In an effort to make a tasty cauliflower pizza crust, I set about trying to work up a great recipe. What follows is my own personal recipe, which draws upon my own experience and from the many recipes and videos I have reviewed online. To be clear, I am not 100% happy with the current state of my cauliflower pizza crust recipe. Maybe I’m 92% happy with it. (There is always room for tinkering.) Regardless of the exactly level of happiness, I am pleased enough with the progress that I have made thus far, that it makes sense to me to share what I have. Consider this my best effort to date. I will update this recipe as I refine the process.
NOTE: This recipe is evolving. So, please consider this a Sal Ferrarello draft recipe. (Last updated: 11-Oct-2024)
To manage expectations, this cauliflower pizza crust recipe is crusty, but not as crusty as a traditional flour thin crust pizza. It holds up as a thin crust for pizza. I am very happy with the flavor, balance of spices, and weight.
This Recipe Feeds
This will make enough pizza crust for one 8″ pizza.
Equipment
- Vegetable chopper
- Kitchen or paring knife
- Large mixing bowl
- Teaspoon
- Mixing spatula, spoon, or spurdle
- Kitchen scale
- Parchment paper
- 8″ cast iron pan (from Lodge, of course)
- Cookie sheet
Prep Time
It takes about 10-12 minutes to chop and dice the cauliflower.
The cooking of the chopped cauliflower (before it is mixed with the other ingredients) takes about 20-25 minutes.
It takes another 4-5 minutes to mix the ingredients and get the cauliflower crust onto the cooking pan and ready for the over.
The cooking process takes 20-25 minutes for the crust to be ready for toppings. Cooking the sauce, toppings, and adds another 8-12 minutes.
Ingredients
- 10 – 12 oz. of fresh cauliflower (somewhere between ? to ½ a head of cauliflower, depending on the size of the cauliflower.)
- 1/8 stick of unsalted butter or margarine (melted)
- 1 egg or 2 tablespoons of artificial eggs
- 3 oz. of shredded Parmesan cheese (or a blend of dry Italian cheeses) – about a 1 cup measure
- 3 – 4 cloves of fresh garlic (pressed, not chopped)
- ¼ teaspoon of salt
- ½ teaspoon of black pepper
- ½ tablespoon of Italian seasoning
Preparation
Pre-step: Preheat your over to 350º F. Place your cast iron pan in the over to pre-heat.
- Chop the cauliflower until it is rather fine. The individual pieces of cauliflower should be small and kind of pulverized. Well beyond “ricing” size. No chunks. (I’ll post a photo of what it should look like.)
- Place a sheet of parchment paper over a cookie sheet. Spread the chopped cauliflower evenly over the parchment paper.
- Pop the cookie sheet into the over to cook until very lightly golden. It will take about 20-25 minutes.
- Remove the cauliflower from the oven and let it rest until stream stops rising from it.
- Turn the oven up to 500º F.
- When the cauliflower is no longer steaming, lift the entire piece of parchment paper and carefully pour the cauliflower into a large mixing bowl.
- Add the 3 oz. of Parmesan cheese. Mix it in.
- Beat the fresh egg before stirring it into the crust mix. (Or pour in the 2 tablespoons of artificial eggs.)
- Add the freshly pressed 3 – 4 cloves of garlic and mix them in.
- Add and mix in the ¼ teaspoon of salt and ½ teaspoon of pepper.
- Add and mix in the ½ tablespoon of Italian seasoning.
- Pour in the melted butter and stir it in.
- Remove the cooking pan from the oven, and place a sheet of parchment paper on top of the pan.
- Place the cauliflower crust mix on the parchment paper on the heated pan.
- Spread the cauliflower crust mix out across the pan, leveling the crust to an even level. Be sure to keep it level at the edges or it will burn in the oven. (I do this via a mix of a small spatula, a soup spoon, and my hands.)
Cooking
- Place the pan (readied in Preparation Step 15 above) into the oven.
- Cook the crust for 12-15 minutes until it shows browning spots across the entire crust. (See below for a photo of what it should look.)
- Remove the pan from the oven.
- Place a clean sheet of parchment paper on top of the cooking cauliflower crust.
- Set a cutting board (anything flat works) on top of the parchment paper.
- Carefully flip the pan/parchment paper/cutting board over so that the cauliflower crust is resting on the cutting board. (The parchment paper will still be on both sides of the cauliflower crust.)
- Slide the now-flipped crust back onto the hot pan.
- Remove the top piece of parchment paper and set it aside.
- Place the crust and pan back into the oven for another 12-15 minutes.
- Once the top crust is suitably brown, remove it from the oven, and move the parchment paper and cauliflower crust to a cooling rack. (Again, see below for a photo of what it should look like.)
- After letting the crust and cooking pan cool for 8-15 minutes, slide the parchment paper and crust back onto the cooking pan. Leave the cooking pan out of the oven to cool.
- Add your preferred sauce, cheese, and toppings.
- Return the topped pizza to the oven to melt the cheese and cook the toppings for 8-12 minutes.
- Remove the pizza from the oven, transfer to a plate or serving dish.
Notes from My Exploration
- I decided to stop trying to make two cauliflower crust pizzas on a single evening because the cook time for each crust is relatively long (as compared to the cook times for flour dough crusts.)
- I am liking the cauliflower crust recipe with less sauce than I typically add to my deep dish, flour-based pizzas.