Bacon Donuts (Bacon Wrapped Pineapple Mozzarella Rings)

Inspired by his work as a pizza maker thirty years ago, Harry Soo’s Bacon Donuts take the best of a Hawaiian pizza and transform it into a fun appetizer. Gooey mozzarella is wrapped in salty bacon and perfectly balanced by the fruity sweetness of pineapple. Serve these appetizers with marinara sauce for dipping.

It can be tricky to wrap the cheese with bacon. The best tasting solution when developing this recipe was to hold the mozzarella in position by cradling the cheese slices in an onion “bowl” while you wrap the bacon. Sweet onions, like a Vidalia or Maui, are best. Make sure to save the remaining pieces of onion for another dish.

This recipe does take a bit of patience and practice. Be careful with the pineapple, so that it doesn’t break, and avoid wearing gloves (for nimble fingers). If you let the bacon come up to room temperature it will be more pliable and easier to work with. Use bacon that has alternating layers of meat and fat, avoiding bacon that only has bands of fat. For more flavor, cook the rings in your pit (like a Weber Kettle) or cook in the oven on a mesh rack.

Recipe Directions

1. Peel the onions. Cut them into slices 1/3-inch-thick.

2. Drain the juice from the pineapple rings and set aside 8 slices.

3. Match the onion rings to the size of the pineapple slices—choose rings that have more of a bowl shape to help hold the string cheese in place.

4. Tear the mozzarella string cheese in half. Place one half of the mozzarella in the onion ring and cut the other half to fill in the remaining gap. Place the cut piece filling in the gap.

5. Stack the mozzarella-lined onion ring on the pineapple and start wrapping with bacon slices. Use two to three slices of bacon per ring. Just take it slow and keep it all in place and it will eventually wrap – sometimes it takes some repositioning or re-stuffing of the string cheese into ring.

6. Once wrapped, sprinkle each piece with the meat rub to your taste.

7. Start up the Weber kettle, or your grill of choice, and cook over indirect heat 400 degrees F (205 degrees C) for 30 minutes.

8. Let cool down for a few minutes before serving with your favorite dipping sauce, such as marinara.

9. Note:

10. Optionally, glaze with your favorite sauce.