How to build a pizza that bakes right
The builder above scores your pizza with the same rules a pizzaiolo works by. Here they are with the numbers behind them, so you can use them in your own kitchen.
Match the style to your oven
Every style has an oven it was made for. Bake it hotter or colder and the crust and the cheese stop finishing at the same time.
| Style | Size | Oven | Bake | Water it can take |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Neapolitan | 30 cm | 450 °C, wood-fired oven | 90 seconds | 100 g |
| New York | 35 cm | 290 °C, home oven + pizza steel | 7 minutes | 130 g |
| Pan | 28 cm | 250 °C, home oven | 13 minutes | 170 g |
- Neapolitan: Thin soft centre and a puffy, blistered rim. Wants the hottest oven you have. Carries about 140 g of toppings.
- New York: Wide, thin and foldable with a crisp underside. A pizza steel gets you close at home. Carries about 220 g of toppings.
- Pan: Thick and airy, baked in an oiled pan so the edge fries. A regular home oven is perfect. Carries about 320 g of toppings.
At the right temperature the cheese is fully melted about three quarters of the way through the bake, and the rim turns golden right at the end. Put a Neapolitan into a 250 °C home oven and the cheese melts, splits and pools oil long before the rim colours. That is why home ovens suit pan pizza, and why a pizza steel helps New York style.
Keep the water under control
A soggy middle is almost always too much water. Sauce, cheese and toppings all bring some, and a thin base can only bake off so much before the centre steams instead.
- Tomato sauce over the whole base brings about 55 g of water; fresh mozzarella over the whole base about 45 g; low-moisture mozzarella only 18 g.
- The wettest toppings, per piece: fresh tomato 6.5 g, pineapple 4 g, artichoke 2.5 g, mushrooms 2.4 g, green pepper 2.2 g and spinach 1.3 g.
- Worked example: on a Neapolitan base (about 100 g), sauce on 85% of it (47 g) and fresh mozzarella on half of it (23 g) leave about 30 g. That is 4 fresh tomato slices before it turns soggy.
Pre-cook mushrooms and spinach, pat fresh tomato and pineapple dry, and keep the wettest toppings for thicker New York and pan bases.
Leave the rim bare, spread the toppings
Sauce on the rim stops it puffing up, so stop about 2.4 cm from the edge of a 30 cm pizza. Toppings on the rim burn first. Spread toppings so every slice gets some: a heap on one side bakes unevenly and reads as lopsided.
Toppings that go on after baking
Prosciutto, arugula, burrata and hot honey are finishing toppings. Oven heat wilts arugula, dries prosciutto out, melts burrata into a puddle and scorches honey. In the builder, anything you add in the Finish step counts as added after the bake.
Order the pizza you designed
When you serve your pizza, the builder writes the order for you: size, style, sauce and cheese, the toppings to bake on and the ones to add after. Copy it, then use the pizzeria finder to pick a pizzeria near you by country, city and district, with the places shown on an OpenStreetMap map.
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