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This high-protein cottage cheese pizza crust is super simple and so tasty! It has absolutely everything you love about traditional pizza crust with a little nutrition boost. Make this easy recipe and add your favorite toppings at your next pizza night!
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Why you’ll love this
There are so many reasons to love this cottage cheese pizza crust recipe- here are just a few!
- You only need two simple ingredients: You won’t believe this cottage cheese pizza dough calls for two main ingredients, just cottage cheese and self-rising flour. That’s it! I like to also add garlic powder and Italian seasoning for more flavor, but I promise it’s delicious even without it.
- It’s easy: This homemade dough is just as good as regular pizza dough except it’s so much easier. All you have to do is mix the ingredients together and roll it out. No rising time necessary. Super simple.
- Higher protein: Unlike traditional crusts this is made with high protein cottage cheese so each two slice serving of pizza ends up having 24 grams of protein! Such a perfect way to get in extra protein!
It’s also just as delicious as traditional pizza dough! I love serving it with a side salad or my favorite Kale and Broccoli Salad for a high protein, complete meal.
I’ve made a ton of cottage cheese recipes and this high-protein pizza crust is hands down one of my favorite recipes, especially when you’re getting hit with pizza cravings! It’s simple, it’s delicious, and it packs a little bit of extra nutrition which is always a bonus.
Ingredients
- Cottage cheese: You’ll need cottage cheese, of course! I recommend full-fat cottage cheese (at least 4% milkfat cottage cheese) over fat-free cottage cheese for the best flavor and texture. My favorite brand is Good Culture. This is similar to Greek yogurt dough.
- Self-rising flour: Self-rising flour is just all purpose flour with baking powder and salt added. It’s the key ingredient to two-ingredient doughs! If you don’t have any you can use regular flour and add 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1/4 tsp salt per cup of flour.
- Garlic powder and Italian seasoning: This crust is great even without these seasonings, but I like to add them for extra flavor.
- Mozzarella cheese: You can use any shredded cheese that you usually like for pizza. I like to use mozzarella and then sometimes sprinkle different sharper cheeses on top like parmesan cheese or feta cheese.
- Pizza sauce: Use your favorite pizza sauce or marinara sauce, any will work!
- Turkey pepperoni slices: This is optional of course, but I’m a big fan of a few slices of turkey pepperoni.
You can also use any of your favorite pizza toppings that you like. Here are a few of my other favorites:
- Parmesan cheese
- Red pepper flakes
- Sliced bell pepper
- Sliced red onion
- Black olives
- Baby spinach
- Sliced mushrooms
- Shredded leftover chicken breast
- Chopped bacon
- Fresh greens and herbs like fresh basil or arugula tossed in dressing (add after baking)
How to make cottage cheese pizza crust
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper. In a medium bowl, add cottage cheese and self-rising flour.
Step 2: Mix cottage cheese mixture with a wooden spoon and finish with clean hands and form dough into a ball. Note: Dough ball will be a little bit sticky! If it feels way too sticky and unmanageable, coat your hands with a small amount of flour and continue to form into a ball. Repeat if necessary.
Step 3: Lightly flour a piece of parchment paper. Press the dough flat with your hands and then roll the dough out into a pizza shape with a lightly floured rolling pin. The dough should be thin like thin crust pizza, but still durable. Note: Since the dough will be somewhat sticky, I recommend doing this directly on the parchment paper that you’ll be baking on.
Step 4: Transfer your parchment paper and pizza crust to a sheet pan or pizza pan. Spread your pizza sauce evenly on the rolled out pizza dough. Add shredded cheese and pepperoni to the top of the pizza. Add any additional toppings that you’d like at this point.
Step 5: Bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes until cheese is melted and you have a golden brown, crispy crust. Note: If you like less sauce and less toppings, it will be done closer to 20 minutes. If you have more sauce and more toppings, it will likely take a few minutes longer.
Step 6: Let the crust cool for a few minutes and then slice into eight pizza slices and enjoy!
How to store
Store leftover pizza in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. For the best reheating, I recommend using an air fryer or oven at 400 degrees until the cheese is melted.
Variation ideas
- Cottage cheese garlic sticks: Instead of pizza, slice the dough into long garlic stick-sized pieces. Brush with butter, freshly minced garlic, Italian seasoning and a sprinkle of mozzarella cheese.
- Mini pizzas: Separate the dough into 3-4 dough balls for everyone’s own personal pizza (reduce bake time).
- Buffalo chicken pizza: Top cottage cheese pizza crust with buffalo sauce, shredded mozzarella and shredded chicken.
- Barbecue chicken pizza: Top with barbecue sauce, shredded mozzarella and cheddar cheese, shredded chicken and sliced red onions.
- Veggie pizza: Top with pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese, sliced bell peppers, mushrooms and olives.
- White pizza: Top with mozzarella and dollops of ricotta cheese.
- Hamburger pizza: Top with cooked ground beef, cheddar cheese, and then finish with shredded lettuce and tomatoes. Don’t forget the burger sauce on top!
More easy pizza recipes
Cottage Cheese Pizza Crust
Ingredients
- 1 cup cottage cheese, full-fat works best, but any will work
- 1 cup self-rising flour
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
- 1/2-3/4 cup pizza sauce
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
- 1/2 cup turkey pepperoni, sliced
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- In a medium bowl, add cottage cheese and self-rising flour. Mix with a wooden spoon and then finish with clean hands and form the dough into a ball. Note: it will be a little bit sticky! If it feels way too sticky and unmanageable, coat your hands with a small amount of flour and continue to form into a ball. Repeat if necessary, adding a very small amount of additional flour at a time.
- Next, lightly flour some parchment paper. First press the dough flat with your hands and then roll the dough out into a pizza shape with a lightly floured rolling pin. The dough should be quite thin but still durable. You can also use any floured cylinder shape to roll the dough, like a cup (use something non-breakable, like a plastic tumbler). Note: Since the dough will be somewhat sticky, I recommend doing this directly on the parchment paper that you'll be baking on.
- Transfer your parchment paper and pizza crust to a baking sheet. Spread your pizza sauce evenly on the rolled out pizza dough.
- Top with shredded cheese and pepperoni. You can also add any additional toppings that you'd like at this point.
- Bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes until cheese is melted and the crust is golden brown. Note: If you like less sauce and less toppings, it will be done closer to 20 minutes. If you have more sauce and more toppings, it will likely take a few minutes longer.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated and should only be used as an estimate.
Perfection! My husband was so skeptical when I mentioned I was trying out this recipe but once he had his first bite, he wished I made another one because he didn’t want to share the rest with me! He wants me to make it again tomorrow claiming that we can “finish” the open container of cottage cheese haha.
Besides the garlic powder, I also added onion powder and since I added a bit more toppings, it needed to be baked for about 28 min for me to get that beautiful golden color. Thank you for sharing this amazing recipe!
Major win haha! So glad you both enjoyed it 🙂
This was great! I used whole wheat flour (adding the baking powder & salt to make up for not using self rising flour). Par-baked the crusts for a few minutes, flipped, then added the toppings. Both flavor & texture were perfect.
Thank you for this recipe! Will be a repeat for sure!
So happy you enjoyed it and thank you so much for leaving a review! 🙂
Made this tonight and was so pleasantly surprised at how good it was!! This will be on our dinner menu quite often ❤️ Thanks for sharing.
Happy you enjoyed it! Thank for your leaving a review 🙂