The right temperature depends on what kind of dough you are baking. Hotter is not automatically better, and past a certain point it makes some crusts worse.
Here is the short version, then why.
By oven type
- Home pizza oven, Neapolitan dough: 850 to 950°F, 60 to 90 seconds
- Home pizza oven, thin or low-hydration dough: 650 to 750°F, 60 to 90 seconds
- Conventional oven with a stone or steel: as hot as it safely goes, usually 500 to 550°F, 5 to 8 minutes
- Conventional oven on a sheet pan: 475 to 500°F, 10 to 14 minutes
- Grill with a stone: highest setting, lid closed, 3 to 5 minutes
Why Neapolitan wants extreme heat
Neapolitan dough is high hydration, often 60 to 70 percent water. At 900°F that water flashes to steam almost instantly, which is what blows up the rim and produces the leopard-spotted char. Bake the same dough at 500°F and the water leaves slowly. You get a dry, pale, biscuity result instead.
That is the origin of the belief that hotter is always better. It is true for one style of dough.
Why some doughs get worse above 800°F
A thin, low-hydration, higher-fat dough works on a different mechanism. There is less water to turn to steam, and fat rather than water is doing most of the work on texture. What you want is enough time for the base to crisp and the layers to set.
Push that dough to 900°F and the top surface sets and colors before the bottom has crisped. You end up with a crust that looks right and eats soft or bready underneath, which is the opposite of the intent. Backing the temperature down to 700 or 725°F gives the base the extra 20 or 30 seconds it needs.
The same logic applies at the other end. Cracker-style and thin crusts often bake better at 500°F for eight minutes than at 550°F for five.
The surface matters more than the number
For anyone baking in a conventional oven, this is the part worth fixing first. The temperature on the dial matters much less than what the pizza is sitting on.
A preheated stone or steel transfers heat into the base fast enough to set and crisp it. A cold sheet pan does not, and no dial setting compensates. If you take one thing from this: put the stone in before you preheat, and then give it another 15 to 30 minutes after the oven says it is ready. Stones heat far more slowly than air.
Steel is faster and more forgiving than stone, if you are buying.
How to tell you have it right
Lift an edge with a peel or spatula about two thirds of the way through. The bottom should be spotted brown and firm enough to hold its own weight. If it is pale and floppy, your surface was not hot enough. If it is dark before the top has any color, it was too hot or the pizza sat too long in one spot.
Pizza Snob
Ours sits in the second category. It is a thin, low-water, high-fat dough, and our own testing landed on 650 to 750°F in a pizza oven at about 90 seconds. We tried pushing it to 900 and the result was worse, not better: the top set before the bottom crisped.
In a conventional oven, 525°F on a stone for 5 to 6 minutes, with the stone given the full extra 15 to 30 minutes to come up to heat. Full method in the Cooking Guide, and the mix itself is here.
