This Hot Honey Pepperoni Pizza is a sweet 'n' spicy duo that features hot pepperoni, pickled jalapeno slices, dollops of cooling goat cheese and a drizzle of hot honey for those who like a little spice in their life. It’s the ideal way to take pizza night to the next level and it’s pure magic!
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Pizza night is always a fun dinner time at our house. Whether we're digging into traditional flavors like pepperoni and mushroom or sausage and roasted red pepper (#teampineappleonpizza, ahem) or keeping things interesting with this bacon asparagus pizza with balsamic glaze, there's no going wrong when you're loading a homemade crust up with your favorite toppings.
What You’ll Need
A Crust: Your favorite dough – either homemade or storebought will do the trick, but psst… not enough people know that pizza dough actually gets better if it chills for a day or two in the fridge, making it the perfect thing to whip up after work midweek for Friday night pizza night. I usually opt for this dough, which is beautiful in pizza ovens and home ovens alike.
Cheese: Here I used a freshly grated block of mozzarella cheese and a hunk of creamy goat cheese. Because we’re going to cook this pizza at high heat, I do not recommend using pre-shredded cheese for this pizza. It contains anti-caking agents that brown too fast at high heats.
Hot Honey: You can buy this and keep it on hand and at the ready if you think you’ll use it enough, but it is so easy to whip up a batch of your own hot honey. Heating a half cup of honey with jalapeno or serrano is perfect.
Pepperoni: I used regular-sized pepperoni slices for this hot honey pizza, but the tiny ones are fun and have extra cupping power for all that sweet and spicy honey you drizzle onto the pizza, so you do you. 😉
Variations and Substitutions
- Swap the goat cheese for small, hand-torn chunks of fresh mozz if you’re not a fan of goat cheese.
- Swap the minced serrano with a couple teaspoons of red pepper flakes (I’m growing Tabasco peppers right now and a couple of those lights my honey on f-i-r-e!)
- Or, skip the hot honey and just drizzle some honey over your pizza when it comes out. You'll still get plenty of heat from the pickled jalapenos.
- Add a few freshly torn leaves of basil as the pizza comes out of the oven.
- You can also grate some parmesan over the top right after if comes out of the oven.
- Class up the joint with prosciutto instead of pepperoni. The combo is also a winner.
- The baking instructions included are for a conventional home oven, but if you use this Ooni Pizza Dough Recipe, it's be perfect for a pizza oven.
How to Make Hot Honey Pepperoni Pizza
Choose Your Dough
- If you are making your own pizza dough, prep and let rise. I love this recipe for homemade pizza dough. No matter what you are doing though, take the pizza dough out of the fridge 30 minutes prior to needing it.
Make Hot Honey
- Add honey and minced serrano to a saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium low. Remove from heat. Optionally, you can strain the peppers using a fine-meshed sieve, but I prefer to keep them in the honey for a bit of color.
Make the Pizza
- Place a pizza stone or upside down baking sheet in the middle rack of your oven and preheat to 500 degrees. Bonus points if you let it heat for a full 30 minutes.
- Dust parchment paper with cornmeal and/or flour. Lightly coat your hands in flour if you intend to hand stretch your dough. Then stretch (or roll it), forming it into a rough circle.
- Spoon approximately 3 tablespoons of sauce onto an 8-10” pizza and spread it around equally, leaving a ½ inch to inch rim around the edge.
- Then sprinkle approximately half of the shredded mozzarella over the sauce.
- Lay the pepperoni down in concentric circles.
- Sprinkle with the rest of the cheese.
- Using a pizza peel (or a cutting board, transfer the pizza on the parchment paper to the oven (being careful not to burn yourself).
- Bake for approximately 8-10 minutes or until the crust starts turning golden brown, checking after 6. (Note: if using pre-shredded cheese bc you don’t have anything else on hand, you will want to check the oven after 6 minutes and if needed, add a little more cheese to the top to keep it from burning on you. (Note: if you are making more than one pizza, subsequent pizzas may take a minute or 2 longer to cook because opening the oven door will lower the oven’s temperature.)
- Remove from oven. Drizzle with 1-2 tablespoons hot honey and top (optionally) with fresh basil leaves or a few sprinkles of dried oregano. Slice using a pizza cutter and serve.
Tips and Tricks
- Don’t use pre-shredded cheese. The anti-caking agents in the cheese will cause it to brown faster (or burn).
- In a pinch you can use marinara sauce, but otherwise I love making my own homemade pizza sauce by adding a clove or two of minced garlic, a teaspoon of sugar, a drizzle of olive oil, and salt to taste to crushed tomatoes.
- If your pizza dough is in the fridge, take it out 30 minutes before you intend to use it. Working with cold dough affects its hydration level and makes it harder to stretch out.
- If your pizza looks cooked through and you just want the cheese or crust to brown a bit more, switch from the oven to broiler mode for a minute or two, but no longer than that.
- I only provided the amount needed for one pizza because when we do pizza night, I like being able to do a couple different flavor combos, but double, triple, or even quadruple the ingredients listed below as needed.
Serving Suggestions
My favorite way to serve pizza is with a salad on the side. This pizza recipe would go well with any of these:
- Lemon Swiss Chard Salad
- Kale White Bean Salad with Charred Green Onion Vinaigrette
- Beet and Cucumber Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette
Storage
I know I can eat a whole pizza, but if you happen to have any leftovers, store it in an airtight container in the fridge for up to three days. You can reheat the pizza in a toaster oven or regular oven at 350°F for 5 to 10 minutes until heated through. (And in a pinch, microwave a slice or two in 30 second blasts until heated through.)
📖 Recipe
Hot Honey Pepperoni Pizza
Equipment
- baking sheet or pizza stone
- Pizza Cutter
- Rolling Pin optional
Ingredients
Pizza
- 1 Pizza dough approximately 300g for an 8-10 inch pizza
- 3 tablespoons sauce
- 1 cup mozzarella from a block, not pre-shredded
- 1 ounce goat cheese give or take. You can use 1.5 ounces if needed.
- 8-10 pepperoni slices
- 12 pickled jalapeno slices or more or less to taste
- A drizzle of honey 1 tablespoon or so
Hot Honey
- ½ cup honey
- 2-3 teaspoons minced serrano the more you use, the spicier it’s gonna get!
Instructions
Make Hot Honey
- Add honey and jalapeno to a saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium low. Remove from heat. Optionally, you can strain the peppers using a fine-meshed sieve, but I prefer to keep them in the honey for a bit of color.
Make the Pizza
- Place a pizza stone or upside down baking sheet in the middle rack of your oven and preheat to 500-550. Bonus points if you let it heat for a full 30 minutes.
- Dust parchment paper with cornmeal and/or flour. Lightly coat your hands in flour if you intend to hand stretch your dough. Then stretch (or roll it), forming it into a rough circle.
- Spoon approximately 3 tablespoons of sauce onto an 8-10” pizza and spread it around equally, leaving a ½ inch to inch rim around the edge.
- Then sprinkle approximately half of the grated mozzarella over the sauce.
- Lay the pepperoni down in concentric circles.
- Sprinkle with the rest of the cheese.
- Using a pizza peel (or a cutting board, transfer the pizza on the parchment paper to the oven (being careful not to burn yourself).
- Bake for approximately 8-10 minutes, checking after 6. (Note: if using preshredded cheese bc you don’t have anything else on hand, you will want to check the oven after 6 minutes and if needed, add a little more cheese to the top to keep it from burning on you. * Note 1
- Remove from oven. Drizzle with 1-2 tablespoons hot honey and top (optionally) with fresh basil leaves. Slice and serve.
Notes
