Whole Foods Gluten-Free Bakehouse Pizza Crust – $6.49+
Pizza.
It’s America’s comfort food. It’s a tradition. It’s saucy, cheesy, laden with a variety of toppings. You can make it however you like, whenever you like. Even better, now you can simply buy pre-made pizza crusts (often in a freezer) instead of pizzas that are already loaded up with what the company thinks is your choice of toppings.
Pizza is a fantastic treat. Even more so when you have a gluten intolerance.
Over the last few months, I’ve gotten to try pizza crusts from Rudi’s Gluten-Free Bakery and Udi’s Gluten-Free Foods. I could top them however I liked, and often made a variety of options with these pizza shells. What I loved about them was that for only 150 calories, I could consume half of the pizza. Which means, I didn’t feel bad about the toppings I chose to add to it.
And then, one day while out at Whole Foods, I spotted the Whole Foods Bakehouse Gluten-Free Pizza Crust in the freezer. Without even looking at anything else, I grabbed it, tossed it into my shopping basket, and happily made my purchase. I had pizza on the brain and some delicious gluten-free tomato sauce and some fantastic vegetarian and gluten-free toppings to throw on them at home. A couple nights of pizza were heading my way.
That was until I got home and as I was putting away the groceries, I flipped over to the nutrition information. At first, I was quite pleased. 120 calories per serving. Nice! And then, I looked at the serving size. Simply put…1/6th of a pizza crust. So, where I could eat half a pizza before for only 30 more calories, I was now delegated to one measly, child-size slice of pizza…not to mention the toppings that still needed to be added. This pizza crust sat in my freezer for a couple of weeks before I came to the only conclusion I could think of to justify the calories in the crust. Margherita pizza. No sauce, just a drizzle of olive oil. Some sliced fresh tomatoes. Freshly chopped basil. And a sprinkling of Daiya vegan mozzarella shreds. Nothing with it. Just two slices of pizza.
With that in mind, the pizza was thrown in the oven to bake. I thawed the pizza out in the microwave before topping it with my low-calorie, light toppings. And then for about 30 minutes, it happily baked, the cheese melting down, the crust browning to a perfect golden color. Out of the oven and sliced into six small pieces. To think only one would constitute a meal for an adult is ludicrous in my opinion.
That being said, the pizza crust is actually quite delicious. It has a soft, chewy texture, that is a bit reminiscent of pan pizzas (back when Pizza Hut was my go-to pizza joint and a gluten allergy wasn’t even on my mind). I liked it. A lot. It was a nice change of pace from the “tortilla-thin” crust pizzas (despite being a huge fan of thin-crust pizza…as it is my favorite after all) that the gluten-free community do normally get handed. However, despite its great texture and flavor, I still find it hard to swallow the calorie count with each slice. I mean, really? Granted, I love a good Margherita pizza (and I must say, I make a damn good one!), but it would have been great to sauce this up, top with a variety of cheeses and not feel the need to honestly stick to just one, small sliver of a slice in order to not go into calorie shock. I have a fantastic gluten-free baguette which would have been a fine side with the pizza, which remains frozen in my freezer because, yes, it’s really hard to get past the calories in 1/6th of the pizza.
If you don’t care about the amount of calories you consume throughout the day, or if you want to make a light, white pizza like myself, or even just want to treat yourself to a ‘restaurant-style’ pizza…this is a great one to get. It’s expensive, but it is the closest to an actual pizza crust I have found so far. And sometimes, that’s really all that matters. Calories can be burned off in the end, right?
I wish Whole Foods could find a way to make the calorie count on this a little better as far as calories per slice go. But, if in the end it just means you leave the sauce off, lightly cheese it, and put fresh vegetables on it, well, it still makes one fantastic gluten-free pizza. And, really, that’s what should matter.
The Celiathlete 