Pineapple Upside-Down Cinnamon Rolls

I've always wanted to try something different with familiar recipe, eating the same old sounds boring to me.  Well, I found it in this cinnamon rolls recipe; instead of normal cinnamon rolls, I treated my family to the pineapple upside-down cinnamon rolls.  And you know what, it's actually delicious!

The basic sweet dough recipe is already fantastic, it's a very soft dough that's easy to handle.  It can be made using a mixer or bread machine--which is my go-to machine to make bread dough.  Bread flour is my preferred flour to make sweet dough even though the original one uses all-purpose.  The quantity of pineapples was changed slightly to 2 cups instead of 1 1/2 cups.  I do like it that way so there's an equal amount of pineapple to the rolls, otherwise I would have eaten only rolls and no more pineapples.  

And because I wanted to bake it in the morning for breakfast, I proofed the two pans in my fridge overnight.  The morning of, take those pans out and set in the oven with a pan of boiling water placed on the rack underneath the pans.  Let it proof for 30 minutes and then bake.  

If you have cream cheese frosting, this is also good with it!

Pineapple Upside-Down Cinnamon Rolls

Makes 18 small rolls

Pan Sauce:
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
2 cups canned pineapple chunks (juice reserved)
1/4 cup reserved pineapple juice
1/8 teaspoon salt
9 maraschino cherries, cut in half

Dough:
Flour for dusting
1 recipe Cinnamon Roll Dough--recipe follows

Cinnamon Filling:
2 tablespoons cinnamon
1/2 cup granulated sugar
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

For the pan sauce, melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat.  Stir in the brown sugar until it melts.  Stir in the pineapple chunks and juice and cook until the sauce starts to bubble and thicken, about 3 minutes.  Stir in the salt, remove from heat, and divide the sauce between two 9-inch square pans.  Set aside to cool for 15 minutes.  Arrange half the cherries, cut side up, in the bottom of each prepared pan.

Transfer the dough to a floured surface and cut in half.  Roll each half out to an 8 by 12-inch rectangle.

For the filling, combine the cinnamon and sugar in a bowl.  Set aside.  Spread each half rectangle of dough with half the melted butter and sprinkle with half the cinnamon sugar.  Roll up the dough, starting with a short end, to form a tight 9-inch cylinder.  Cut each cylinder into 9 slice. Place each slice, spiral side up, in a prepared pan.  Cover with tea towels and let rise in a warm place until almost doubled, 45 to 60 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 375F.  Bake for 23 to 25 minutes or until the rolls have risen and browned. Transfer to a rack to cool for 5 minutes before inverting onto serving platters.

Cinnamon Roll Dough

Makes 6 jumbo, 12 large, 16 to 20 medium, or 48 mini rolls

1 cup whole milk
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs, at room temperature 
3 1/3 cups bread flour, plus more for kneading and dusting
2 1/2 teaspoons instant or bread machine yeast

In a 4-cup measuring cup, combine the milk, butter, sugar, and salt.  Microwave on High for 1 minute or until warm.  Whisk in the eggs.

Place the flour and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.  Add the liquid ingredients.  Mix on low speed, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl from time to time, until the dough forms a soft mass and starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl, 5 to 6 minutes.

Remove the paddle attachment and switch to the dough hook.  With the mixer on low, knead the dough with the dough hook.  Sprinkle the dough with a tablespoon of flour, if necessary, to keep it from sticking to the sides of the bowl.  When the dough is smooth, not sticky, and springs back when you press it with your finger, you've kneaded enough (4 to 6 minutes).  Place the dough in a large, oiled mixing bowl, cover with a tea towel, and let rise in a warm place for 45 to 60 minutes, or until it has almost doubled.

For bread machine dough:  Place the liquid ingredients in the pan of the bread machine after first step.  Add the flour, then the yeast.  Select Dough cycle, and press Start.



Source:  adapted heavily from I Love Cinnamon Rolls by Judith Fertig

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

Growing up in Indonesia didn't give me a chance to eat most old-fashioned American cakes, so whenever I have time I'm almost always drawn to make these type of cakes.  Today's baking adventure is this pineapple upside-down cake.  I didn't know before I moved here that one can make cake with fruits on the bottom, turn it upside down after it's baked, and have a delicious warm cake for dessert.  I'm more accustomed to traditional Indonesian sweets or Dutch-style cakes.  Of course, once I'm settled here, I've made various type of American-style cakes in no time, including the upside-down cake.

What I look for is the moist cake part, slightly gooey fruit part, but not overly sweet taste.  Fruits that are used can vary depending on what is available or in season.  My family loves anything with pineapple so they'll devour this cake easily.  I've made a fresh peach upside-down cake in some summers ago and it's equally terrific.

I've made some modifications from the original recipe and I hope you'll enjoy this as well.

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

Serves 8 to 10



For the cake

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup milk



For the topping

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

6 thin rounds cored pineapple, cut into halves



Make the cake:  Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease a 9-inch round cake pan.  In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt.

