Ideal temperature and method to bake a deep dish pizza

I'll make a Chicago-style deep dish (tomato sauce on top) with a somewhat biscuit-like crust using a 385-400 F oven. Par-bake the crust for 8 min, then 35+ min for the final product. Using a higher heat with this dough dries out the outer crust before the cheese can melt.

I usually cook it at 180C (356F) for 20/25 minutes in an ventilated oven. Works for me (I'm 100% italian), even if for best results I agree with @TFD answer above :-)

For genuine Neapolitan pizza (very thin dough, tomatoes, Buffalo mozzarella, olive oil) you would use a wood (oak) fired brick oven at 485°C (900°F)

It should be fully cooked in in less than 90 seconds

If you add other toppings, and use a thicker dough it will take a little longer

Cooking at lower temperatures gives you a nice "pie" or savoury flan, but not a pizza

To make a pizza pie (not a pizza), with a deep pan, with a thick dough layer, you should still use a very hot oven, use the maximum temperature your oven will go to. Some people even override the self clean system to go even hotter. Expect times around 5 to 8 minutes

If your crust starts burning on the edges, either accept it as part of the pizza style, or spread sauce right to the edges. Pre-baking the dough for a minute may reduce soggyness of finished product

Go for traditional pizza's for a generally much nicier experience. And if you have the room build your own wood fired pizza oven (plenty of kits on plans on the net)

The excellent book Cooking for Geeks recommends 750°F to 900°F. Basically, if you want pizzeria-style pizza, your home oven isn't going to get hot enough.

...unless you use their method for overclocking your oven by abusing the cleaning cycle. Warning: this will void your warranty.

My electric oven only goes up to 250C (~480F), but I'm able to consistenly get good results with the following method.

• Roll the dough to a thickness of at most 3mm (~.1 inches).
• Bake the dough without any toppings on it (not even tomato sauce) for 2 minutes. I bake it on a cheapo Ikea aluminum over tray; you might get better results with a pizza stone.
• Take the precooked dough out, put the toppings on it, and put it back in the oven. This step should be done as quickly as possible.
• Bake the pizza for another 5 to 7 minutes. I normally eyeball it and take it out when the mozzarella is nicely melted and the tomato sauce is starting to bubble from the heat.

Despite the obvious conflict of interest, my wife claims that this method gives the dough a flavor and consistency only a minor step below what we get at the best Italian pizzerias in town.