Caramelised Pineapple with Honey & Wattleseed Yogurt and Gingernut Biscuits

A little interjection if you will: if you were interested in seeing some photos from my Hallowe'en party on Friday evening, I've uploaded a selection in the story here. Hope you all had a fantastic Hallowe'en! Back to the subject at hand...

I didn't eat fresh pineapple for years. Literally about 20 years. I was put off the acidity and resultant lip puckering and would only eat tinned pineapple. Until I went to Thailand and ate some Thai pineapple which was gorgeously juicy and sweet and not a bit acidic and now whenever I see baby Bethonga pineapples here I always buy them as they are the closest breed we have to a Thai pineapple. But when my parents gave me a pineapple (yes giving fruit as a gift is normal in our family), I knew that it would be too acidic but I had something up my sleeve, a recipe from Jared Ingersoll from Danks Street Depot fame that caramelises the pineapple after baking it for 2 hours.

My friend Lou gave me the other half of this dessert, the Hastings Valley Honey and Wattleseed yogurt. Speckled like Vanilla, the honey and wattleseed (the edible seeds of the Australian Acacia tree) yogurt is true to flavour and gives the sweetened pineapple a slight tartness as well as a voluptuous creaminess. She and her husband first tried these when they went to the Hunter Valley and were happy to see these in her local IGA supermarket.

I even got to use the blowtorch, not one of those things I usually like using as I am scared and too clumsy really to use an open flame. I waited until my husband came home to supervise me (I am seriously clumsy and require supervision) and caramelised every single piece to order. The baking kept all of the juices inside and they spilled out into our waiting mouths sweetened by the caramelising. It was bliss and one worth every single blistering juicy minute.

Caramelised Pineapple with Gingernut biscuits

• 1 pineapple

• 200g demerara sugar (may be less depending on the size of the pineapple)

• Thick yogurt with honey added

• 3 gingernut biscuits, crumbled.

Step 1 - Preheat the oven to 170c. Place a pineapple whole (do nothing to it) on a tray and bake for 2 hours

Step 2 - Allow to cool a bit so that it is easier to handle. With a very sharp knife, cut away skin and cut pineapple into 3 across ways so that you have 3 fat cylinders. Trim eyes and excess skin off. There will be a lot of juice coming out of the pineapple.

Step 3 - Remove the core and cut into pieces, a cylinder should yield about 6 wedges. Dredge in demerara sugar and caramelise the pineapple using a really hot grill or a blowtorch.

Step 4 - Serve with yogurt and drizzle over biscuit crumbs and eat using a fork and knife.

Adapted from a recipe by Jared Ingersoll