We have a member of our household who does not eat dairy.  It is not a go-to-the-hospital-or-stop-breathing-dairy-allergy, but it is one that we try to be careful with because it does have noticeable effects when dairy is eaten.  Over the past few months we have experimented with ways we can make only one family pizza with both dairy and non-dairy toppings.  Our dairy-free eater is not a big fan of the soy or vegan cheeses either so after several attempts to “get it right” we have come up with a pizza solution that makes the whole family happy (both those who want cheese and those who do not).

We make one whole pizza crust that is non-dairy (see recipe below), add the sauce, and put two lines of pepperoni’s separating about 1/4  of the pizza from the non-dairy part of the pizza.  Approximately 3/4 of the pizza gets cheese and toppings while the remaining 1/4 of the pizza gets sauce and extra toppings.  When we cut the pizza we cut the non-dairy part of the pizza first (being careful to stay within the pepperoni lines).  Everyone is happy with their special type of pizza, the dairy is avoided for the family member who doesn’t eat it, and we still only have to make one family pizza for our evening meal.  It may be hard to make out the exact pepperoni lines in the picture above, but you can see the part that has cheese and the section that is noticeably more red in color with extra toppings which is the non-dairy part of the pizza.

We have done this multiple times over the past few months and it has worked so well.  The only thing that may change in the future as the kids get older is one pizza may not be big enough for our family of four.  For now it is a simple solution to accommodate all family members diets yet still be able to enjoy the pizza together.  The one who doesn’t eat dairy thinks it’s awesome she has her own special section of the pizza and has fun choosing her extra toppings!  While some of the other family members who think it’s not really pizza without a good helping of cheese are happy to eat their section of the pizza.

Homemade Pizza Dough

• 1 cups warm water (105 to 115 degrees F.)
• 1 Tablespoons active dry yeast
• 1 teaspoons sugar
• 1 teaspoons salt
• 2 Tablespoons oil (vegetable, Canola, or olive oil)
• 2 1/2 cups flour (can use all whole-wheat, half white/half whole-wheat, or all white)

Pour the warm water into a bowl and sprinkle the yeast over it. Stir to dissolve.

Add the remaining ingredients and mix.

Dump onto a floured surface and knead dough for two to five minutes until smooth and no longer sticky.

Roll out and shape onto a greased pizza pan.

Add pizza toppings of your choice. Bake at 500 degrees for around 10 minutes (until the crust looks crispy and lightly browned).

Makes one pizza!

Most of the time I will double this pizza dough recipe.  Once the dough is made split it in half.  Roll out one half of the dough for your pizza meal that night and put the other half in a Ziploc bag in the freezer for a meal later when you don’t have as much time to prep for dinner.