How to Make Easy, Inexpensive Sourdough Pizza in Your Slow Cooker (Diabetic Friendly)

This simple deep-dish-style pizza is good and far less expensive to make than buying take-out pizza. You can customize the toppings to suit your taste and diet, and, if you're on a diabetic diet, the whole-grain crust will help limit blood sugar spikes (just don't add a lot of starchy carbs when you top the pizza!). I make the pizza in an oblong, 9- x 13-inch slow cooker, but other large slow cookers will work, too (like a 3-4 quart oval cooker). If you have a small slow cooker, you probably will need to divide the dough into two pieces and make two small pizzas. You can use commercial pizza sauce or make your own (it's easy and takes only a few minutes--see below). The pizza you see in the photos is a simple cheese and bacon version, but you can add vegetables, cooked chicken, cooked ground beef, pineapple and ham, or whatever you'd like. The pizza takes 2-4 hours to cook, and I like to remove the lid from the slow cooker during the last 30 minutes to help the moisture evaporate and crisp the crust a bit. Enjoy!

How to Make Easy, Inexpensive Sourdough Pizza in Your Slow Cooker (Diabetic Friendly)

Sourdough Slow-Cooker Pizza -- Serves 4

Spritz a large slow cooker with non-stick cooking spray, line the cooker with baking parchment (it will help when you remove the pizza) and make the crust.

Crust

1 cup of sourdough starter/discard

1/4 cup of water

2 tablespoons of olive oil

3/4 cup of white whole-wheat flour

Mix all of the ingredients above in a large bowl, cover the bowl loosely, and let the mixture sit for at least an hour (one to four hours is fine). When you're ready, add to the mixture:

3/4 cup of white whole-wheat flour

1 teaspoon of salt

Stir, then knead in the flour and salt, adding a little extra flour (1/4-1/2 cup) as you knead the dough for 3-5 minutes, to prevent the dough from being too sticky to knead. Roll or pat out the dough to a rectangle about as large as the bottom of your slow cooker crock. Lift the dough gently (you can fold it loosely in half to move it) and place it in your slow cooker, pressing the dough out to cover the bottom of your slow cooker and a half inch or so up the sides of the crock. Turn the slow cooker on to high heat. Top the dough with a thin layer of pizza sauce (about 1 cup--see below for the recipe), then add the toppings you like (I use about 2 cups of toppings, generally, spreading them out evenly. In the pizza in the photos, I used about 2 cups of cheese--shredded cheddar, mozzarella, and Italian blend--and about 1/4 cup of cooked bacon crumbles.). Cover the slow cooker and turn the heat back to low once you have topped the pizza and the crock feels hot. Let the pizza cook for 2-4 hours or until the crust on the edges of the pizza have browned a bit and the toppings are cooked to your liking. When the pizza looks almost done, I usually remove the lid from the slow cooker and let the pizza continue to cook for 20-30 minutes to crisp up the crust a bit. Lift the pizza from the slow cooker using the parchment to help you. Cut the pizza into squares to serve it.

Easy Pizza Sauce

1 28-ounce can of crushed tomatoes or tomato puree

1 teaspoon of garlic powder

1 teaspoon of dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1/4 teaspoon of pepper

Combine all the ingredients together in a large bowl. You'll have a little more than 3 cups of sauce, so you can make extra pizzas or use the sauce on top of something else. I use extra sauce to top and bake boneless, skinless chicken breasts.

How to Make Easy, Inexpensive Cheese and Bacon Sourdough Pizza in Your Slow Cooker (Diabetic Friendly)

How to Make Easy, Inexpensive Cheese and Bacon Sourdough Pizza in Your Slow Cooker (Diabetic Friendly)