Help, My Pizza Is Too Crispy: Dialing In Your Baking Steel

A while back, someone posted on r/Pizza that their new baking steel was making pizza that was, brace yourself, too crispy. The top reply, with the community's full blessing:

"Brother, that is not too crispy. You've just unlocked the final frontier of pizza. Embrace the crisp undercarriage. This is the way." — u/Issyv00 on r/Pizza

Notice nobody's ever posted this about a pizza stone. "Too crispy" is a complaint only steel owners get to have.

I laughed. But here's the thing, that thread pulled over 250 comments, because "too crispy" is a real experience for new steel owners. And I'm the guy who makes the steel, so let me say it plainly:

Your steel isn't broken. It's working. Steel transfers heat into dough dramatically faster than stone or a pan, that's the entire point. But it means the techniques you used before don't transfer over one-to-one. If your bottom is finishing before your top, you don't need a new tool. You need a small adjustment.

The good news: that same r/Pizza thread crowdsourced the fixes, and they're all correct. Here they are, ranked by how often the community landed on them, with my take on each.

1. Move the steel to a higher rack

The most-upvoted fix, and the first thing I'd check. If your oven's heating element is on the bottom, a steel on the lowest rack is sitting right on top of the heat source, it's getting blasted from below the entire bake. Move it up one or two racks. You put distance between the element and the steel, the bottom slows down, and the top catches up. Multiple people in the thread said this alone fixed it.

2. Use a pizza screen for the first half

Clever one. Launch the pizza on a screen sitting on the steel, let the bottom set for the first few minutes without direct steel contact, then slide the screen out and finish directly on the steel. You get the crisp without the burn. It's an extra piece of gear, but if you're baking sweet or delicate doughs, it's a great control valve.

3. Drop your oven temperature

Counterintuitive, but the physics back it up. The steel is so conductive that 550°F can be overkill for certain doughs. Drop to 500°F, even 475°F — the bottom browns slower, the top gets time to catch up, and you still get a beautifully crisp (not blackened) undercarriage. The steel's conductivity is doing the work; you don't need max heat to get there.

4. Watch the oil in your dough

A sharp observation from the thread that most home bakers miss: oil conducts heat and accelerates browning. A high-oil dough on a screaming-hot steel will darken fast on the bottom. If you're running an oil-heavy recipe and fighting burnt bottoms, lean the dough out. (Our 72-Hour Dough Mix is a lean dough for exactly this reason, it's built for the steel.)

5. Parchment paper as a buffer

Launching on parchment creates a thin buffer between dough and steel that takes a little edge off the heat transfer. It works especially well for thicker or higher-hydration doughs that need more time in the oven. Pull the parchment after the first couple of minutes if you want to finish with direct contact.

The real answer

Every one of these fixes is about the same thing: managing heat transfer, not fighting it. The steel gives you more thermal firepower than any stone or pan the skill is dialing it to your dough, your oven, and your taste. Rack position and temperature are your two big levers. Start there.

And honestly? u/Issyv00 isn't wrong. Give the crisp undercarriage a real chance before you dial it back. Most people who think their pizza is "too crispy" in week one are evangelists for it by week three. This is the way.

Get the Original Baking Steel →

Want the full picture of what Reddit thinks? Read What Reddit Gets Right (and Wrong) About Baking Steel →

FAQ

Why is my pizza bottom burning on a baking steel?

Usually one of three things: the steel is on too low a rack and sitting directly over the heating element, the oven temperature is higher than your dough needs, or your dough has a high oil or sugar content that accelerates browning. Move the steel up a rack and drop the temperature 25 to 50 degrees before changing anything else.

What rack should my baking steel be on?

It depends on where your heat comes from. If your element is on the bottom and your bottoms are overcooking, move the steel to a middle or upper rack. If you use the broiler to finish the top, an upper-middle position about 4 to 6 inches from the broiler works well for most home ovens.

Should I lower my oven temperature when using a pizza steel?

Often, yes. Steel transfers heat much faster than stone, so 500°F on steel can outperform 550°F on stone. If your bottom finishes before your top, dropping 25 to 50 degrees gives the bake balance without losing crispness.

Can pizza actually be too crispy?

It comes down to taste. A crisp, charred undercarriage is what most pizza lovers chase for years. But if the bottom is finishing before the top, adjust rack position, temperature, and dough, the steel is highly tunable once you know the levers.

About the Author

Andris Lagsdin invented the Baking Steel in 2012 using steel from his family's Stoughton Steel Company in Hanover, MA. a shop his family has run since the 1970s. What started as a Kickstarter project (backed after an endorsement from Kenji López-Alt on Serious Eats) has grown into the go-to tool for hundreds of thousands of home pizza makers. Every Baking Steel is still made at the family shop.

Before launching Baking Steel, Andris trained under renowned chef Todd English and spent 15 years in the family steel business. He's the co-author of Baking with Steel with Jesse Olson Moore.

Today he teaches thousands of students how to make pizzeria-quality pizza at home through his free online classes and recipes.

In 2026, Andris launched the 72-Hour Pizza Dough Mix the same recipe he's been teaching for over a decade, now in a bag. Just add water.