Pineapple & Coconut Lunchbox Slice

Looking for something to fill a lunchbox or something easy to take to work or a social gathering? This pineapple and coconut slice fits that bill. The recipe for Fette All’Ananas was adapted from The Italian Baker: 100 International Baking Recipes with a Modern Twist by Melissa Forti and is easy to make. And even easier to eat! :)

As soon as I saw it on Lisa's blog I earmarked it because I am always looking for things to put in Mr NQN's lunchbox. Slices are such a big part of the Australian sweet repertoire and I could have sworn that this recipe sounded Australian because of the pineapple but it is Italian.

I made these a couple of weeks after I saw them on her blog. Mostly I pick things to make that I think would be crowd pleasers or that would suit an upcoming occasion. How do you pick what you will make?

My parents are funny. My father picks or judges things based on the same way that he buys fish at a Chinese restaurant. "You want fish that is swimming! Not dead," he will say and point at the most active fish in the tank. And that thinking infiltrates what they look for in all animals as well as humans.

When we brought the little dog over to see my parents my father regarded her for a moment before saying "Oh I painted a dog like that!". And he took out an enormous painting he had made of a Maltese dog and towered above her moving the painting back and forth. She growled, threatened by what she thought was an enormous dog above her. My mother clapped her hands right in front of her face and she was understandably also threatened by it. And I remembered how my father had met Mr NQN's niece for the first time and greeted her by flicking the fingers of his hand near her face. "Alert," was all he said. So my parents didn't teach me any dog sense, that came from Mr NQN but they did teach me how to pick a fish!

So tell me Dear Reader, do you have much dog sense? And how do you pick what you'll make for dinner or bake? And do you know how to pick a fish? Do you go with the most active?

Pineapple & Coconut Lunchbox slice

Adapted from The Italian Baker: 100 International Baking Recipes with a Modern Twist by Melissa Forti

Preparation time: 25 minutes

Cooking time: 40 minutes

• 180g/6ozs. butter at room temperature
• 180g/6ozs. caster or superfine sugar
• 2 eggs, at room temperature
• 250g/8.83ozs. plain all purpose flour
• 200ml/7fl ozs. buttermilk (or milk with 2 tablespoons lemon juice added)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste
• 2 teaspoons coconut essence
• 550g/19.43ozs. tin pineapple, drained

For Crumble

• 80g/2.82ozs. plain all purpose flour
• 60g/2ozs. brown sugar
• 30g/1oz. desiccated Coconut
• 60g/2ozs. butter, chilled
• 30g/1oz. flaked almonds

Step 1- Line the base and sides of a 30x20cms (12x8 inch) brownie tray. Preheat oven to 180C/350F. Make the crumble topping by processing the flour, brown sugar, coconut and butter together until it becomes a sandy texture. Then stir in the almonds. Put aside.

Step 2 - Beat the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Add in one egg at a time mixing well between each addition. Stir in the flour, buttermilk and vanilla and coconut essences. Spread on the base on the prepared tin.

Step 3 - Roughly chop the pineapple and layer it on top of the batter. Sprinkle the crumble on top and bake for 40 minutes. Cool in the tin and then cut into pieces.