Fruit Pizza

I made this fruit pizza for Father’s Day.  The star of the pizza though was the pineapple curd. 

And lucky us, we don’t need all pineapple curd that the recipe makes for the pizza, which means leftovers!  Babygirl generously drizzled it over her raspberries. She’s a smart girl. :)

I followed the curd recipe though I did adjust the method a tiny bit.  I’ve made curd several times and used my previous experiences to end up with a smooth and yummy pineapple curd.  The original recipe does not call for straining the curd once cooked.  I did.  I think because the eggs are not tempered they scramble a bit.  Scrambled eggs in curd is NOT yummy so be sure to strain it.  The only other change I made was to sweeten the cream cheese for the pizza.  The pizza recipe only called for lemon juice to be added to the cream cheese but I went ahead and added some powdered sugar.  I thought it needed it.

Pineapple Curd from Myrecipes.com, my changes.

Yield: 2 1/2 cups (serving size: 1 tablespoon)

Ingredients

• 1/2  cup  sugar
• 1  tablespoon  cornstarch
• 1/8  teaspoon  salt
• 1  cup  pineapple juice
• 2  tablespoons  fresh lemon juice
• 3  large eggs, lightly beaten 
• 2  tablespoons  butter, cut into smaller pieces

Preparation

Combine the first 3 ingredients in a medium, heavy saucepan, stirring with a whisk. Stir in juices and eggs; bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly with a whisk. Reduce heat, and simmer 1 minute or until thick, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; add butter, stirring gently until butter melts.

Strain mixture into medium bowl. Cover with plastic wrap directly touching the top of curd to prevent a skin from developing.  Chill for at least 6 hours or overnight (the mixture will thicken as it cools) in the fridge.

Tropical Pound Cake

Last week one of the Twins asked if I could make him something to pack in his lunch along with his sandwich.  Yes, of course I can.  I didn't bother to ask him what he would like as I already knew, Snickerdoodle Blondies (thanks, Julia!) would be his response.  I instead told him that I would surprise him.  As it happens earlier in the day I had seen photos of a yummy Pineapple Bundt Cake w/Lemon Drizzle on The Crepes of Wrath.  The moment I saw the photos and read through the ingredients I thought tropical....I could replace all the lemon with coconut and add some macadamia nuts making it more of a tropical flavored cake.  With that in mind and the request in hand I knew what I would make.

Here are my changes to the recipe. 

• I replaced all of the lemon extract with coconut extract. 
• Instead of using regular milk in the drizzle I used coconut milk.

Here's what I will do next time.

• I will add some shredded coconut to the batter. (and see what happens)
• I will sprinkle some toasted macadamia nuts to the top after drizzling the cake. (I would have this time but the nuts I had stored in the fridge were not looking good.)

The kids were pleased with the cake as it was a change from the flavors of Christmas. Their sitter who doesn't even like  pineapple ate a few pieces.  She said she didn't realize their was pineapple in it.  I really liked the cake but the best part was the smell of the coconut drizzle!  It was  heavenly!  The cake itself  very moist and the flavors developed more after a day or so. I also thought the cake was more along the lines of a pound cake.  It had a tighter, dense crumb.

LiveJournal Tags: pineapple,coconut,cake