Your pizza oven questions answered
What are the best pizza ovens?
My top pick for the best outdoor pizza oven is the Gozney arc lite. Whether you’ve got a sprawling garden or a small patio, this pizza oven will fit. It also performs brilliantly, producing delicious pizza in less than two minutes with perfect leopard spot crusts and bubbling oozy cheese. If you’re limited on outdoor space, the Ooni volt 2 is the best indoor pizza oven I’ve tried. It cooks pizza in just 90 seconds and has a handy boost function for a perfectly melted top and evenly cooked base.
Meanwhile if you’re on a budget, the Casa Mio bravo is an decent, affordable outdoor option that’s easy to use and doesn’t have a large footprint. For indoors and those to new to at-home pizza making, the Cooks Professional electric pizza oven is a great entry level choice.
How I tested pizza ovens
To find the best pizza ovens, I got my hands range of outdoor and indoor pizza ovens from popular brands including Ninja, Ooni and Gozney. To ensure a fair comparison, I tested each pizza oven using the same recipe, a simple margherita. Here’s what I looked at:
- Set up: Pizza ovens can be bulky, so I looked at how easy they were to set up and how portable they are.
- Cooking performance: I looked at how evenly the pizzas cooked, as well as how crisp the base was.
- Heat-up time: I timed how long the ovens took to warm up and assessed whether they could maintain the high heat needed for an authentic pizza.
- Ease of use: I considered how easy the pizza oven were to use and operate.
- Build quality and design: I looked at how sturdy each pizza oven felt and how easy they were to clean.
How to use a pizza oven
After you’ve set your pizza oven up, the first thing you need to do is preheat the oven. The best temperature to cook pizzas is around 400-500C. and whether you’re using gas or wood, this usually takes up to 20 minutes. Making sure your pizza oven is hot enough is crucial because if the stone isn’t up to temperature, the pizza will stick.
Whilst the oven is warming up, it’s time to roll your dough. Make sure that you really work the dough so that it’s smooth and slides around on your preparation surface. My top tip is to build your pizza whilst it’s on the peel. So lightly flour your peel, slide it under the dough and make sure that you can move it around before adding any toppings.
Once the oven is hot, slide the pizza onto the stone. Try to keep it in the centre of stone as if you push it too far back, you’ll end up with one side burning. Since pizzas usually only take around 90 seconds to two minutes to cook in a high-temperature oven, try to rotate your pizza every 20-30 seconds to avoid burning.
Fuel choice will affect both flavour and ease of use. Woodfired ovens will give off a smoky taste and usually come out a little more charred. Whereas gas tends to have a more consistent browning and is crisp with a lighter finish.
Once your crust is perfectly puffed and lightly charred, remove the pizza. While it’s tempting to dig right in, leave it sit briefly and then cut – that will give the cheese a bit of time to settle and it won’t slide off.
And probably the most important step to using any pizza oven is not to worry if it doesn’t go to plan. Not every pizza will be perfect and it may take you a few goes before you get it right, but once you start, it’ll become second nature.
Is gas or wood pizza oven better?
Gas ovens are quicker to heat up and easier to control, which means they’re ideal for beginners or anyone who wants consistent results.
Wood-fired ovens offer a more traditional experience. They give a subtle smoky flavour, and your crust will be more charred. But they do reach very high temperatures and that means they do need a little more hands-on management. Plus, you have to deal with the smoke that can drift into your neighbours’ gardens.
And lets not forget electric. Some can be used outdoors, but you’ll need access to a power point. However they can produce excellent results, with an even more consistent cooking experience than gas.
Luke Buckmaster, founder of the award winning premium frozen pizza dough company Doughboys explains the differences: “Wood-fired ovens deliver great flavour and theatre, but they can be difficult to get the temperature right, plus require more skill and good weather. Gas is more consistent and easier to control, which suits most home users. Electric ovens, though, are becoming really compelling – they heat up quickly, are highly consistent, and most importantly, can be used indoors. That removes the biggest barrier for a lot of people in the UK, where weather and space aren’t always on your side.”
How hot should a pizza oven be
For a classic Neapolitan then you need to get your temperatures anywhere between 400-500C, as this’ll have your pizza ready to eat in less than two minutes.
If you’re cooking a thicker base or have plenty of toppings, then you will beed to bring that down to around 350-370C. This gives the base time to cook through without burning the top.
With gas it’s easier to bring the temperatures down a bit for cooking those thicker bases or heavily topped pizzas, whereas that’s more difficult when using a wood-fired oven as you can’t really adjust the heat. If you prefer thicker bases, electric ovens can be pre-heated to whatever temperature range you want.
How to clean a pizza stone
The good news is that pizza stones are pretty much self-cleaning. Because they’re used at high temperatures, any leftover food or flour will burn off naturally, so they’re not an item that will need a deep clean.
However, you will need to do a little maintenance. After cooking, allow the pizza stone to fully cool down and then use dry brush to sweep away any ash or debris.
Avoid using water, soap or any other detergents, as the stones are porous and will absorb moisture, which can then lead to mould growing within the stone or cracking when it gets heated up.
If your pizza stone has stubborn marks, you can simply flip the stone over during your next cook, but don’t worry about it. It’s totally normal for stones to darken over time, that’s just a sign they are well used and it makes the pizza taste better. If you absolutely hate the idea of cooking on a well used stone, you can buy pizza steels, which are like a cast iron base to cook your pizza on.
Why you can trust IndyBest reviews
Rachael Penn is a journalist specialising in home appliances. She’s tried, tested and found everything from the best air fryers to the best frying pans, best toasters and more, so has earned a reputation in finding the kitchen gadgets that actually perform. Her experience is why you can trust her to find the best pizza ovens. Rachael hasn’t just done in-depth research, but she’s used these ovens in the same way you would, cooking with them and deciding which ones are truly worth your money.
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