Yes, those are definitely not the lyrics to that song. And if you know what song I'm referring to, congratulations :) What you see pictured above is a dessert so decadent, so delicious, I can hardly find the words to adequately describe it. The process of making it, not so smooth. I suppose I was overdo for an (almost) recipe meltdown. But here's how it all panned out.
The first step in making Grilled Pineapple with Nutella is to toast the hazelnuts, husk them, then chop them. I pretty much cut out this step by buying blanched hazelnuts that didn't need husking and just chopped them and set them aside.
Next, you are supposed to mix some mascarpone cheese with some vanilla extract. Last time I bought mascarpone for a recipe, I hardly used any of it at all and when I went to use it again (before it went bad I might add), it had grown mold since I hadn't used it in so long. In order to cut some calories and save some money by not wasting food, I opted for some Cool Whip Free. It's considerably less calories and fat, but still creamy and tasty.
Next, I had to take some Nutella and combine it with heavy whipping cream. I think I've mentioned this before, but I read on the WW website that a healthier substitute for cream in recipes is fat-free evaporated milk. I figured I could substitute it here just a easily. I was so very, very wrong.
After mixing the two together, you need to microwave it to warm it up, stirring every 20 seconds, for about one minute. The first time I went to stir it, it was chunky and partially solidified. The picture of the recipe in the book has this mixture looking like a drizzly syrup, so I knew this had to be wrong. I microwaved it for another 20 seconds hoping for some improvements. No such luck. It was even chunkier. Thinking on my feet, I wanted to add some milk to it to keep the flavor and hopefully reconstitute it. Unfortunately I had finished my milk a mere hour beforehand. BUT, I did happen to have some fat-free hazelnut creamer in my refrigerator that would solve my problem and certainly preserve the flavor. My Nutella mixture livened back up (though it still maintained some chunks. Turns out Nutella is delicious in any state of matter) and was able to drizzle somewhat easily over the pineapple.
As the above catastrophe ensued, I was grilling some pineapple rings on the George Foreman (I realize it would be easier to refer to it as "the grill" and everyone would more than likely know what I was talking about, but it's so much more fun to think of a heavyweight boxing champ helping me out in the kitchen, isn't it?). It only took about three minutes per side to warm the pineapple through and make some pretty grill marks.
For the assembly, I placed the pineapple on the plate, drizzled the Nutella on top of that, then topped it with the Cool Whip and chopped hazelnuts. One bite, and I was in love. This combination is AMAZING!! I know I have mentioned before that when it comes to desserts, I'm more of a chocolate than a fruit person, but this combined the two and was heaven. It's not a dessert to prepare for a large amount of people, but it's nice for maybe a group of four or maybe a date night.
That's all I have for now. I'll be taking a night off from Everyday Italian and come back to it on Tuesday to start my SEVENTH cycle through the book! Pretty crazy that I've done that many recipes so far. To celebrate, I will leave you with this clip from a classic show, Rob & Big.
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