Baking Neapolitan pizza: ovens, heat and timing

Bake time comes first

Neapolitan pizza bakes fast and hot. The traditional style spends 60 to 90 seconds in an oven at 430–480 °C (806–896 °F). The contemporary style stays a little longer, 90 to 110 seconds, at 400–450 °C (752–842 °F). That short bake is what gives Neapolitan its soft texture and its typical flavour, and what makes it a pizza to eat the moment it leaves the oven.

I give these temperatures as guides, not instructions. Stating a precise temperature is impossible: it depends on each oven, and with a non-professional oven you usually cannot even measure the chamber temperature. My real reference is the stopwatch. I learn to read the state of the oven, time the bake, and adjust the flame or the thermostats until I hit the target time.

The difference between the two styles is covered in my article on traditional or contemporary Neapolitan.

What heat does to the dough

The heat entering the dough sets off a chain of reactions. Two of them decide whether the bake succeeds.

Starch gelatinisation. For the dough to be baked through, the starch must be fully gelatinised. Incomplete gelatinisation shows up in the eating: the pizza loses lightness and the chew suffers.

The Maillard reaction. This is what browns the dough. It needs high enough temperatures, but also enough sugars and amino acids in the dough. Their concentration depends on fermentation and maturation: the flour’s enzymes release simple sugars from starch and free amino acids from proteins. Those amino acids carry a large share of the aroma, precisely through the Maillard reaction.

The practical consequence: an under-fermented dough browns poorly, even in a very hot oven. Conversely, a preferment uses up a lot of sugar and reduces enzyme activity. That is why I add malt to the final mix of an indirect dough: it brings sugars and amylases, which help both fermentation and browning in the oven.

Conduction, radiation, convection

Heat travels from the oven to the pizza in three ways, always at the same time.

With Neapolitan pizza, most of the baking comes from the dome. In a wood or gas oven that heat is proportional to the flame; in an electric oven it depends on the thermostat of the upper element. The floor bakes the base by conduction.

Floor and dome: how each oven is regulated

Setting an oven means balancing the dome and the floor. How you do it depends on the heat source.

In a flame oven you cannot set the floor separately: it depends on the dome. In an electric oven the two are controlled independently, and the professional setting I use in all my protocols is the same: dome at 70–80 %, floor at 20–30 %.

Wood, gas, mixed, electric

Four heat sources can bake a Neapolitan: a wood flame, a gas flame, a mixed source (usually gas and wood), and electric elements. All of these ovens work, for traditional and contemporary styles alike.

One thing holds for every flame oven: the smaller the oven, the less thermal inertia it has, and the faster it reacts to any rise or drop in temperature. A small wood oven therefore needs tighter timing than a large one.

I admit a soft spot for the charm of wood, but I don’t recommend it for ease of use: gas is far easier to regulate.

Does wood change the taste?

It is the question I get asked most. The answer is no, not noticeably. A Neapolitan spends on average between 60 and 180 seconds in the oven: far too short for the dough to absorb a smoky flavour, when smoked foods spend hours in a smoker. As long as the pizza bakes at high temperature, the difference between wood and gas is very small to the eye, and even smaller on the palate.

What about pellets?

Wood pellets are easy to store, and that is about their only advantage. They burn very hot but hold neither the flame nor the heat for long. If you use them, always choose food-grade pellets. Heating pellets are made from resinous wood: when they burn they give off carcinogenic substances and coat the oven with a greasy layer. Food-grade pellets cost more and are harder to find; personally, I much prefer wood.

The biscotto, the Neapolitan oven floor

The biscotto is a thick refractory stone: it is the reference baking surface for Neapolitan pizza. In an electric oven, a biscotto floor like those in professional ovens is a real plus for the bake. Its thickness comes at a price: the stone takes longer to heat up. It pays off as soon as you bake several pizzas in a row.

What touches the floor matters too. Flour is a fuel: on a scorching stone it burns and tastes bitter. So I stretch in re-milled durum wheat semolina, which is tougher, does not burn and actually adds crispness to the base. Rice flour is an acceptable fallback: what burns is much less bitter than wheat flour.

Hydration and bake time

Hydration acts directly on the bake. As the pizza bakes, the water in the dough evaporates on contact with the stone: the more hydrated the dough, the longer it takes to bake properly, and the less hot the floor should be.

That is why traditional Neapolitan can bake so fast: its 60 % hydration allows it. The shorter the bake you are aiming for, the more carefully you have to watch hydration. I see no advantage in over-hydrating a Neapolitan: with such a short bake, high hydration mostly becomes a risk of an underbaked pizza. The full picture of that dough is in my article on biga.

In a home oven: a good pizza, not a Neapolitan

Let me be clear: a home oven cannot make a true Neapolitan. It simply does not get hot enough. With some skill you will get a nice pizza, which is already a lot.

The minimum conditions:

1. An oven that reaches at least 250 °C (482 °F).
2. A baking stone, without which nothing works, preheated with the oven at full power for 30 to 45 minutes.
3. A two-stage bake: first the pizza with tomato sauce only, on the middle shelf, for 6 to 8 minutes; then the mozzarella and toppings, and a finish at the top of the oven under the grill (broiler), until the mozzarella bubbles and before the rim burns.

To slide the pizza onto the stone, a baking tray or a sheet of baking paper will do. Because the heat is limited, the dough tends to come out pale: a little olive oil in the dough, a poolish with a touch of honey, or the rim lightly brushed with oil all help it brown.

Stone or baking steel?

A baking steel is a worthwhile alternative to a stone in a home oven. Steel is denser than porous ceramic: for the same volume it stores more heat, and it passes that heat to the dough faster. The pizza rises and browns more quickly, with a crust that is airier and more tender; on a stone it comes out slightly drier and chewier.

Either way, the thicker and heavier the surface, the better it holds its heat. Allow up to one hour of preheating to get the most out of it. Because steel cooks the base fast, the top can lag behind: switch to the grill (broiler) as soon as the pizza goes in.

To convert your oven settings between °C and °F, use the Celsius-Fahrenheit converter. And for the dough to reach the oven in the right state, it all starts with dough temperature.