This low calorie cheese pizza is one of the simplest pizza recipes that only cost you 578 calories for an entire pizza. With just a few important steps and ingredients, you will be able to make this at home without any problem. A simple way to reduce the calories even more is to use low fat mozzarella cheese. I didn’t have any but I was still able to keep it down to under 600 calories. I often times like to add cooked chicken breast to the pizza as well and this will add protein without many calories as well.
Calorie count
Ingredients (makes 2 pizzas):
- 100g AP flour – 367 calories
- 100g whole wheat flour – 333 calories
- 1 tsp instant yeast – 3 calories
- 1/2 tsp salt – 0 calories
- 160g water – 0 calories
- 1/2 cup crushed tomatoes – 50 calories
- 120g pizza mozzarella – 400 calories
Total calories (2 pizzas): 1,153 calories
Total calories (per pizza): 576.5 calories
Importance of a high hydration dough
This dough is extremely high in hydration which means it will be quite sticky. Refrain from adding more water because we want an 80% hydration dough. What a high hydration dough allows is for us to use less flour while still having an adequate amount of dough to work with. The high water content will also improve the oven spring when we are baking.
Whole wheat flour in low calorie cheese pizza
Whole wheat flour is slightly darker in color and contains 10 less calories per 30 grams. This means that we cut out 33 calories by using half whole wheat flour and half AP flour. The reason I don’t use 100% whole wheat flour is because I found that the dough wouldn’t rise as much and I personally don’t like the taste. Whole wheat flour is able to absorb more water which is why we are able to use an 80% hydration dough.
Low Calorie Cheese PIzza
Ingredients
- 100 g AP flour
- 100 g whole wheat flour
- 1 tsp instant yeast
- 1 tsp salt
- 160 g water
- ½ cup crushed tomatoes
- 120 g mozzarella cheese
- 1 tsp corn meal
Instructions
- Mix together 2 types of flour, instant yeast, and salt.100 g AP flour, 100 g whole wheat flour, 1 tsp instant yeast, 1 tsp salt
- Add water and mix until a shaggy dough is formed.160 g water
- Place onto a work surface and begin to pick up the dough and slap back onto your work surface. This is a technique used on very wet doughs and continue doing this until you can form a smooth ball or begin kneading. Refrain from adding any more flour.
- Once you can form a smooth ball, cover with plastic wrap and proof for 1.5 hours or until doubled in size.
- Split the dough in half and form two even smaller dough balls. They should each be about 175g in weight.
- Place the smaller dough balls on a plate with flour under and on top of the dough then dover with plastic wrap to proof another hour.
- Preheat your pizza stone at 525F. If you don't have a pizza stone you can use a metal sheet pan or a cast iron pan as well.
- To shape our dough, begin to press into the center in a way that pushes the air towards the edges to form a crust.
- Rest the crust along your knuckles and slowly turn while stretching to form a circle about 10-12 inches in diameter.
- Place your pizza dough onto a pizza peel with a sprinkle of corn meal which will help the pizza slide off easily.1 tsp corn meal
- Top each pizza with ¼ cup crushed tomatoes and 60g of cheese.½ cup crushed tomatoes, 120 g mozzarella cheese
- Bake on your pizza stone for 8-10 minutes until cheese is melted and crust cooked.
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