Caramelized Pineapple with Ganache
Christmas Recipes Simple Recipes Desserts Fruits
A simple dessert where the combination of flavors makes all the difference. Chocolate with cardamom is the new winter holiday flavor. Together with caramelized pineapple, they make a perfect trio. A surprise amuse-bouche for all your guests.
Use candy papers to present this dessert - they will make the appearance uniform even if the pineapple cubes aren't perfect or equal, and they'll catch the syrup that the pineapple releases.
Ingredients
1 large pineapple
150g sugar
2 pinches ground green cardamom
1/2 lemon (Meyer)
Ganache
100g dark chocolate (70%; flakes or broken into pieces)
100ml heavy whipping cream
1/4 teaspoon ground green cardamom
30g butter (unsalted)
Pieces: 30
How to prepare caramelized pineapple with ganache
- Heat the cream over low heat until hot, but don't let it boil. Pour the cream over the chocolate and with a spatula start drawing figure-8s in the center of the bowl. Start with small 8s and as the chocolate melts, enlarge the 8 to incorporate the chocolate from the edges. Add the butter in cubes and the cardamom and stir until the butter is completely melted.
* add the cardamom gradually, as its strength varies a lot, especially when freshly ground it's very strong; cardamom can be overwhelming if you add too much, so add it gradually and taste; stop when you can pleasantly taste the cardamom aroma but the chocolate flavor isn't masked - Let the ganache firm up in the refrigerator for about 1 hour until it's firm enough to pipe.
* you can keep the ganache longer in the refrigerator, but it will harden; to use it you'll need to leave it out for a few hours to return to room temperature, then stir it vigorously - Meanwhile, peel the pineapple and cut it into approximately 2 cm cubes. To get fairly nice cubes, it's easier to trim the pineapple so you get a rectangular block. Then it's easy to cut cubes. Avoid the core when cutting the cubes. Sprinkle the cubes with lemon juice.
* the trimmed edges of the pineapple can be kept in the refrigerator, you can make jam - In a wide pan, heat the sugar mixed with cardamom over low heat until it becomes caramel. Add the pineapple cubes together with 1 teaspoon of lemon juice to the caramel and let them caramelize. After a short time, the pineapple will release its juice and will simmer together with the caramel. At that point you can start stirring so the pineapple cubes cook on all sides. Simmer for about 5 minutes until the sauce reduces again to a thicker, caramel-like consistency, and the cubes are glossy.
- Remove the cubes onto parchment paper and let them cool completely.
- Place the cubes on candy papers. Put the ganache in a pastry piping bag and pipe rosettes on each cube.
