Burnt Crust Using An Ooni the bottom of our Pizzas burnt

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Christine has a problem. She ends up with a burnt crust whenever she makes pizza in her Ooni. She asked if I had any suggestions. I do…

I love your emails, and you inspired me to buy an Ooni for our backyard here where we now live, in Kenya.

I’m having a problem with the bottom of our pizzas burning. I can’t find any videos on this specific problem. I used to try putting cornmeal on the bottom of the pizza, but that led to super big burns. I used to put too much flour to make sure the dough didn’t stick, and that definitely led to burns. Now I think I’m using an appropriate amount of flour well worked into the dough, but still getting charred bottoms. When I go out for pizza, the bottoms are never this burned.

Do you have any ideas about what I might improve or what I might be doing wrong?

burnt pizza

I’ll explain to you what you can do to minimize a burnt crust.

Your crust looks a little black but not burnt.

Cooking with an Ooni can be difficult and there is a bit of a learning curve. Do not be discouraged, your pizza will just get better and better.

Understand, the Ooni cooks at a very high temperature, so a certain amount of burnt spots called “leoparding” is to be expected.

Instead of cornmeal or flour, try using semolina flour, or a mixture of semolina and flour. That may help.

There are two tools that I recommend for any Ooni owner. These are essential tools.

The first is a turning peel (I’ll include a pic) You need to know that the pizza cooks very, very fast so you need to keep monitoring it. Turn the pizza with the turning peel, and lift it to make sure it does not burn too much. A turning peel is essential.

The other essential tool is an Infrared Thermometer Gun

The floor of the oven gets very hot. My sweet spot is 750-800 F

If you have an Ooni that uses wood, you will have to try to regulate

the amount of wood you use in the firebox. If you have a smoke stack you can try to regulate the temp by using the vent. If you are using gas, you can just turn the gas down.

Understand there will be some different spots on the deck that will be hotter than others. Once you get the pizza on the deck, use the turning peel to turn the pizza regularly so it cooks evenly. You can also lift the pizza off the deck so the bottom does not burn too much.

my links.

Find a Turning Peel Click HERE

Turning peel

This slim, lightweight tool lets you gracefully rotate your pizza with ninja-like precision, ensuring that perfect leopard-spotted crust pizza lovers dream about. No more pizza acrobatics or burnt edges – just a smooth 180° spin every 20-30 seconds for the kind of evenly cooked, Instagram-worthy pizza that’ll make your friends think you trained in Naples. Trust us, trying to turn a pizza without a turning peel is like trying to flip pancakes with chopsticks – technically possible, but why make life harder than it needs to be? Grab a turning peel and become the pizza-spinning pro you were meant to be!”

Find a turning peel here.

The other essential tool is a

Infrared Thermometer Laser Temperature Gun

The Infrared Thermometer shows you the exact temperature of the deck of your oven

This is important as there may be hot or cool spots in your oven. Also after cooking a few pizzas you may notice the temperature of your oven may decrease dramatically. The Infrared Thermometer will let you know your oven has returned to the optimal temperature.

Not having an Infrared Thermometer to cook pizza is like driving blind in a snow storm with your eyes closed.

If you are cooking pizza, in a wood fired oven, or home oven, this is a very critical tool! So for perfect pizza control make this crucial investment!

Purchase a Infrared Thermometer right here, right now!

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