Can Cauliflower Pizza Crust Be Done?

As I was typing the title of this post, I shot back a few decades and for a hot second (no pun intended, since it was 92 degrees on this fine March day) I was back in Brother Hinger's middle school science class writing up my lab experiment for homework.

And sidetrack, this just happened as I laid down to type this out:

HAHAHAHAH.  Apparently I make for a good place to rest.

Back to this science food lab experiment...There's been a lot of posts online about using cauliflower to make pizza crust. I'm interested in the lower carb aspect, but I also LOVE cauliflower-interest peaked.  Big time. The Indian also LOVES pizza.  Me?  Not so much.  Every once in awhile, but not all the time like he does. So maybe he'd eat this....So while this ISN'T my recipe,  I thought it might be worthwhile to try and make it and blog about how it went and how it turned out.  Can it be done?  Will it taste good?  Will it be soggy?  Dun, dun, dun! 

So my hypothesis is this:

I think this has the potential to be amazing, but given that there are so many unknown factors, this could be a big mess that I will end up having to use a spoon to eat.

That's not a real hypothesis you say?  Well, I'm not a real scientist.  Ha.

I looked up several different recipes and decided to go with a little bit of everybody's recipes and used this combo.

The crust:

1 head of cauliflower.  A Big one.  Go Big or go home...

2 eggs

1 cup of mozzarella cheese (low moisture, part skim)

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese (just plain old Kraft)

black pepper

garlic powder/Italian seasoning of your choice

Also, you'll need a pizza stone OR large baking pan plus oil OR parchment paper

All the recipes start with raw cauliflower either being grated or put into a food processor.  I chopped my large, washed cauliflower into large pieces and I started out using this grater, 

And it was a hot mess.  The cauliflower was crumbling everywhere and I was getting more on the floor and all over the counter than through the grater.  Plus, I'd get down to the end of the cauliflower and start shredding my fingers.  Some recipes called for not using the stalk, but I like that part too.  I was ready to give up.

I don't have a food processor so I just decided to use my blender.

This was SOOOOO much better.  I mean the cauliflower "rice" was getting everywhere and I had to stop and dump out the chopped up cauliflower when the blades got stopped up, but I think it worked out fine. Again, there was still cauliflower rice everywhere, but it was manageable.  I was so obsessed with not getting cauliflower everywhere, I didn't take any pics.  But just pulse a few big pieces at a time in your blender, dump out, start over until you've pulsed/chopped all your cauliflower.

I dumped it all into a large bowl and microwaved for 10 minutes.  

While that was cooking in the microwave, I wiped down the counters, swept the floor and washed the cauliflower confetti off the blender.

After the cauliflower "rice" was done cooking, I grabbed this dish towel.  I chose this one specifically because it's woven but has no "shag".

Like this one is shaggy and I imagined the cauliflower would stick to it. So I did NOT use this one.

I used a muffin pan and laid the kitchen towel on top of it.

Then I poured out my hot, cooked cauliflower "rice" on top. 

 I thought it would cool faster if it was not directly on the counter.

It looked like a barbie king bed.

While that was cooling.  I took my pizza stone and heated in the oven at 450 degrees,

Don't mind the circular marks on it....It started it's life at my house as the base for my birthday beer cake...

After the cauliflower was cooled enough, I carefully pulled up the sides like this:

The bottom of the towel was damp, so I'm guessing the towel was already starting to soak up excess water from the cauliflower as it was cooling....or maybe it was steam...I dunno.  That sounds like some spooky science stuff.

I called over the Indian because he has bigger and stronger hands than me.

He was able to wring out over 2/3 cup of liquid.

Nice.

I dumped the cauliflower back into the bowl and it fell nicely out of the towel with very little sticking to the towel. Ta-Dah!  It's like magic.

It looked like this:

I fluffed it back up with a fork and also took the opportunity to mash up any larger pieces I found.  It was super easy since the cauliflower was all soft.

Then I added 2 eggs, 1 cup of mozzarella cheese, 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese, black pepper and Italian seasoning....I have to confess...I used one packet of Italian seasoning that came with some Papa John's pizza that the Indian had ordered a week ago.  Oh well.  It works.

I mixed it up using my hands.  I divided the cauliflower mixture into two even portions.  I worried a little bit here because with the egg being added in, it felt wet again.  But there was no turning back now.

I cut a piece of parchment paper and laid one portion of the cauliflower mix directly on to it.

I flattened out as evenly as I could while using my fingers to smooth the edges. 

I picked it up by the corners of the parchment paper and quickly placed it on the pizza stone.

I baked for 20 minutes and it came out looking like this!

Pleasantly surprised!

I added some spicy pizza sauce (tomato paste, a little cauliflower water to thin, crushed red pepper)

A little more cheese, grape tomatoes and bacon.  I didn't put a lot of cheese on it because I generally don't like too much cheese and there's cheese in the crust.

I baked for about 5 more minutes while the cheese melted.  Then I took out and sprinkled with arugula.

It cuts like pizza...

You can hold it and eat it like pizza...

So here's the verdict....Totally do-able and tastes like pizza on regular dough, albeit kind of a chewy dough.

Confession: I was disappointed at first because I thought it would taste like cauliflower....And I don't really think you taste cauliflower...But I guess that's the point.  And guess what?  The Indian wouldn't even try it.  I forced him to take a tiny bite and he claims it tastes like cauliflower.  Whatever.  

I baked off the other portion to make another crust.

Lora-Guess what we're having for lunch tomorrow...

**Update:  

The cauliflower crust held up really well overnight.  I had feared that I would wake up to goo, but it kept it's integrity and can still be cut and picked up for eating.  For the second crust, I opted NOT to sauce.  I LOVED it.  I just did easy cheese, pineapple, arugula and bacon.  This worked so much better for me since I'm a big fan of cauliflower in general.  The whole point was to make a lower carb option for the Indian and with the sauce, it really does taste like doughy crust pizza. 

 But without the sauce, the flavor of cauliflower and cheese was more prominent so in my opinion the sauce-less option was a winner for me.