Baking temperature and time – from 250 to 485 degrees
The same pizza needs 90 seconds in a wood-fired oven and nine minutes in a home oven. The table linking floor temperature to time, colour and dough tweaks.
Quick answer: The hotter the oven, the shorter the time – and a shorter time gives a lighter, more Neapolitan crumb. Rough table: 485 °C (905 °F) wood-fired oven → 60–90 seconds, 450 °C (840 °F) gas oven → 90–120 seconds, 300 °C (570 °F) home oven with steel → 4–6 minutes, 250 °C (480 °F) home oven with stone/tray → 8–12 minutes.
Why the time falls so fast with temperature
Heat transfer to the dough rises sharply and non-linearly with temperature, especially when the floor (stone/steel) is heated through. That is why going from 250 to 300 °C halves the baking time rather than shortening it proportionally.
What to adjust for a longer bake
A dough optimised for 60 seconds of extreme heat copes less well with 8–12 minutes of gentler heat – see dough for 250 °C for the adjustments it needs. Measure your actual floor temperature with an infrared thermometer rather than trusting the oven display, which often measures the air rather than the stone/steel.
See the full home-oven protocol in pizza in a home oven, turning technique in turning the pizza, and what happens when floor and dome are out of balance in burnt bottom and pale top. The full house recipe: Neapolitan pizza dough.
