Hunks of Burnin' Love

I love bread and I love spicy things. Over the years I have made all kinds of bread and particularly pizza, perfecting my sour-dough based pizza crust recipe to where I like it (I will make an instructable on this at some point..). But lately I have been concerned with all the calories in it, particularly the carbs, and some of my friends have gone low or no carb exclusively.

That means no pizza, or breaded fried things, etc.

What's better than a chewy bready thing with melted butter on it and a kick of spice? A chewy bready thing with almost no carbs! Add some spicy peppers, cheese, and bacon and you can't lose.

So here is my take on Hunks of Burning love, using a low carb pizza crust and jalapenos.

Pizza dough:

• 1 1/2 cups almond flour
• 1/2 cup Vital Wheat Gluten
• 1/4 cup ground flax
• 1 tsp Lecithin
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1 1/2 tsp dry active yeast
• 1 tsp white sugar
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 tsp salt

Filling:

• Cream cheese
• Small tomatoes
• Jalapenos
• Bacon

Topping:

• 1/4 cup Butter
• 1/2 tsp of Garlic powder or 1 tsp crushed fresh garlic
• 1/2 tsp italian seasoning or Herbs De Provence
• Romano or parmesan cheese

You can use any pizza-like dough that you wish to use, but here I present a low carb (but NOT gluten free) version. It uses vital wheat gluten to get that familiar bready texture, so this is not suitable for anybody with a gluten allergy.

Start with your warm water (not hot, just warm) and add the sugar and yeast to it. The yeast will eat the sugar, so these carbs are negligible in the final dough. Let this sit and observe the foam and lovely yeasty smell. If you don't get that, you might have bad yeast. This is called proofing.

Now add the rest of your ingredients and mix until you have a ball. Knead it for a few minutes, using extra almond flour as needed to keep it from sticking, and then let it rest covered in the bowl for an hour or until it seems to have significantly increased in size.

Note that it will be a somewhat sticky dough, and not really like a normal bread dough.

Like any dough, the ingredients are chosen for specific reasons.

Almond flour: very low carb, instead of flour. But it also doesn't have gluten.

Vital Wheat Gluten: gives the dough its elasticity. We use a lot more than a normal bread dough to make up for the lack of it in the almond flour.

Sour Cream: flavor, liquid, and it strengthens the gluten

Lecithin: flavor, softens the 'crumb' and produces a finer texture. Its works much like eggs do (and eggs have lecithin).

Sugar: the yeast needs to eat something...

Flax: nutrition, makes the dough have more volume

Cook your bacon to crispy, because we don't want a lot of bacon grease in the final product. I did this on a cookie sheet in the oven, and when I was done I put the bacon onto some paper towels.

With a little olive oil in a pan, I sauteed the jalapenos after dicing them, just until soft. I removed the seeds and the membrane but if you like it hotter, leave these in.

Next cut your tomatoes into slices, and if needed, halve or quarter them. You want pieces around .75" in size.

Chop up the bacon after draining it on paper towels.

Hopefully by now, the dough has risen.

Take your dough and roll it out flat. Then use a knife or even a pizza cutter to make squares.

Into the middle of each, place about a teaspoon of cream cheese, a teaspoon of jalapeno, a tomato slice and the bacon.

Take the edges of your dough and fold them over the top of the fillings, pinching the dough together to seal it. I also formed the balls in my hand to really get the dough to stick together. It doesn't have to be pretty or perfect! Then place the balls upside down on your cooking sheet.

Melt your butter with some crushed garlic and seasonings, and then brush this on top of each ball.

I used "italian seasonings" but you could also use "herbs de provence". There are differences with italian usually having basil and herbs de provence having savory, but both usually having oregano, rosemary and thyme. Use whatever you like!

Place your hunks into a HOT oven at 450 degrees and bake until golden brown.

Finally, top each again with more garlic butter and then a pinch of romano cheese (or parmesan, or whatever you like).

I made some hunks without any jalapenos for the more sensitive mouths. They were all just as delicious!

Finally, I also made various pizzas using this same crust for my friends including a couple with jalapenos. We like our spicy.