Ready to bring the heat to your next pizza night? This hot honey pizza is topped with pepperoni, hot peppers, shredded mozzarella, tangy goat cheese crumbles, and is finished with a glorious homemade hot honey drizzle.
Homemade hot honey pizza takes just a few minutes to make on a pre-heated baking steel, and you can prep all the toppings while the oven preheats!
5 star reader review
“Made this last night and it did not disappoint. Wonderful combination of flavours! If, like me, you like your heat, you won’t want to skimp on the dried chillies or the cayenne in the honey!”
—Peter
My first hot honey pizza experience was the "bee sting" pizza at Roberta's Culver City in Los Angeles. We didn't even mean to order it; we were a large group and when the waitress dropped it off at our table we were several slices in and marveling at how good it was before we realized none of us had actually ordered it. (I regret nothing!)
The combination of sweet honey, crispy pizza dough, salty cheese, and spicy meat was a revelation. The flavors balanced each other out, the sweet, classic honey flavor smoothing over the slowly building heat with every bite.
I've since gone to pastry school and honed my skills as a home pizza maker, baking up tons of unique pizza recipes. So you bet I developed my own hot honey pizza.
My hot honey pizza recipe is topped with pepperoni and tangy, crumbly goat cheese as well as fresh, thinly sliced Fresno peppers. The best part? It's finished with a homemade hot honey drizzle (don't worry, it's easy!).
Store-bought hot honeys often have added vinegar and things like that, and I don't love the flavor vinegar adds to them. I prefer flavor-based heat, not vinegar-based heat. Using a high-quality honey with a robust flavor and flavoring it with dried chile peppers is the best way to do that.
The real perk of making your own hot honey from scratch is that you get to control how hot it is. I recommend anywhere from four to eight dried arbol chiles, but if you're really not sure, start by using just two, or even one the first time you make it.
Ingredient Notes
Here are the ingredients that you'll need to make a homemade hot honey pizza! See recipe card for quantities.
Pizza Dough - I used my overnight thin crust pizza dough recipe here, as usual. You can use any pizza dough you like, but you will get better results with a homemade pizza dough that has a longer rise time because the gluten has more time to relax so it can be stretched thinner, which will bake up crispier.
Dried Arbol Chiles and Crushed Red Pepper Flakes - You can usually find the dried arbol chiles in the "International" aisle at the grocery store. The more chiles you use to make the hot honey, the hotter your hot honey will be. Be careful when handling them — wear gloves or wash your hands well immediately after so the capsaicin (the spicy stuff in hot peppers!) doesn't have time to get into all the nooks and crannies of your fingertips.
Hot Honey Pizza Toppings - The toppings for hot honey pizzas can vary; but I always use low-moisture part-skim mozzarella cheese, classic pepperoni, goat cheese crumbles (get the kind that come already crumbled), and thinly sliced Fresno peppers with the seeds removed. I finish with a dusting of finely grated Pecorino Romano cheese (I like the Locatelli brand).
And then of course...there's the hot honey.
How I Make Homemade Hot Honey
Making hot honey from scratch is super simple — you're really just infusing honey with heat and flavor from some dried chiles.
That said, there are a few things you want to be careful of in the process to make sure you're preserving the quality, flavor, and consistency of the honey.
- Bring the honey to a simmer, but do not boil it and definitely do not microwave the honey.
- Only use dried chiles; the moisture in fresh chile peppers gets weird with the sugar.
- The longer the peppers are in the honey before you strain them out, the hotter the honey will be.
- The more peppers you use to infuse the honey, the hotter the honey will be.
- For an extra kick, add a pinch of cayenne or red pepper flakes to the pot when you add the honey.
To make the hot honey, crack the dried chiles in half and toast them in a bare sauce pot just until you start to smell them. Stir frequently so they don't burn — just a minute or so!
Add the honey over low-medium heat. When it starts to bubble around the edges, remove it from the heat and let it sit for at least 10 minutes to infuse.
Strain the honey into a jar or container to remove the chiles. It will have a thinner consistency, but will become syrupy again as it cools.
Let the honey cool for at least 20-30 minutes before drizzling it over the pizza. It's hard to tell how hot the flavors are until it's cool.
Make the hot honey while your baking steel is preheating. This will give you enough time to make the hot honey and let it cool; it will be ready just as the pizza is coming out of the oven!
You can also make this homemade hot honey in advance. Store it in an airtight container at room temperature and it will stay good for up to 6 months!
Hot Honey Pizza Assembly
Get all of your pizza topping ingredients and hot honey made and ready to go before you start stretching the pizza dough. Dust your pizza peel with semolina flour (or use parchment paper) to make sure the pizza dough can slide off it easily.
To get the signature bubbly crust and crispy bottom of this homemade supreme pizza, you'll want to hand stretch your pizza dough. Pre-shaping before you stretch is key to getting a perfectly round pizza dough. I've written all about how to do this in my guide to hand stretching pizza dough so head there for more detail.
