My family loves my homemade pizza dough. There's one upfront investment, but the recipe is so easy that I make it once a week.

• I've figured out how to make quick and foolproof homemade pizza dough.

• My secret weapon is my bread machine, which cuts down on so much hands-on work.

• The dough can be used an hour after it comes out of the machine, but a longer rise is better.

I'm not sure exactly how or when it happened, but at some point, Wednesday became pizza night for my family.

We often mix up the toppings, cheese blends, and sauces, but I've been using the same dough recipe for the past five years. At this point, I can make it from scratch while hardly even paying attention to what I'm doing.

My secret weapon? A bread machine.

The appliance isn't exactly cheap — usually at least $100 — but it makes things so much easier. Since I use it at least once a week, I'd say it's worth the investment.

Here's how I make my foolproof homemade pizza dough.

It takes fewer than 10 ingredients to make the dough.

To make the dough, I use three kinds of flour: 2 cups of bread, 1 cup of all-purpose, and a heaping ½ cup of whole wheat.

The other ingredients are 1 ¼ cup of water, 1 tablespoon of olive oil, 1 teaspoon of honey, a scant teaspoon of salt, and 2 teaspoons of yeast.

Sometimes, I also add basil (or another herb, such as rosemary or thyme). I usually eyeball that, but when in doubt, go with a teaspoon.

Thanks to the bread maker, my work is done in minutes.

The process of making the dough is very simple, but the ingredients should go into the machine in a specific order.

First, add the water, followed by the salt, honey, and olive oil.

Next, add the bread flour, the all-purpose flour, and then the whole-wheat flour. The yeast and herbs (if you're using any) go in last.

Run the bread maker on the dough cycle.

Once all the ingredients are in, I set the bread maker to the dough cycle. On my machine, it takes about an hour and a half.

You don't want to leave the dough sitting in there for very long after the cycle ends because it could start trying to rise inside the confined machine.

I set an alarm to be ready right when the bread machine goes off, and I always have a gallon-sized sealable plastic bag at the ready.

Transfer the pizza dough to a sealed bag.

Once the cycle has run, remove the pizza dough from the bread machine and tuck it into a plastic bag.

Seal the bag and leave it out on a flat surface in a room-temperature space. If your house is on the colder side, that may need to be near an air vent.

Let the dough rise for at least one hour, but ideally, I like to let it do its thing for three.

I also make sure to check the bag periodically because gas released by the expanding dough may pop it open if it's not occasionally released.

There's one more (optional) step of prep work before you stretch out your dough.

After the three-hour rise, I like to chill my dough in the fridge for about half an hour. I think it makes it a bit easier to work with, but the step is optional if you're in a rush.

If you chill the dough, remove it from the fridge at least half an hour before you need it.

I prefer to stretch my dough on a pizza pan that's been lightly coated with olive oil and heavily floured. If you want to spin your pizza in the air by hand, though, go for it.

It's pizza time.

Once the dough is stretched — which can take a bit, as it's highly elastic — let it rest for a few minutes before adding on the sauce, cheese, and toppings.

When you're satisfied with your creation, bake it at 500 degrees Fahrenheit (or as close as your oven can get to that) for about 12 minutes.

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