Pizza!

Most people I know really love pizza. The problem.....the puddles of grease typically found on the surface of your favorite pizza waiting to clog your arteries. So I decided to tackle this issue to create a great tasting, lower fat pizza option.

There are two main fat culprits while making pizza. The first is cheese. Cheese is typically high in fat and saturated fat. However, without cheese, you don't really have a pizza. There are two options: First option: measure out your cheese before putting it on. I never used to measure my cheese before loading up my pizza. However, one day I decided to actually see how little cheese I needed to adequately cover a pizza with cheese. To my surprise, I found that you really only need 1 cup of cheese to cover a 14" pizza crust. Armed with this knowledge, I found that a simple cheese pizza has 30% calories from fat!!! That means just being careful with cheese can provide a lower fat option! However, if you really, really, really like a ton of cheese, use option. You can find lower fat mozzarella in the cheese section of any supermarket. This cheese typically is 1/3 to 1/2 the typical fat amounts in 1 serving in cheese, so you can use about 1/3 to 1/2 a cup more. This allows you to add more cheese with less total fat being added. My brother tried these lower fat cheese options and found that they are excellent and tasty substitutions for full fat cheese.

The second culprit is toppings. Toppings can be a double edged sword. They can either improve the nutritional value of pizza, or totally kill it. Meat lover's pizzas are great examples of toppings that kill the nutrition of a pizza. Any sort of processed meats, like pepperoni, sausage, bacon, will add considerable amounts of fat, especially saturated fats, and will create a caloric and fat nightmare. However, using fruits and vegetables, chicken, and low fat ham, can provide excellent flavor without the extra calories from fat. When dealing with a food that is right on the 30% fringe, it is better to use lower fat ingredient to drive down the percentage of calories from fat.

So, in the end, how can you make a tasty, healthy pizza? Use low fat cheese and monitor how much you add and use toppings that add little or no fat.

What follows is my general recipe for a basic Cheese pizza. This pizza actually uses full-fat cheese, showing that you still can use it and be okay. However, the more toppings you add and use low fat cheese, each slice will be nutritionally better for you!

14" Cheese Pizza (8 Slices)

Crust:

1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons yeast)

1 teaspoon white sugar

1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45

degrees C)

2 1/2 cups bread flour

1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

 

Sauce:

8 oz can of Tomato sauce

Your Italian/pizza seasoning of choice, I use 1 tsp

Toppings:

1 cup cheese

Anything else that is low in fat

First, make your crust. Add the water, sugar, and yeast to a mixing bowl (I use my KitchenAid Stand mixer with the dough hook, if you have a bread machine, you can use the dough setting) Let stand for 5 minutes. This allows the yeast to activate. 

 

*Yeast uses the sugar, glucose, as food as well as other carbohydrates. As yeast processes carbohydrates, the yeast produces CO2 as a waste product and releases it. This CO2 when trapped in a dough will cause it to rise as the yeast continues to process the sugar and make more CO2. This is why yeast breads rise. Also, yeast is the most active around 100 degrees F, which is why recipes typically call for warm water. This is your science for the day!* 

 

Once the yeast is active, add the rest of the ingredient. You want a dough that is not sticky, but easy to work with. If it cleans the sides of the mixer bowl and doesn't stick to your hands, the dough is ready. Roll the dough out with a rolling pin until reached to proper size of your pan. Grease the pan and place the dough in the pan. Before adding the sauce, mix in the seasoning. Spread the sauce evenly across the dough. I typically leave 1/2 to 1 inch around the edge of the dough free from sauce to allow for the crust. Add the cheese and then top with anything you wish!! (as long as its low in fat) Bake in the oven at 425 F for 15-20 minutes, or until cheese is melted and starting to turn brown. Cool and eat!!!

So up to this point, I have not had a recipe that has come near the 30% calories from fat limit. This recipe, hit it right on the dot. If you make the recipe exactly, it comes out to 30% calories from fat. However, this is without the addition of any toppings or the use of lower fat cheese. That being said, you can obviously make this pizza way lower in fat by using low fat cheese and low fat toppings (toppings under the 30% calories from fat). Here are the nutrition facts:

 

 The pizza comes out to 30.0% calories from fat. As I stated above, the use of lower fat cheese and low fat toppings will reduce the percent calories from fat. So you no longer have to hide away from pizza if you are looking for something low in fat! Just be wise with your ingredients and amount of cheese and enjoy!