)
I needed more fiber in my diet and I wasn't interested in drinking psyllium husk fiber every day. The flax crust definitely did the "fiber as nature's broom" sweep of my system. So I had a tasty pizza and helped my regularity. That's a (too much personal information) win-win in my book. I give this recipe an A+.
What are your thoughts on flax meal? Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments section. Thanks!
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sound really good! have made pizzas like this myself many times! ;)
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