This is a fool proof guide to making your own delicious bread machine pizza dough! Soft and light, yet crispy on the bottom.

Pizza night is our favorite night of the week! Every week we have Friday Pizza Movie Night. When the girls were toddlers we’d pick up pizza from Papa Murphy’s and watch a Disney animated flick. Nowadays we are working our way through the new age “classics” and since our Papa Murphy’s shut down a couple years ago, we’ve been mastering making our own pizza from scratch. After so much practice, I feel confident in telling you that we’ve mastered pizza dough… with the help of our bread machine that is!

Items that will help make at-home pizza night a success:

• A Bread Machine – At the time of this posting, bread machines are sold out in many places. I’ve been scouring the internet to find good and available options, and there are not many. For reference, I have this model and really love it, but it has been sold out for some time now on all online retailers. You may be asking if it’s worth buying a bread machine just for pizza dough, and I’d agree that’s a good question, but if I did the math on how much we’ve saved by making our own dough every single week versus buying take out, it would easily be worth it.
• A Kitchen Scale – The other secret to creating perfect pizza dough (or any other baked good for that matter) is having an accurate kitchen scale. It does not need to be expensive, I recommend this model. I thought I was a terrible baker for years, but switching to measuring ingredients by weight instead of cups made all the difference in the world. 
• A Pizza Stone – We keep ours on the lower oven rack at all times. It’s important to preheat it before putting the dough on it so it can help maximize that crispy pizza crust.
• A Good Pizza Peel – a thin, beveled front edge makes a difference, as does using corn meal to create a nonstick surface when putting the dough in and out of the oven.
• A Dough Scraper – this thing makes clean up from any baking project such a breeze. It’s my favorite kitchen tool because I use it for everything.

Ok, from there, it’s really quite simple. For the best bread machine pizza dough you’ll need a quality all-purpose flour (you can also use bread flour, but we use all-purpose and like it just fine). You’ll also need sugar, salt, olive oil, and yeast. That’s it!

In a bread machine, the order of ingredients matters and so follow what you’re brand specifies. We always start with the liquid ingredients, then add the flour and the rest of the dry ingredients. The yeast should be poured into a little nest on top to keep it from mixing with the water until the proper temperature is reached. 

Here’s a quick breakdown of how we make our pizza. 

ONE. Since we eat a lot of pizza, we make two batches of dough. Each dough cycle takes one hour and 50 minutes, so I start the first batch of dough around lunchtime. When it is complete, I transfer it to a lightly oiled mixing bowl and start the next batch.

TWO. 30 minutes before we’re ready to bake the pizzas, I preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

THREE. Using a rolling pin and a lightly floured surface, David rolls out the dough until it is about 1/4″ thick. I feel like it’s worth noting that he has also mastered the air toss.

FOUR. Before sliding the dough into the oven, we poke it with a fork all over to minimize air holes. Then, using a light dusting of corn meal on the pizza peel, we slide it onto the preheated stone.

FIVE. After about 5 minutes, we pull the half-baked crust out of the oven. We run a stick of butter around the outer edge to create a golden crust, then top with our desired toppings. We are currently on a weekly mission to not repeat a pizza topping combination, but can tell you red onions and fresh mozzarella are two of our household favorites. 

SIX. Once the pizza is dressed, we put it back into the oven for another 5-10 minutes until it is cooked through and the cheese is bubbly. 

SEVEN. We then pull it out, transfer it to a cutting board where we let it rest for 5 minutes before slicing it up. Viola; that’s it!

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