Fresh Pineapple Macadamia Crumb Cake
Before Hawaii: a story and recipe from The Baking Wizard!
Greg's Hawaiian Breakfast Favorite: Papaya with slices of fresh pineapple and banana.
Buying Fresh Pineapple in Hawaii
Quick! When you hear the word, “Hawaii,” what fruit pops into your mind instantly? Pineapple, right? For more than 100 years, pineapple was a major export of the Hawaiian Islands, but times have changed. To be sure, pineapple is still grown in the islands commercially, but on a much smaller, virtually local scale.
When I’m in Hawaii, I always have fresh pineapple on hand. Mostly I fill my papaya half at breakfast with diced pineapple, banana, and a spritz of fresh lime juice.
How to Choose a Pineapple
When buying pineapple, grab the leafy top and sniff the stem end. If you get a decidedly fruity aroma, the fruit was picked ripe. This is the only sure way of picking a ripe pineapple. If your pineapple is cold, you won’t get any aroma, so the fruit must be at room temperature for this test to work. Forget about plucking a leaf from the pineapple top to see if the fruit is ripe.
Pineapple gets its sweetness from sugar that enters the ripening fruit from its stem end. If the fruit is harvested before it’s ripe, it will get softer over time, but never sweeter.
Even in Hawaii, where I expect only truly ripe fruit to be sold, I always do the sniff test. I have to reject many pineapples before I find THE one that is truly ripe.
A Pineapple Tip
And when I bake, I make a fresh pineapple crumb cake. Because pineapple is so juicy, I toss it in a skillet over medium-high heat for a few minutes with some butter and ginger. The heat drives off excess moisture and the ginger gives the pineapple a happy taste.
I’ve found that I can include a pound of fresh pineapple in my crumb cakes. The fruit keeps the cake moist and gives it great flavor.