Burnt bottom and pale top – the heat balance in the oven
Base black before the cheese has melted? That is an imbalance between floor and dome. How to lower the floor, raise the top heat and save the pizza mid-bake.
Quick answer: A burnt base while the cheese has barely melted is almost always an imbalance between floor and dome heat – the floor is hotter than the ceiling. The fix is either to lower the floor heat (shorter preheat of the stone, move it down a shelf) or to raise the top heat (grill element, move it up a shelf).
Why the imbalance happens
A pizza stone or steel that has been preheated for a long time stores a lot of heat and gives it off quickly to the underside of the dough. If the oven’s ceiling/grill element does not deliver matching power from above, the base burns long before the cheese and toppings have had enough heat.
Three concrete fixes
1) Move the stone/steel down one shelf, further from the grill element, if the floor burns too fast. 2) Switch on the grill or the pizza setting for the last minute for extra heat from above – see the grill setting in a home oven. 3) Shorten the preheat slightly if the stone/steel has got hotter than necessary.
See the full baking table in baking temperature and turning technique in turning. In an Ooni you solve the same problem by angling the flame and turning more often. Choosing equipment: baking steel. More symptoms and fixes: troubleshooting.
