Using Your Pizza Oven for Baking Bread

When people ask us what a pizza oven can be used for, we always say baking bread gives unbelieve results. What’s more, you don’t have to be an expert baker to really master the art of baking bread. And let’s face it, nothing quite beats the taste of freshly made bread. It’s bound to be something that will impress you friends and family when they learn you’ve made it from scratch and baked it using your pizza oven! So, without further ado, lets dive into the ins and outs.

What’s the best kind of pizza oven for bread?

The good news is, any pizza oven, whether its wood fired, or gas fired is suitable for baking bread. The only exception to this would be a pizza oven fired using wood pellets such as the Ooni Fyra 12. This is because the heat is too inconsistent.

Making bread in a pizza oven is a fantastic way to achieve a crispy crust and a delicious, rustic flavour. Bread cooks at a lower temperature than is used for cooking pizzas, typically in the 200°C-250°C range rather than 450°C+. So, it’s ideal for when you’ve finished cooking your pizzas and the oven is cooling down. Or if you have a gas fired pizza oven, it’s easy enough to just set the temperature to the range you need right from the word go.

Top Tip

When you first launch the loaf into the oven, the temperature of the stone will drop slightly. It’s better to aim for a slightly higher temperature than your recipe states to account for this drop in temperature. To keep an accurate eye on the oven temperature we recommend using an Infrared Digital Thermometer Gun.

Types of Bread

To be honest, a pizza oven can pretty much simulate any kind of oven you’d normally use to bake bread. Of course, traditionally, bread is baked in a wood-fired oven. If you have a wood-fired pizza oven such as the Gozney Dome, Clementi, DeliVita or any of the Igneus range, your bread will be as traditional as it gets!

Bread that requires a higher heat such as Ciabatta, Sourdough and Baguettes are perfect for making in a pizza oven. This is because the intense open flames help the bread develop a crispy, golden crust while keeping the inside soft, light and flavourful. The consistent, radiant heat in a pizza oven also helps with the even rise and baking of the loaf. Even breads such as Naan and Flatbreads are great options as the pizza oven can mimic the intense heat of a tandoori oven which would be traditionally used for a bread such as a Naan. These types of bread cook incredibly quickly and often have a charred, crisp finish to them, much like a good pizza crust.

For bread that requires a lower temperature such as Whole Wheat Bread, Brioche or even sweeter alternatives like Banana bread, it’s important to cool the oven to the correct window first before launching the dough, as mentioned earlier. This is really easy but does require you to monitor the temperature gauge closely!

Adding Moisture

Adding moisture to the oven while your loaf is cooking helps develop a crisp crust by preventing the outer layer of bread from drying out too quickly. It also improves the springiness of the loaf as the steam allows the dough to rise quickly in the initial stages of the bake. Steam also helps to create that golden, almost glossy appearance to your loaf, rather than a dull and matt appearance if moisture wasn’t added.

There’s loads of ways to add steam into the oven. If you’re the proud owner of a Gozney Dome, you’re able to purchase the Gozney Dome Steam Injector. It is a black anodized aluminium funnel with a cork top, engineered to inject just the right amount of water into the oven and create steam. If you have a pizza oven other than a Dome, you will have to take a more manual approach!

For example, you can add a tray of water to the oven just before you launch the dough. Or add a few ice cubes into the oven on a tray if your recipe calls for a longer bake. This will prevent the water from evaporating too quickly. It’s important have the door of your pizza oven in place when using this method. Not only retain the heat of the oven more effectively, but also to lock in the steam.

Final thoughts

So, there we have it, baking bread in your pizza oven couldn’t be easier. Using the simple tips and tricks we’ve highlighting in this article will help you turn out world class loaves!

And of course, if you’d like to talk to any of our expert team, they’re on hand to offer advice every step of the way. You can get in touch on 01423 608648 or email in a question on sales@thepizzaovenshop.com. If you want to see our pizza ovens in action take a look at our YouTube channel. Or come and see us at a show.