Simple Pineapple Dessert Recipes: Hummingbird Cupcake, Watergate Salad

If you are looking for simple pineapple dessert recipes to experiment with, then these delightful dishes will be the key to opening up your heart towards using pineapple for your next batch of party desserts. Move past chocolate desserts, because the star of tropical fruits is here to blow your minds and palates with its versatility and powerful flavor punch.

Hummingbird Cupcake:

Ingredients:

• 225 gm flour
• 200 gm sugar
• 13 gm baking powder
• A pinch of salt
• 120 ml oil
• 3 eggs
• 100 ml pineapple juice
• 12 ml vanilla extract
• 95 gm pineapple
• 54 gm pecans

Method:

1. You have to preheat the oven to 180°C and line muffin tins with parchment paper liners.
2. Then, combine all-purpose flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, and salt in a big bowl.
3. In another bowl, carefully whisk together vegetable oil, eggs, pineapple juice, and vanilla extract.
4. Then, combine the wet ingredients with the dry ones, and mix everything very well. Be thorough with this step to not have any flour lumps in the batter.
5. To this mixture, fold in crushed pineapple and chopped pecans.
6. You can roughly divide the batter into muffin cups but do not fill it up all the way. You need to keep a finger’s space above the batter for it to expand in the oven.

7. Bake these cupcakes for 18-20 minutes. Check if it is cooked by inserting a skewer in the center of the cupcake. If the skewer comes out clean, pop it out of the oven.
8. Serve them with sweetened whipped cream as toppings on the cupcakes.

Watergate Salad:

Ingredients:

• 200 gm pineapple
• 200 gm whipped topping
• 100 gm pecans
• 54 gm shredded coconut
• 105 gm vanilla pudding mix
• 120 ml milk
• 12 ml lemon juice

Method:

1. In a large bowl, crushed pineapple, whipped cream, chopped pecans, and shredded coconut.
2. Then, in another bowl, mix vanilla pudding mix, milk, and lemon juice.
3. Next, fold the pudding mixture into the pineapple mixture. Do not overmix the ingredients to avoid them from getting too soggy before serving.
4. Let it sit in the refrigerator for at least 45 minutes.
5. Serve this salad chilled and garnished with extra chopped pecans. Because most of the salad has pretty soft ingredients, the pecans will add crunch to the dish. Alternately, you can even sprinkle a handful of shredded coconut toasted in butter for the same effect.

Pineapple Panna Cotta with Toasted Coconut Flakes

Ingredients:

• 200 gm cream
• 95 gm sugar
• A pinch of kosher salt/Himalayan Pink salt
• 110 ml pineapple juice
• 14 ml vanilla extract
• Coconut flakes

Method:

1. In a medium saucepan, combine heavy cream, sugar, and kosher salt.
2. Then, cook the mixture over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the sugar dissolves.
3. Remove the mixture from the heat to stop the cooking, and add in pineapple juice and vanilla extract.
4. After that, pour this mixture into individual cups.
5. Wait for a little longer (by longer, it means it'd be at least 4 hours or overnight) while the dessert chills in the refrigerator.
6. Before serving, sprinkle toasted coconut flakes on top of the pudding.

Pineapple and Pecan Crumble

Ingredients:

• 220 gm pineapple
• 120 gm sugar
• 53 gm flour
• 100 gm oats
• 55 gm sugar
• 50 gm pecans
• 2 tsp cinnamon

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2. Then, mix fresh pineapple, granulated sugar, and all-purpose flour together, and pour this mixture into a greased baking dish.
3. In another bowl, mix together rolled oats, brown sugar, chopped pecans, and cinnamon.
4. Then, coat the pineapple mixture with the oat mixture and bake it for 35-40 minutes.
5. Before serving, sprinkle a dash of icing sugar.

While pineapple has often been restricted to summer and tropical sweet treats, there are many ways you can incorporate pineapples into fall and winter desserts. The only difficult part of using pineapples is peeling or de-skinning pineapples. To minimize your effort, you can opt for canned pineapples too.

Tastewise, it can be a bit challenging to balance the tanginess and sweetness of pineapple desserts. Nevertheless, with some practice, adherence to the recipes, and patience, you can easily master the craft of cooking up these gorgeous pineapple desserts.