With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes.  Add eggs and vanilla; beat until combined.  Add flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with 2 batches of milk.  Mix just until combined.

Make the topping:  Melt butter in a medium skillet over medium heat.  Add brown sugar at once and stir until sugar melts.  Remove from heat and pour into the prepared pan.  Arrange pineapple slices in concentric form, overlapping slightly if necessary to fit.

Carefully spoon batter over pineapples in pan.  Bake until a cake tester comes out clean, about 35 minutes.  Transfer pan to a wire rack to cool for 5 minutes.  Run a knife around edge of cake to loosen, then carefully invert onto a plate.  Serve warm or at room temperature.



Source:  adapted from Martha Stewart's Cakes

Summer Ice Pops: Pineapple Ginger Coconut

Okay, so when a grocery store had a sale on pineapples, what do you do?  If you're like me, you'd run to the store and bought more than one pineapple for sure.  Fred Meyer had $1/pineapple this week so I had to have it; in my household, pineapple is a favorite fruit.  I bought one for eating fresh and another one for making pineapple pops.  I have ready a ginger simple syrup in my fridge, something that now I know it's so easy to make, I must have some ready in the fridge for making something sweet.

My flavor combo of this week for the pops is pineapple, ginger, and coconut.  The recipe is a very easy one:  I put one whole pineapple in the blender, then I combined it with ginger simple syrup to make it slightly sweeter than normal.  The sugar will mellow when the pops are stored in the freezer, so you should make your pops always a tad too sweet.  The recipe for the simple syrup here will be most likely used all because it's thicker than a regular simple syrup.  Since I have not bought any popsicle molds, I had to resort using a 3-ounce paper cups again (like I did with this banana blueberry gelato).  I really don't mind using the paper cups though I'm putting popsicle mold in my wish list nevertheless.  I see myself making pops every summer now.

I like to steep the ginger in my syrup for a day or two so the ginger really sings in the pops :)  There's a bit of heat from the ginger that's refreshing yet it's still subtle enough, and with toasted shredded, sweetened coconut in the pops, these add texture and bring more of that tropical island kick to the pops.

And along with these pops, I made strawberry pops that has been mixed with mint simple syrup which was also fabulous.  On some cups I put these two together and they came out very pretty and vibrant.  The recipe for the strawberry pops will be in the next post, don't you worry.  Now, who don't want to have these all summer long?!

Pineapple Ginger Coconut Ice Pops

Makes about 10 3-fluid ounce pops



Ginger Simple Syrup:

1/2 cup water

1 cup sugar

5-6 thin slices, peeled, fresh ginger

Combine water, sugar, and sliced ginger pieces in a small saucepan over medium heat.  Heat until sugar dissolves, stirring occasionally.  Keep syrup in a refrigerator after it cools down.  It is best to make this one or two days ahead because the flavor will be more pronounced.



Pineapple mixture:

1 medium size pineapple, peeled, cored, and cut into 1-inch pieces



About 1 cup toasted, shredded sweetened coconut



Put pineapple pieces in a blender and puree until smooth.  Add syrup to pureed pineapple, 1/2 cup at a time; make sure the mixture is very sweet.  Pour pineapple mixture into cups or ice pop molds, add stick when partly frozen if using paper cups.  Freeze until solid.

For a variation:  add toasted coconut in the cup/mold and after the cup/mold is filled.

Coconut and Pineapple Sundaes

Why is it that when people think of coconut and pineapple, they'll think of tropical island? I guess because coconut trees grow along the beach on tropical islands, and the closest tropical island to mainland US is Hawaii where there's a lot of pineapple grown so people put that two together constantly.  Personally, when I am looking for tropical flavor I will look in rambutan, guava, star fruit, and papaya among many others.  But sadly, finding those fruits in the US are hard and when they're available the prices are exorbitant.  So, I make do with coconut and pineapple to chase away my tropical blues.

The idea of making this sundaes came from two sources, one was my ice cream making book and the second one was from Sunset magazine.  I modified some ingredients and a refreshing concoction was made.  The coconut ice here is lighter than coconut ice cream since there's no custard base to make.  By sauteing pineapples in butter, I was able to bring out the sweet, mellow taste of them; they're then doused with a bit of rum to heighten the flavor.  In the end I included toasted shredded coconuts and lime zest to make this duo come together.

Coconut Ice

Serves 4 to 6



2/3 cup water

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1-14 oz. can coconut milk

1 tablespoon butter

2 cups fresh pineapple chunks

1/4 cup rum

Zest of 1 lime

Toasted shredded coconut



Put the water in a medium saucepan.  Add sugar and coconut milk and bring to boil, stirring constantly.  Remove the pan from the heat and leave the mixture to cool, then chill well.

If using ice cream maker, churn the mixture until firm enough to scoop.

Melt butter in a medium frying pan over high heat.  Add pineapple chunks and cook until caramelized slightly, about 5 minutes.  Add rum and cook until it resembles a syrup.

To serve:  scoop coconut ice into dishes, spoon warm pineapple chunks on top and decorate with lime zest and toasted shredded coconut.