High Protein Pizza Dough

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If you like to eat pizza but are worried it is mostly empty calories, think again.

Recently I have been checking out "specialty" flours- "Bob's Red Mill" flours.

I found a "Vital Wheat Gluten Flour" that has 23 grams of protein per 1/4 cup. And seeing my recipe calls for over 1 cup per 16" pizza crust (about 1.2 lbs of dough), well the math says that the crust alone will have over 100 grams of protein*.

The trick with this high-protein flour is you have to beat it to death-> put it in a Kitchen-Aid blender using the dough hook and let it run for about twenty minutes (speed 4-6).




*the dough is a 50/50 mix of Vital Wheat Gluten and King Arthur Bread Flour @ 16 grams/ cup

1/4 oz yeast
4 tablespoons natural sugar
1.5+ cups hot water (~110 degrees)
1 tablespoon Olive oil
2 tablespoons melted butter (or olive oil)
2.25 cups vital wheat gluten
2.25 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon salt


Put hot water, yeast and sugar into a mixing bowl- gently stir and wait about 10 minutes for the yeast to "do its thing"

Add salt, olive oil and butter

Slowly add the flour and start the machine on the lowest setting- hand mixers won't work, you need a solid mixer like a KitchenAid or Viking.

Once all the flour is in bowl and mixed in that is when you crank up the speed and beat the heck out of the dough to break down all of that vital wheat gluten.

When you are finished you should have a nice "rubbery" 2+ lb ball that you can split into 2 balls for two high protein pizzas!

Don't forget to let the dough rise- the dough of today should be for the pizza of tomorrow- leave one out for the next day and put one in the fridge for some other day of the week. Have pizza one day and calzone on the other.