As always, make sure you use plenty of flour, let gravity do most of the work, and always stretch on the backs of your hands so that you don't poke through the dough! If at any time the dough seems like it's going to tear or it's fighting you and doesn't want to stretch, let it rest for a few minutes (even just 60 seconds!) on the counter.
Once your pizza dough is stretched, work quickly and efficiently to get it on the pizza peel and add the toppings so that the dough doesn't stick to the peel.
Spread the pizza sauce with the back of a spoon, and top with mozzarella.
Add the rest of your hot honey pizza toppings.
Don't go overboard with the goat cheese — even with the crumbles, too much goat cheese can turn the top of your pizza into a soup!
Finish by covering your hot honey pizza with a medium-to-generous dusting of finely grated Pecorino Romano cheese.
Give the pizza a little shimmy back and forth on the pizza peel to make sure it isn't stuck. If any parts seem to be sticking, carefully lift and dust additional semolina flour underneath.
Launch the pizza onto the steel.
- Place the tip of the pizza peel an inch or two in front of the back edge of the steel.
- Lift the handle of the peel up slightly at about a 20 degree angle.
- In a quick movement, thrust the peel forward about an inch, then immediately pull it back and out of the oven, keeping the tip of the peel on the steel the whole time as the pizza slides off.
Bake the pizza, rotating halfway through for even browning, then broil for the final 30-60 seconds. Then remove the pizza from the oven with the pizza peel.
Note: Broilers are VERY hot and their power can vary widely from oven to oven. Once you switch to broiling, check on your pizza every 30 seconds to make sure it doesn't burn!
Every oven is different, but pizza does cook quickly — after the first 5 minutes on the steel, the pizza dough will be cooked through. What you're really looking at to determine if it's "done" is the browning on the crust and cheese. Some of that comes down to personal preference!
As soon as the pizza comes out of the oven, top with thinly sliced fresh basil and drizzle generously with your homemade hot honey.
Substitutions and Variations
The best thing about making any type of pizza is you can really customize the toppings to suit your personal preference. Here's some suggestions for how you might adjust this hot honey pizza!
- Roberta's Bee Sting Pizza (Copycat) - Whether or not Roberta's was the first to make a hot honey pizza, it has undeniably been the driving force behind its popularity. Roberta's Bee Sting pizza uses fresh mozzarella, olive oil, red pepper flakes, thinly sliced soppressata, pelati (a very speicific type of tomato sauce), and a drizzle of plain honey to finish.
- Extra Mild Hot Honey Pizza - Remove the seeds and ribs from the Fresno peppers and wait to add hot honey until after the pizza is sliced. People who want hot honey can use hot honey, anyone who doesn't want the added heat from the honey can use plain honey.
- Extra Spicy Hot Honey Pizza - Leave the seeds and ribs in the Fresno peppers, use spicy pepperoni, and add a pinch of cayenne to the hot honey infusion.
- Deluxe Hot Honey Pizza - Add ham cubes, sausage crumbles, crispy bacon, green hot peppers, thinly sliced fresh tomatoes, and/or or sub in fresh mozzarella instead of shredded. Don't add a third type of cheese; use the fresh mozzarella to replace either the shredded mozzarella or the goat cheese crumbles.
- White Hot Honey Pizza - Skip the red sauce and use a garlic infused olive oil sauce instead.
Remember: Pizza toppings should always be pre-cooked (or ready-to-eat) before adding to your pizza!
Practical Tips and Recipe Notes
- Once you add the sauce, you'll want to work quickly to add the toppings and get the pizza into the oven. The longer the pizza sits on the peel with the moisture from the sauce and the weight of the toppings, the more likely it is to stick to the peel!
- Store bought pizza dough has LOTS of yeast in it to help it stay active longer. I really don't recommend using it as it's almost impossible to get a truly thin and crispy crust with it. If you DO use store bought pizza dough, you'll want to divide it in half or thirds when you get home, pre-shape it into balls, and let it rise in the fridge (if not using immediately) or at room temperature if using within an hour or so.
- IMPORTANT: If you're using a pizza peel without parchment paper peel, give the assembled pizza a few good shimmies back and forth on it to make sure the dough isn't stuck. If it is, gently pick up the stuck edge and dust some semolina flour under it.
- Always add the hot honey after the pizza comes out of the oven. There's so much sugar in honey, it will burn if you put it in the oven at such a high temp. There is a bit of a debate as to whether or not you should drizzle the honey before or after slicing the pizza, but to that I say: "Why not both?" I do one drizzle as soon as the pizza comes out of the oven, and then usually a second personal drizzle over the slice of pizza on my plate. But you do you!
📖 Recipe
Hot Honey Pepperoni Pizza with Goat Cheese
Recipe Notes
- Once cooled, hot honey can be stored in an airtight container for up to 6 months.
- This pizza sauce recipe makes enough sauce for 3-4 medium 10-15" pizzas. Topping quantities provided are for 1 medium pizza.
- If the cheese is too soft to grate, pop it in the freezer for 10-15 minutes prior to grating.
