What's the best way to make Hawaiian pizza at home?
Fresh pineapple, thin-sliced serrano ham, fresh mozzarella, and a 24-hour fermented dough baked on a Baking Steel. Most Hawaiian pizza is bad because most Hawaiian pizza uses the wrong version of every ingredient...
Hawaiian pizza gets dragged a lot. I think that's because most people have only ever had the bad version, gummy crust, watery canned pineapple, ham that tastes like a deli mistake.
So in last week's Zoom class, we made the case for the other side. Fresh pineapple, thin-sliced serrano ham, fresh mozzarella, and a dough that's actually been treated with respect. This one's a classic, and it deserved its moment.
We sent over 50 dough packs out to everyone who showed up. Grateful as always to do these classes with you all.
Here's the pizza.
The 24-Hour Dough Hack
We used our 72-hour dough pack — same recipe, no changes. The trick: I skipped the cold ferment entirely and let it go 24 hours at room temp instead.
That's it. Same dough, faster timeline. If you've got a class tonight or dinner tomorrow and didn't plan three days ahead, this is your move.
The Build
Keep it simple. Every ingredient is doing real work, so don't crowd the pie.
- Sauce: Crushed tomatoes with a pinch of sea salt. That's the whole sauce.
- Cheese: Fresh mozzarella, torn.
- Pineapple: Fresh, cut into small chunks. We butchered a whole pineapple live in class — worth it. Canned will not give you the same pizza.
- Serrano ham: Thin-sliced, draped on after the bake so it stays silky.
- Optional finisher: Hot honey. I forgot it during class, but it would've been the move. Add it if you've got it.
The Bake
This is where the Original Baking Steel earns its keep.
- Put the steel on the top rack. Preheat your oven to 450°F for a full hour. Don't rush this part.
- Switch to broiler for the first 2 minutes of the bake.
- Switch to convection bake for another 2–3 minutes, until the cheese is set and the crust is leoparded.
- Pull it. Drape the serrano ham across the top while it's still hot. Hit it with hot honey if you're using it.
Full breakdown of the broiler method is here if you haven't run it before.
Why This One
People love to argue about Hawaiian pizza. I think most of those arguments are about a pizza nobody at this table would actually serve. Fresh pineapple cooked on a screaming-hot steel, salty serrano laid over the top after the bake, real mozzarella, real dough, it's not a novelty. It's just a good pizza.
Make it once and tell me I'm wrong.
About Andris
In 2012 Andris Lagsdin walked into his family's steel shop in Hanover, Massachusetts with one idea: he wanted to make a piece of steel feel alive. What started as a Kickstarter project became the Baking Steel®, the original pizza steel for home ovens, now used by hundreds of thousands of home cooks around the world.
He's been making pizza on steel for 14 years. He teaches free pizza classes a few times a month on Zoom and created the 72-Hour Pizza Dough Mix because great dough shouldn't require a culinary degree.
The mission hasn't changed since 2012. He still just wants to make a piece of steel feel alive.
Made on the Original Baking Steel. Want to catch the next class? Sign up here — we'll see you on Zoom.
