Coconut Pineapple Tiramisu

Giulia Doyle — Mon, 06 May 2013 10:03:59 +0000

My husband will turn down dessert on a regular basis. At our children’s birthday parties, he’s the one that won’t have a piece of the three-tier chocolate cake. I really don’t comprehend this. He claims he doesn’t like cake much, especially the layered and iced ones. Now, how does one celebrate a birthday without a cake or cupcakes? Would I bake a cake anyway, so he could blow out the candles? No. I decided to look for desserts he does like – Crème caramel and Tiramisu came to mind.

I had recently come across a different version of Tiramsu in the Tibits cookbook. Adding Coconut and Pineapple, seemed like an interesting take on a classic Italian desert. Normally, Tiramisu is prepared in a shallow dish, allowing you to get cut pieces out easily, even with all the creamy mascarpone. But, because it was his birthday, I wanted the non-cake to look more like a cake, or something equally celebratory – so I doubled the recipe and assembled it in my trifle dish. Beautiful to look at, but not very easy to serve. That didn’t stop my dear husband though to successfully blow out his candles and dig into his birthday dessert. He had a second helping and had more the next day. I call that a success.

Coconut Pineapple Tiramisu - adapted from Tibits Cookbook

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour, 20 minutes

Ingredients

100 g ladyfinger cookies (about one pack, or as many as fit at the bottom of your dish)
100 ml Coconut Milk (about 1/4 can)
160 g fresh Pineapple (roughly 2 cups)
3 tablespoons of light brown sugar
250 g of Mascarpone (a little more than one container)
50 ml of whole cream (1/4 cup)
1 vanilla pod
5 tablespoon of light brown sugar
Sweetened Cocoa

Instructions

Layer the bottom of a rectangular baking dish with ladyfinger cookies until bottom is covered. Cover with coconut milk.
Cut pineapple into 1/2 inch pieces and mix with the 3 tablespoons of sugar. Spread over cookies.
Mix mascarpone with cream, sugar and scrapped vanilla seeds until you have a smooth mixture. Spread mixture over pineapple layer.
Refrigerate for at least 1 hour, but it's best if you prepare it the night before so the cookies have a chance to soak up all the liquid.
Sprinkle with sweetened cocoa right before serving.

Notes

This is a rough translation from a metric German recipe - this recipe is pretty forgiving, so feel free to adapt to your liking. I doubled the recipe and added more coconut milk than the recipe calls for. Next time I would chop my pineapple very fine to create a nice smooth layer, rather than large chunks of fruit - it would look nicer and probably serve prettier.

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If you are looking for a creamy dessert that is very easy to make and can be made ahead of time, try this. It’s different than anything I’ve had. What do you think – as good as a cake?

Mango and Pineapple Salad and dreaming of exotic warm places

Giulia Doyle — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 10:45:06 +0000

In my quest for easy meals and a bit of colour on a dreary day, I opted to try an exotic mango pineapple salad. This bright dish comes together really fast – the biggest job will be cutting and peeling both fruit. So, if you want to speed up the process and can spare a few extra dollars, go ahead and buy the pre-cut mango and pineapple at the deli counter. The rest is just chopping a few herbs and mixing a few things in a big bowl. Serve this salad along any protein you want – grilled chicken breast or a nice piece of salmon and you’ll have an instant healthy meal with a bit of an exotic kick. Just enough to make you dream of Jamaican beach resorts or a Miami get-away. With temperatures still way below average for mid-April – dreaming is all I can muster these days. Dreaming and eating exotic fruit.

Mango and Pineapple Salad

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Yield: 4-6 servings

Ingredients

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice, plus more to taste
2 tablespoons fish sauce, plus more to taste
1 teaspoon sugar
1 green mango, peeled, pitted, and cut into small cubes
1 pineapple, peeled, cored and cut into small cubes
3 scallions, very thinly sliced
1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves
1/4 cup fresh mint leaves, chopped
2 tablespoons peanuts or cashews - chopped or whole
1/2 teaspoon red-pepper flakes

Instructions

In a large bowl, whisk together lime juice, fish sauce, and sugar until sugar dissolves. Add mango, pineapple, scallions, cilantro, and mint and toss to coat. Taste and adjust seasoning with additional lime juice and fish sauce as desired. Top with nuts and red-pepper flakes.

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pineapple – Audrey's 74

Coconut Pineapple Tiramisu

Mango and Pineapple Salad and dreaming of exotic warm places