Dark Chocolate Drizzled Fresh Pineapple with Toasted Coconut and Sea Salt. I don't think these need any more explanation other than the title, and YUM.
My friend Liz of the blog, Floating Kitchen, posted the other day how she is rebelling against the early onslaught of pumpkin that we are already starting to see online. I stand with her in solidarity of summertime.
PEOPLE. It is just barely August. Still very much summer. Pumpkin can wait.
In fact, as far as I am concerned ( and I know Liz is too), pumpkin can wait until October. When it is fresh. Sure you can get canned year round, which is great for those mid summer pumpkin cravings that I never have. But for now? Let's still recognize that it is still very much summertime, school is still out for break, the days are long and hot, popsicles are still being consumed in bulk and no one is wearing sweaters yet. Flip flops, bikinis, sunglasses and beach towels are all we need. Oh and chocolate drizzled fresh pineapple.
I cut into a fresh pineapple every day while we were on vacation in Kauai recently. Most were the Kauai sugarloaf white pineapples. A few were the golden ones, like the one seen here. I didn't bring any pineapples home this year like I did last year when we went to Maui. I ran out of time and luggage space. 57 pounds on one suitcase alone had us scrambling to find space in other bags so we wouldn't get charged for having a bag over the weight limit. 57 pounds of souvenirs. Mostly coffee. And rum.
One morning, at the farmer's market at the Kauai community college, the nice guys at the Kauai Sugarloaf stand gave my daughters two tiny pineapples. They were so cute and we were heartbroken to have to leave them. Because, agriculture and bringing back produce. UNTIL I was on Instagram the day after we got home and saw someone commenting on an account I love about bringing back pineapple tops to grow at her home in Florida. Sayyyy what??? So I inquired and after some Google searches it turns out you can bring back any pineapples to the mainland. Not just the ones at Dole, or packaged and ready to go at the airport. They will be inspected at the airport agriculture stop, but from what I found I could have brought home 57 lbs of Kauai sugarloaf pineapples, including the baby ones and all the tops from the ones we had eaten all week to try to grow here in Vegas. This is a total game changer.
Once a pineapple is picked that is as sweet as it will get. Unfortunately, most pineapples we have there in the states are picked before they reach peak sweetness so they are firm enough to withstand shipping. They will ripen and soften more, but not get any sweeter. Usually smell, firmness and leaving at room temperature will help ripen the pineapple a little more when you bring home a green one from the store. Even the very green ones can still be very sweet, so really any pineapple you bring home is better than no pineapple at all. You can save the skins to make tea or tepache, a fermented Mexican pineapple drink, and you can save the cores for making juice. The tops can be used to grow new pineapples. You just have to wait two years for one to grow. If you can get them to grow where you live.
OR you can take your ripe pineapple and make this super easy and delicious dessert. Or snack. Or whatever you want to call it. Liz posted a gorgeous photo on her Insatgram of a watermelon drizzled with chocolate and sea salt as her tribute to keeping summer alive and I thought , " I need to do that with pineapple". And of course to make it more "me" I made it with dark coconut chocolate and added toasted coconut on top as well. I used a fresh pineapple for these slices, you could also use roasted or grilled pineapple. Anyway you make it, I am sure it will be delicious. Because who doesn't love chocolate drizzled fresh pineapple??
I am a big fan of salt on fruit or fruit salads, especially the big fat flakes of Maldon sea salt. The touch of salt helps balance out the sweetness and acidity of the chocolate and the pineapple. The darker the chocolate the more bitter it is, so if you use a sweeter chocolate such as a dark around 50-60% or a milk chocolate you might want to sprinkle on a little more than a flake or two of the salt. I prefer around 70% dark. 90% and up is way to bitter for me. I want it to enhance the pineapple not take over and leave you with a very bitter aftertaste.
Dark Chocolate Drizzled Fresh Pineapple with Toasted Coconut and Sea Salt
Ingredients
- 1 large pineapple
- 3-5 ounces dark chocolate with coconut
- 1 teaspoon coconut oiil
- ½ C coconut flakes lightly toasted
- 1 tablespoon Maldon Sea Salt
Instructions
- Cut off top and bottom of pineapple then slice the rest into ½"-1" thick discs. Then slice each disc into 4 wedges. Place wedges on a tray lined with wax paper.
- Melt the chocolate with the coconut oil in a microwave safe bowl. Stir then drizzle over the pineapple wedges. Top with the toasted coconut and some Maldon sea salt flakes. Chill for 10 min to set the chocolate. Serve.
Notes
So come celebrate the fact that it is still summer with me with these Dark Chocolate Drizzled Fresh Pineapple Slices with Toasted Coconut and Sea Salt and ignore all those people wanting pumpkin recipes already. Us summer lovers need to unite and fight against it ending too early!! Now if you excuse me, I have to go work on my tan outside. Since it is still summer!!
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