Bread Machine Pizza Dough

Makes 2 pizza crusts

1 1/2 c. lukewarm water
1 1/2 Tbsp butter, melted
3 1/2 c. plus 1 Tbsp. flour
1 1/2 tsp. salt
3 Tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. active dry yeast

Pour the water into the bread pan of a standard bread machine.  Add the melted butter.  Sprinkle the flour over the liquid to cover.  Place the salt and sugar in 2 corners of the pan.  Indent the flour in the middle without exposing the liquid and add the yeast.  Set the bread maker to the pizza dough or dough setting and press start.

Remove the finished dough from the pan.  Knock back gently on a lightly floured counter and divide in half.  Roll out each piece of dough into a 16-inch circle and place on greased pizza pans or baking sheets.  Push up the edges slightly.  Cover with lightly oiled plastic wrap and set aside to rest for 15 minutes.

For the toppings, spread desired sauce over each circle, then sprinkle cheeses and add toppings.  Bake in a preheated 425 degree oven for 20-30 minutes, until sizzling.

Our bread machine is one of those kitchen things that we got as a wedding gift and I thought I'd never be able to justify keeping it around.  It's big, and heavy, and takes up valuable shelf space.  Turns out, it's one of four kitchen appliances that I'd replace in a heartbeat if it stopped working (first one to correctly guess the other three gets a batch of homemade chocolate chip cookies sent to you).

This is my go-to pizza dough recipe these days.  I have tweaked it a bit from the original source (a handy book called "Bread," by Parragon Publishing), but I've used it over and over with really good results.  It's a soft dough with a chewy crumb.  As the picture reveals, I don't usually get it into a good circle.  Our pizzas are pretty wonky around here, but that's all the better for me because the crust is my favorite part anyway.

If you wanted to make this dough but don't have a bread machine, you can still do it!  Look up a recipe for homemade pizza dough, and follow the conventional directions but use the ingredients and proportions of this recipe.