Bacon Crust Pizza

 

 
There are a lot of different ways to make a keto pizza. From cauliflower crust to Fat Head and others, the complicated creations different keto’ers have concocted is truly astounding. I’ve experimented with a few of them. If you want to make a cauliflower crust pizza you can check out this recipe here on Keto Culinary. But, I have another option for you to consider, the bacon crust pizza.

I think a bit of a warning is due here. In my non-keto life, I am an unashamed pizza snob. This all goes back to when I initially got serious about being a really good cook. This was before my keto days. I honestly spent 3 years perfecting what, to me, is the perfect pizza. The dough and sauce are made from scratch. I spent an equal amount of time finding the perfect low moisture full-fat mozzarella to make my NY style pie. Suffice to say, it was an obsession. I’ve had more than one person who I’ve baked a pie for tell me I should open a restaurant or food truck based on the pizza. Maybe in another life, I will. I said all of that to tell you that I’ve got issues with poor pizza and with most of the keto crust recipes floating around.

Of all the faux keto pizza crusts attempting to recreate a traditional pizza crust, I’ve never really thought anything came really close to a traditional flour pizza crust. I’m not saying the keto crusts aren’t good, I’m just saying that anyone who says they’re exactly like a real pizza crust is either lying or doesn’t know pizza that well. I will admit that perhaps somewhere out there is a legitimate keto pizza crust that does live up to a traditional crust. But so far, I haven’t come across it or managed to recreate it. So, take that for what it’s worth.
 

 
That brings me to a shift in thinking about keto pizza. If we can’t recreate a traditional pizza crust, well then why don’t we simply ignore traditional pizza crust all together and experiment with other options to make a great pizza without going through all the ridiculous steps to get a crust that’s just alright. Instead let’s make a crust that, although it’s not like a traditional crust, is great in its own right.

What’s great? Bacon.

Bacon is great in its own right. We don’t have to do anything to bacon to make it great. Bacon also tastes great on pizza. SO, why don’t we just make the crust out of bacon? Why don’t we make a bacon crust pizza? Sound crazy? Crazy like a fox maybe.

Bacon Weaves

Using a bacon weave as a crust is amazing. BUT, getting an airtight undercarriage from a bacon weave is tough. So you have to put something over the bacon to further prevent leaks. I thought about putting a bed of pepperoni down on the bacon. Which would probably work fine. However, I thought that that amount of bacon and pepperoni would overpower everything else in the pizza. Although it would taste fantastic it probably would taste even less like a pizza. You could also put your cheese under the sauce. This is done occasionally at great pizza shops in NY and NJ. I’m just not a fan of this technique. I prefer a touch of browning on the cheese for added flavor. Which brought me to a compromise. I would put cheese under the sauce but it would be in the form of a parmesan crisp.

Parmesean Crisps to the Rescue

Everyone loves parmesan crisps. Again, it’s a food that is great in its own right. I’ve never seen anyone make a large crisp like that before but I couldn’t see any reason why it couldn’t be done. So I tried it. It was actually pretty easy to do and I nailed it on the first try. The trick is pulling the crisp out of the oven about 75% of the way through and using some more cheese on any holes that formed. If you like parmesan and bacon on a pizza, this recipe is heaven for you.

Once you have the bacon weave and a giant parmesan crisp down then you simply top it like a regular pie and bake until the top is to your liking. I think it goes without saying at this point that this pizza is delicious. I can honestly say, that as a pizza snob, I love the bacon crust pizza. It’s everything I want in food and more. It, however, is not a light affair. One or two slices should have you in a food coma in the best sort of way.

The Perfect Keto Pizza is Also Easy to Make

If you’re concerned about trying to make a bacon weave, don’t be. It’s easy. I show you clearly how to do it in the video below. The parmesan crisp is easy too. As for the sauce, do not buy a store-bought sauce. They suck. Plus, making pizza sauce at home isn’t even hard. You don’t even have to cook the sauce. Anyone who has you cook pizza sauce doesn’t know what they’re doing or they better have a real good explanation as to why they are cooking the sauce. If you stop and think about it, if you are using canned tomatoes, they get a quick heat treatment when they go in the can. They also get cooked while they’re on the pizza. So, if you cook them when you make the sauce, the tomatoes have now been cooked 3 times. There is no point in that. Just follow the steps below and you’ll have a sauce that is simple and delicious and furthermore, you’ll know EXACTLY what’s in it. A good consumer option for these tomatoes is actually Wal Marts Great Value Organic Crushed tomatoes. It’s up there with Stanislaus 16/11 tomatoes which are prevalent in the professional pizza industry. I have no idea how Wal Mart pulled that off, but I will make a trip to Wal Mart for those tomatoes which say a lot considering how much I loathe the store.