- Once the pizza has sauce on top of it, don't let it sit too long on the peel. The longer it sits, the more likely it will get stuck! You don't need to rush like you're in a pit crew, but try to get the pizza toppings on and the pizza in the oven in less than 10 minutes.
- If you're nervous about the heat of the hot honey, you can use as few as just one arbol chile for the most mild heat. In that case, you may want to let it infuse for even longer, at least 20 minutes, before straining it.
- Homemade hot honey pizza is best same day, eaten as soon as possible after it comes out of the oven. To store, wrap any leftover hot honey pizza slices in foil or plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 3 days. Reheat day-old or cold pizza in a dry skillet over medium heat, or on a foil-lined baking sheet in the oven at 350°F for 10-15 minutes (or until the cheese is melted again). Keep an eye on it — the honey has sugar in it, you don't want it to burn!
Ingredients
Hot Honey
- 6 ounces honey
- 4-8 dried arbol chiles (depending on how hot you want it)
- ⅛ teaspoon cayenne (extra spicy!)
Pizza Sauce
- 6 ounces salt-free tomato sauce
- 1 clove garlic
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon dried basil
- ¼ teaspoon dried oregano
Hot Honey Pizza
- 1 ball overnight thin crust pizza dough (200-250 grams)
- 3 tablespoons pizza sauce
- 1 cup low-moisture, whole milk mozzarella cheese
- 1 Fresno pepper (thinly sliced)
- ¼ cup pepperoni
- ⅛ cup goat cheese
- 1-2 tablespoons hot honey
Instructions
- Preheat oven with baking steel at 500°F for 1 hour prior to baking. Remove pizza dough from fridge (if refrigerated) and allow to come to room temperature at least 60-90 minutes prior to stretching.
Homemade Hot Honey
- In a small, 1 quart sauce pot crack dried arbol chiles in half to release the seeds. Toast pods and seeds until lightly fragrant over low-medium heat for about 60-90 seconds, stirring frequently to prevent burning.
- Add the honey (and ground cayenne, optional) and cook, swirling occasionally until the honey is just starting to bubble around the edges. Remove from heat immediately and let sit for 10 minutes.
- Pour the honey through a wire mesh strainer into a glass jar or container and let cool to room temperature before use.
Prep Hot Honey Pizza Toppings
- Make the pizza sauce. Combine all of the ingredients in the bowl of a mini food processor and blitz on high speed until well combined.
- Slice the peppers. Thinly slice the Fresno pepper into rounds. For less heat, remove the seeds and ribs before slicing.
- Grate the cheese. Use the large holes of a box grater to grate the mozzarella cheese.
- Thinly slice fresh basil. Stack a few basil leaves on top of each other and roll them into a log. Slice thin and unfurl for thin ribbons. NOTE: Wait to do this while the pizza is in the oven. But you may want to get the basil out now so you don't forget about it!
Hot Honey Pizza Assembly
- Lightly dust a wooden pizza peel with semolina flour.
- Hand stretch pizza dough. Stretch the pizza dough into a round about 10-16" in size, depending on how thick you want it or the size of your dough ball. (See: How to Hand Stretch Pizza Dough.)
- Sauce it. Use the back of a metal spoon to spread the pizza sauce almost all the way to the crust. You don't need as much sauce as you think — start with two spoonfuls, and add more only as needed.
- Cheese and toppings. Add the mozzarella cheese, top with pepperoni, Fresno peppers, and goat cheese crumbles. Finish with a dusting of finely grated pecorino romano cheese.
Hot Honey Pizza Baking
- Shimmy. Give the hot honey pizza a shimmy on the wooden pizza peel to make sure that no parts of the crust have stuck. Dust additional flour underneath any stuck spots if needed.
- Launch. Open the oven and line up the tip of the pizza peel with the back of the steel. Tilt it at an angle (20° or so) and give it a quick thrust to help the pizza begin sliding off. As the pizza slides, pull the peel straight back, keeping the tip of the peel on the steel, depositing the pizza on to the hot surface to begin cooking.
- Bake. Bake the pizza for 2-3 minutes, then use the pizza peel to rotate it in place on the steel so it cooks evenly. Bake 2-3 minutes more, then broil for 1 minute or until as browned as you like. Remove from the oven.
- Basil & Hot Honey Drizzle. Top immediately with fresh basil and a drizzle of the cooled homemade hot honey. Slice and serve with both hot honey and plain honey on the side to allow guests to further customize the heat and sweetness of their pizzas!
Peter says
Made this last night and it did not disappoint. Wonderful combination of flavours!
If, like me, you like your heat, you won’t want to skimp on the dried chillies or the cayenne in the honey!
Liz says
How do I store my freshly made hot honey? Can it be left out on the counter or does it need to be refrigerated?
Rebecca Eisenberg says
It's fine at room temperature! If you put it in the fridge the honey will begin to crystalize.
Dawn says
Tasty pizza. The spicy, salty, sweet combination was excellent.