Easy Hawaiian Pizza with a homemade crispy thin crust recipe. Topped with the classic combination of pineapple, thick-cut ham, and bacon.
This is the perfect at-home pizza recipe you can easily prepare for a family Dinner. To add some options to your homemade pizza dinner, you can make a Pepperoni Pizza alongside this one. You can also serve other pizzeria favorites like Garlic Bread and Buffalo Wings.
Table of contents
Sabrina’s Hawaiian Recipe
My classic Hawaiian Pizza is layered with mozzarella cheese, thick-cut ham, and sweet pineapple pieces, and tasty bacon crumbles. Pineapple is probably the most controversial pizza topping there is. Many feel that fruit doesn’t belong on pizza. But, for those who love combining savory and sweet, it’s a match made in heaven. The tangy and sweet flavor of the tropical pineapple cuts through the meaty, salty flavor of the pizza, elevating the entire dish.
Chef’s Notes: Ham vs Canadian Bacon
Originally, Hawaiian Pizza was made with Canadian bacon which is a leaner bacon made from pork loin. Personally, I prefer the taste and texture of regular deli ham. Plus using deli ham means I can get it from the counter so I get to choose how thick-cut it is and even the flavoring. You should definitely try this pizza with a smoked ham, it adds a whole new delicious layer of flavor!
Ingredients
- Yeast Mixture: You’ll need 1 packet of active dry yeast to make the pizza dough rise. Before adding the other ingredients, mix the yeast with warm water and sugar to reactivate the mixture. After mixing it with the warm water and giving it a few minutes to sit, you should see that the yeast is already starting to bubble. This will allow to create air bubbles in the dough and make it rise.
- Flour: For the flour, it’s best to use bread flour. Bread flour has a higher protein content than all-purpose flour, which makes it more flexible and easy to grow and stretch.
- Sauce: For this classic pizza topping, you can make the Pizza Sauce yourself with a simple combination of canned tomatoes, olive oil, and Italian seasonings or buy a jar of pre-made sauce.
- Cheese: Shredded mozzarella cheese makes the perfect melty cheese topping. Its liquid content makes it incredibly elastic. You’ll have the perfect gooey, stringy cheese topping as it melts.
- Pineapple: Hawaiian Pizza is iconic due to its pineapple topping. Depending on what you have on hand, you can use drained canned pineapple or diced fresh pineapple.
- Meat Toppings: This pizza is topped with chunks of cooked ham and crispy bacon. Pork is the perfect meat variety for this pineapple pizza. Its savory, natural saltiness goes wonderfully with the sweet tropical fruit flavor. Be sure to use pre-cooked meat because the oven time is not long enough to cook the meat through.
How to Make
Time needed: 53 minutes.
- Pizza dough:
Add the warm water, granulated sugar, and dry yeast to your stand mixer. Let the yeast mixture sit for 10 minutes to develop. Add the flour, oil, kosher salt, and garlic powder to the mixing bowl. Then, turn the stand mixer to medium speed to whisk until combined. After the dough is combined, swap the paddle attachment for a dough hook and knead the pizza dough for 5 minutes at medium speed.
- Resting time:
Remove the dough hook and cover the mixing bowl with a damp, clean towel. Let the dough rest for 30 minutes before baking.
- Roll out pizza dough:
Preheat the oven temperature to 425 degrees. Then, transfer the dough to a floured countertop or another clean, floured surface. Roll out the dough until it’s a 12-inch circle about 1/2-inch thick. Add cornmeal to a 12-inch pizza pan or pizza stone. Add the dough over the pan.
- Add toppings:
Spread pizza sauce over the entire pie except the outer 1-inch ring. Then, add mozzarella cheese, ham, pineapple chunks, and bacon over the sauce.
- Baking time:
Put the Hawaiian Pizza in the oven for 13-15 minutes until the cheese is browned and bubbling and the crust is crisp and golden brown. Remove the pan from the oven and let it cool for a few minutes. Top with red pepper flakes (optional) before slicing and serving.
Recipe Card
Ingredients
Pizza Dough:
- 1 cup warm water , (110 degrees)
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast , 1 packet
- 2 1/2 cups bread flour
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
To Make Pizza:
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 1/2 cup pizza sauce
- 1 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese , shredded
- 6 slices thick ham , cut into 1" chunks
- 1 cup pineapple chunks , cut in half
- 1/4 cup cooked bacon crumbles , optional
- 2 tablespoons cornmeal
Instructions
Pizza Dough:
- In a stand mixer mix the water, sugar and yeast together and let it sit for 10 minutes.