You may notice that I didn’t put any salt in the sauce; this isn’t a mistake. Between the bacon and everything else, you don’t need the extra salt in the sauce. If you add it, you’ll probably end up with a final product that is saltier than you’d like.

Authentic Parmigiano Reggiano has strict regulations for the ingredients and how it’s produced. So, as long as you go with the real stuff you’ll be fine there. Mozzarella though is a different story. If you prefer fresh mozzarella you can do fine at a Whole Foods or Trader Joes finding a quality fresh mozzarella. But if you like more NY style pizza cheese than you’ve got a problem. Quality low moisture full-fat mozzarella is hard to come by. It has the added dimension of having to perform well on a pizza which is actually a separate thing altogether. Many in the pizza industry swear by Grande cheese. It is the cheese most associated with NY style pies. I’m personally not a Grande fanboy. Others really like Polly-o. I tried it and wasn’t impressed however I did read that’s it’s gone downhill in recent years. Your best bet for a good mozzarella cheese is to find a restaurant supply store nearby and try the different options they offer. Why the industry pizza cheese is so much better than the cheese in the grocery store is a mystery to me. Probably because chefs are more demanding than your average joe when it comes to cheese melt and stretch. Their cheese is just better.

The best I’ve tested up to date is from US Foods Chef Store. It’s the Harvest Value Mozzarella. It’s amazing. I can’t overstate that. I’d be their spokesman if they’d let me.

That being said, if you wanna go your own way and make your own pizza creation, go for it. These recommendations are to create the pizza in the video and the type of flavor profile that I prefer. That flavor profile is mimicking an NY pepperoni slice. Notice I said flavor profile. I’m well aware that this looks nothing like an NY slice. If you prefer Neopolitan pizzas or some other version the above flavor profile may not match with what you’re trying to create. I am going to feature more pizzas on here. Especially bacon crust pizzas with different tastes and flavors for the toppings. This is just round one. It was a delicious round.
 

 

* You may notice in the recipe below that with the exception of the sauce I don’t include measurements for the various ingredients. The reason for this is that this is more of a technique recipe as opposed to a strict use this much here use that much there recipe. Depending on the type of bacon or amount of parmesan being used in the crisp the exact measurements vary somewhat each time I make it. How much cheese or pepperoni you like as well as the brand you use will further change things. So, those measurements will vary for you too. Use this recipe as a template to make your pizza the way you want it while utilizing the techniques to make an awesome bacon crust pizza.

If you like this recipe try the bacon bun smash burger too! You’ll love it!

Print Recipe

Bacon Crust Pizza Yum

Course

Main Dish

Cuisine

Italian

Prep Time

30 minutes

Cook Time

30 minutes

Servings

people

Ingredients

• 1.5 pounds bacon
• parmesano reggiano
• mozzarella cheese whole milk low moisture
• pepperoni
• olive oil

Sauce

• 28 ounces crushed tomatoes
• 1/3 teaspoons garlic powder
• 1/3 teaspoons onion powder
• 1/3 teaspoons oregano
• 1 packet stevia

Course Main Dish Cuisine Italian Prep Time 30 minutes Cook Time 30 minutes Servings people Ingredients 1.5 pounds bacon parmesano reggiano mozzarella cheese whole milk low moisture pepperoni olive oil Sauce 28 ounces crushed tomatoes 1/3 teaspoons garlic powder 1/3 teaspoons onion powder 1/3 teaspoons oregano 1 packet stevia

Instructions

1. Take your bacon and lay about half your strips out close together in a line. Then weave strips back and forth between those strips across them. Roll up the edges to form the crust. *it's much easier to watch the first part of the video then to understand a description of it.

   
2. Bake at 400°F on the center rack. Check periodically for ends that are unrolling. Use a toothpick to secure any unrolling ends. Bake time can vary from 10 to 15 minutes. Once done remove from oven, remove any toothpicks, and allow to rest.
3. On parchment paper sprinkle your parmigiano reggiano in a shape that roughly matches your bacon weave crust. Bake this at 450°F.
4. When the edges just begin to brown pull the crisp out and sprinkle some extra cheese over any holes that may have appeared. Return to oven and make until edges are brown and the new cheese is melted. Set aside to cool and harden.
5. Mix sauce ingredients in a bowl and set aside.

   
6. Cut the crisp to sit inside the rim of the bacon weave. Sprinkle some extra parmesan around the edges of the crisp to further prevent leaks.

   
7. Top with sauce, cheese, pepperoni and oregano. Drizzle a bit of olive oil and place in oven on broil until top is finished.

   
8. Enjoy!

   

Recipe Notes

As far as nutrition is concerned, this recipe will vary wildly depending on the brand of ingredients you use. The only carbs though are from the crushed tomatoes and those work out to 2 net carbs per 1/4 cup (61g). So, the carbs a much much lower than any of your other keto pizzas.