- Add in the flour, oil, salt and garlic powder and whisk together on medium speed until well combined, then swap out for the dough hook and let it knead for 5 minutes on medium speed.
- Remove the dough hook and let it rest, covered with a damp clean towel for 30 minutes before using.
To Make the Pizza:
- Heat the oven to 425 degrees.
- Roll the pizza dough out to ½ inch thickness on a floured countertop or cutting board about 12 inches across.
- Add cornmeal to a 12 inch pizza pan and add the pizza dough.
- Layer the pizza (except for the outer 1 inch ring) with the pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese, ham, pineapple and bacon if using bacon.
- Bake for 13-15 minutes until the cheese is browned and bubbling and the crust is golden brown.
Nutrition
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Can this be made ahead of time?
If you plan to bake the pizza later, you can partially bake it first. Preheat your oven and bake the pizza at a slightly lower temperature (around 400 degrees) for about 5-7 minutes, just until the crust sets and the cheese starts to melt but is not fully cooked.
Alternatively, you can freeze the assembled pizza before you bake it. Place the unbaked pizza on a parchment-lined baking sheet and freeze until solid. Once frozen, wrap it tightly with plastic wrap and aluminum foil to prevent freezer burn. Cook it from frozen, adding a few minutes to the baking time if needed.
Nutrition Facts
Make Personal Pizzas
Making homemade pizza is surprisingly easy and can be fun for the whole family. Instead of one medium pizza, double the pizza dough to make smaller, individual pizzas. After preparing the pizza dough, divide it into 4 even pieces and roll into pizza rounds. Set out a variety of toppings (see my Variations Section for ideas), lots of cheese, and sauce. Let your family or dinner guests add layers of pizza sauce, cheese, and delicious pizza toppings. Spread some cornmeal on a large baking sheet and add two pizzas per baking sheet on top. Bake until the cheese is melted and the crusts are browned, about 10 minutes.
How to Store
- Store: To keep leftover pizza fresh, wrap it in aluminum foil or put slices in an airtight container. Kept carefully sealed, Hawaiian Pizza will stay good in the fridge for up to 4 days.
- Reheat: For a crispy crust, reheat your pizza in the oven or a toaster oven at 350 degrees until it is hot.
- Freeze: You can store the pizza in a freezer-safe container and keep the recipe frozen for 2 months. To reheat the pizza, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Then, put the frozen pizza on a baking sheet and tent it in foil. Bake for 10-15 minutes to thaw and heat the pizza recipe through.
Frequent Questions
Despite what the name implies, Hawaiian Pizza did not come from Hawaii. It was actually created by Sam Panopoulo, a Greek immigrant who moved to Canada. He first added pineapple to pizza in 1962. The Ontario invention then spread to plenty of other pizzerias, quickly becoming one of the most controversial pizza toppings.
With the oven preheated to 425 degrees, you’ll only need to cook this pizza recipe for between 13 and 15 minutes. You can tell when the pizza is done cooking by the crust and the cheese topping. The crust should be slightly browned and firm to the touch, and the cheese topping should be melted and bubbling. Because the cheese gets so hot, it’s best to let the freshly baked pizza cool for a few minutes before serving.
Variations
- Cheese Options: Mozzarella cheese is the classic choice for pizza because it’s an Italian cheese that melts beautifully. You can add other cheese varieties to the pizza recipe, such as sharp cheddar, parmesan, Gouda, and provolone. Rather than completely replacing the mozzarella, try sprinkling the new cheese variety over the mozzarella cheese for a tasty, cheesy blend.
- Meat Toppings: This recipe calls for thick-cut ham and bacon as the meat topping, but you could also use other varieties of meat. Italian sausage or spicy chorizo sausage would taste great with the pineapple. You could also use different kinds of bacon, such as turkey bacon, candied bacon, crispy bacon, Canadian Bacon . Or, add chicken for an unexpected but just as flavorful meat topping option.
- Vegetable Toppings: Try making a Hawaiian pizza for veggie lovers with colorful and crisp veggies added along with the pineapple topping. Bell peppers, grape tomatoes, red onion, spinach, or sliced mushrooms make delicious additions. You could also slice and de-seed 1-2 jalapeno peppers to add some heat to this sweet and savory pizza recipe.
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